Wintergreen Summer Music Festival, continued

Day four of the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival. Every day is as wonderful as the day before. The festival and location are great. Our house is nestled along a mountain road that loops out for about a mile, with amazing overlooks perfect for morning jogs.

Today we had the honor of meeting the Austrian Ambassador. This year's festival is centered on the theme of Vienna and the Embassy has helped support the emphasis on Austrian culture. His speech on the relevancy of cultural exchange was quite appropriate. The Viennese desserts at lunch were a nice touch too!

The talks and classes continue, on topics ranging from compositional practices to the New Music scenes of New York and Chicago. And the concerts have started too. Last night was the opening concert of the festival, filled with an eclectic mix of Austrian music of all ages (Mozart to Webern). The festival musicians play with such enthusiasm and energy. There really is an aura of excitement here.

Wintergreen Summer Music Festival

Wow. Apparently focusing on the first year of my Masters program meant abandoning this blog. There is so much to mention, but I'm diving in with my current whereabouts - the Wintergreem Summer Music Festival.

Nestled in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, Wintergreen is an all-year resort town that hosts a month-long music festival during the summer. (The Blue Ridge mountains are beautiful. I hope to post a few of the various views we have just in walking distance.)

The festival includes an academy for music students. Those of us composers here have the pleasure of experiencing a month of concerts, masterclasses, interaction with musicians, and numerous opportunities to present ourselves through our music. Most importantly, we will have some of our music performed by the academy musicians later this month - July 20th. It promises to be a great concert and worthwhile for anyone in the Charlottesville area.

We've only been here two days but the opportunities have been priceless, notably a masterclass with Judith Shatin and a talk given by Michael White, two amazing composers.

Wintergreen is such an idyllic place to compose, learn, and find inspiration. I hope to share more of this as the days go by. And maybe when I get back I can summarize the first year of grad school too...