A Sewanee Festival on Monteagle Mountain
from Summer 2004, Vol. 5, No. 2
By Laurie C. Battles

The Sound of Music

If ever there were a place where a young musician could become inspired, the coals of creativity in his or her bosom stoked into the fires of professional ambition, Monteagle Mountain in the summertime would have to be it.

That’s when talented musical artists from around the country ranging in age from twelve to twenty-five converge on Sewanee: The University of the South for the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, which took place this year from June 19th until July 25th. The privileged students were handpicked for the program by music professionals who either watched a live audition or viewed an audition tape. Musicians come not just for the incredible musical camaraderie, but also for mountain breezes, the seductive ivy-tower ambience created by stately University architecture, and thousands of acres of beautiful campus where they may commune with nature. The festival, offering instruction and modeling by sought-after composers, conductors and musicians, is an incubator for ideas and inspiration for the aspiring soloist, orchestra member, composer, conductor or music professor. It’s also a place to discover hidden talent, as trumpet professional Ryan Anthony, who joined the Festival staff this year, will readily attest. 'There has to be a real passion. As far as the really great players and performers go, there is something that can’t be taught, inside them. What we try to do is find that, nurture it, put them in the right place. A lot of times you can see it and they don’t even realize it yet, but they have this great gift,' he says.

Festival Managing Director Mark Savage says, though specific classes and programming vary from year to year, the goal of the event hasn’t wavered in its 48-year-life.

'We’re providing exposure to a professional lifestyle in classical music. This includes instruction at various levels, basic theory for musicians, musicianship classes, where they learn performing arts and stage deportment, including how to speak to an audience and how to introduce a piece, composition and theory. We also bring in world-class conductors conducting standard repertoire pieces that (our students will need to know) once they become professionals,' he says. Such conductors include Victor Yampolski, music director of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra and professor and director of orchestras at Northwestern University, Scott Yoo, music director of the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, which performs regularly in Boston, as well as Cyrus Ginwala, James Paul and Kenneth Kiesler.

During faculty recitals, students observe Festival instructors performing chamber music. They discuss the pieces afterwards with the musicians, learning how technique is applied in a performance setting. In addition to the invaluable benefits of modeling and one-on-one instruction, students in many cases, receive college credit for work done at the Festival.

Splashing his own colorful flavor across the Sewanee academic screen for the first time at this year’s Festival, avant-garde composer Michael Daugherty helps musicians understand links between Old World music and modern-day life. No one embodies the idea-incubator facet of the Festival quite like this new guest artist. 'He says he was totally corrupted during his childhood by television. That influences a lot of his music,' Savage says. Among Daugherty’s gems is Metropolis Symphony, with movements named for characters from Superman. 'It’s really a very interesting and demanding piece,' Savage says, adding that it has struck a particularly deep chord with young students.

Daugherty chamber music featured at this year’s Festival includes a piece called Dead Elvis. 'He wrote that after coming on a trip to Memphis. I worked with him in presenting one of his pieces with the symphony there. He made a trip to Graceland on Saturday, the off day. I remember talking with him Saturday night. We went out after the concert to get something to eat. He told me he was inspired and wanted to write a piece called Dead Elvis so that everybody knows he really is,' laughs Savage.

'I’m interested in American mythologies and American icons. That would include everything from Superman to comics, to J. Edgar Hoover, to Route 66, Sunset Strip and Niagara Falls. I did a piece called Rosa Parks Boulevard about the Civil Rights movement,' Daugherty says. The composer says he follows that circuitous creative path because those events and symbols 'speak to me and that excites me and motivates me to write interesting contemporary music.'

'In the 19th century composers were (always) making links to poetry or theater, novels or political themes of the time. Two of my favorite composers are Charles Ives, the great early American composer, and Stravinsky. Both of them incorporated music from their time. Stravinsky moved from Russian folk songs in the beginning of his career to ragtime and Bach neoclassical music, finally turning to twelve-tone music. Charles Ives (moved through) hymn tunes, football songs, ragtime, popular music, (and the themes of) Emerson and Thoreau,' he says.

Memphis resident Ryan Anthony, who was among an impressive array of visiting musicians from around the country at this year’s Festival, plans to become a permanent part of the event’s faculty. He says, as he tours the country performing trumpet solos and doing mini university residencies, he’ll promote the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. 'Unfortunately, a lot of performers forget how rewarding it is to spend time with the budding artists that are going to be our colleagues one day. I think it’s fantastic (to do so). I’ve always enjoyed being involved with the educational institutions. (The students are) our future. If we don’t pay attention to that and nurture (them), we’re shooting ourselves in the foot,' says Anthony. 'Even at a short summer festival in the right atmosphere there is so much that they can learn as a musician and as a performer.'

For more information see www.sewanee.edu