One of the reasons to come home to Sitka every June is the Sitka Summer Music Festival. Every Summer for 42 years it has graced our town. Suzi and I have attended since 1981. The Festival presents chamber music in an amazing number of venues, in the Centennial Building with its picture window onto Sitka Sound, perhaps one of the most spectacular venues for classical music on the planet. They also take it outdoors into the park, into cafes and bars (Pictures here from the Larkspur Cafe and the Dock Shack Lounge) on to excursion boats, to private homes, along with open rehearsals in Stevenson Hall, the festival’s headquarters on the Sitka Fine Arts Camp Campus. The festival presented music from four centuries this year, including some new works from this century and several 20th century works by the likes of Britten, Stravinsky, Bartok and Webern. Of course there Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Schubert and Chopin were well represented.
Many rehearsals are open and the musicians become part of the community. The musicians work with students at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp. It is, and always has been, the best month to be in Sitka, although I will probably say the same thing when December comes along.
