(E) Music@Menlo chamber music festival will return this year at the Menlo School campus from July 16th to August 1st, but many concert performances will be also streamed. The theme of the festival this year is “Gather” as concert attendees will be able to attend live performances.

All the concerts of the festival can be found in the festival brochure. Following is an introduction about this Nineteenth Season from artistic directors David Finckel and Wu Han.

“We have always looked forward to Music@Menlo festivals with great anticipation, but perhaps for this summer with an intensity like none before. The traditional thrill of the festival’s opening events, our delight in seeing the faces of our colleagues and listeners, and the sound of the music coming to life are aspects of Music@Menlo that we love dearly. We are certain that those moments, so long missed yet so soon to come, will be overwhelming. With much excitement, we are bracing ourselves for a festival which will not only be a landmark in Music@Menlo’s history, but in all of our lives as well.

Two years ago we asked Music@Menlo veteran Patrick Castillo to compose a work with which we could open our new hall, the Spieker Center. He titled his piece “Gather” in celebration of our coming together in our long-awaited performance home on the Menlo School campus. Little did any of us know that our opening would be delayed for such a long time, for the most traumatic of reasons. But now, as we adhere to our plan of opening the hall with Patrick’s work, his title has expanded in significance, and indeed, as we contemplated a name for this summer’s festival, Gather leapt off the program page as defining the essence of this festival.

Thanks to the team players of our dedicated staff, we are able to announce initial plans for bringing musicians back to Menlo. It is our goal to provide everyone with the opportunity to hear a concert at their desired level
of personal contact: from sitting in our new hall, to attending the same performance outdoors, or watching online at home. As allowed by health guidelines in place this summer, programs on our weekend concert days will be repeated, either indoors or outside, and will be a bit shorter without intermissions. Instead of our usual six to seven mainstage pro- grams, this year we will perform nine programs, plus two special Prelude Performances.

And that brings us to our artist roster, which this summer bears a novel structure. You will come to know, over three weeks, a single family of musi- cians that will stay together, performing for the entire festival. And, in the spirit of Gather, that family will include six of the accepted 2020 International Program artists, who will join us as equal colleagues, sharing the Music@Menlo experience at a level unprecedented in the CMI program.

We look forward to the long-awaited joys of Music@Menlo, and we can’t wait to see you.”

Note: The picture above is from Music@Menlo’s visual artist Donald Sultan.

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