A youthful violinist brings a popstar energy to Bach Fest.

Far removed from the footlights of the concert stages he so often frequents, violinist Edwin Huizinga is driving along a narrow road in the hills of Palo Colorado in a pickup truck. He carries a load of instruments – eight violins, three violas, a double bass, a trumpet, a clarinet and a mandolin – and he proceeds downhill, parking in a deep canyon.

When he arrives at the redwood grove he is seeking, he unloads all of the instruments onto the forest floor beneath, then he drives back up the steep road, arriving at a spot where 14 members of the Youth Orchestra of Salinas are eating sandwiches on a bridge above a creek, dangling their legs over the edge. Huizinga reflects on their morning together.

“Today was great,” he says. “In addition to playing the works of others, we also focused on writing and playing your own songs. For many it was the first time they had ever even thought of that, let alone attempted it.”

After lunch is over on this June afternoon, Huizinga will take the group on a mile-long hike, identifying the flora along the trail before reuniting them with their instruments for a session of active improvisation surrounded by the giant trees.

Huizinga might seem more like a camp counselor than a concert violinist. In reality, he’s both: He is one of three artistic directors at the summer camp, but he is also in town for his 11th consecutive year performing in this year’s Carmel Bach Festival. He’s one of 154 musicians playing 40 concerts – and offering 34 additional free events – at this year’s 81st annual, spanning 15 days, with shows at multiple venues across the Peninsula from July 16-30.

Huizinga shares the directorship of the Big Sur Land Trust’s summer nature and music camps with pop drummer Marci Chappo, whose credits include touring with Beyoncé for five years, and Christopher Garcia, a percussionist and aficionado of Mesoamerican music.

“You should see the kids’ eyes light up when Marci tells them that she’s gigged with Queen Bey,” Huizinga says, sounding like a gossip-driven pop fan. “It’s a beautiful thing.”

The camp concept was created one night after a 2012 Bach Festival concert which featured a particularly compelling performance of a Brahms symphony, when concertgoer Lana Weeks was completely taken with Huizinga’s energy. Weeks, then the director of community stewardship for the Big Sur Land Trust, approached Huizinga and told him she’d had a dream and asked if he liked to work with kids.

“I saw a light,” Weeks says. “Just like artists are always searching for the perfect light, Edwin exudes that light – an incredible joy and passion of music-making. I had known him for a few years, but at that concert, I knew he was the one to help me realize my dream.”

Thus the setting for the summer camp became the 860-acre Glen Deven Ranch, perched above Palo Colorado. “When Edwin is on that Big Sur mountaintop,” Weeks says, “he gives it all up. He understands and is inspired by the beauty of nature and music, and he truly believes that both of those belong to all of us. There is no ego and no pretense.”

That said, Huizinga remains a multi-genre player and a serious, trained classical violinist. He attended the Oberlin Conservatory for undergrad, then earned a masters in violin performance at the San Francisco Conservatory. He’s logged more than 1,000 concert appearances. Yet in spite of his love for all things Bach and all things classical, he eschews the stuffy, formal attitude that historically pairs with classical music in favor of a more inclusive, non-polarizing approach, bringing a more youthful energy – and hopefully a more youthful listenership – to the Bach Festival.

“There’s no good reason why someone who loves Taylor Swift can’t also come to love Bach’s Mass in B minor.”

That’s consistent with the Festival’s mission. “We are actively seeking to recruit younger listeners,” says Scott Seward, a Bach Festival spokesman. “We need to embrace and include them.”

As Huizinga puts it: “Music is music. There’s no good reason why someone who loves Taylor Swift can’t also come to love Bach’s Mass in B minor.”

To that end, he often DJs on the Sunset Center terrace before recitals, spinning tunes by Justin Bieber and Katy Perry in an effort to attract younger listeners to the Bach Festival, and to classical music in general. “I feel really responsible for bringing younger listeners into the audiences,” Huizinga says.

Like all members of the Bach Festival Orchestra, Huizinga rarely has a day off during the two-week event, often playing more than one concert a day – not to mention six to eight hours a day of rehearsing in the two weeks prior to opening night.

Even with this rigorous schedule, it’s not uncommon for Huizinga to pop up for late-night confabulations in Carmel at spots like Sade’s, Barmel or even at the vintage guitar shop, playing classical pieces and Irish and American fiddle tunes.

“Just walking through the streets of Carmel, I feel so energized and and also very invested in bringing the music to the entire community,” says Huizinga, who lives in Toronto. “When I am here in Carmel, I want it to be nonstop.”

He also manages to work in a visit or two to Carmel Valley Manor or Forest Hill in Pacific Grove to play for those unable to attend concerts. “Not everyone can sit through a two-hour concert in an auditorium,” Huizinga says, “but they still deserve to hear the music.”

His involvement with the Bach Festival began when he took a class at Oberlin taught by violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch, then concertmaster of the Bach Festival. “I meet many young players on my travels and I simply knew that Edwin would be perfect for the orchestra,” Wallfisch says. “I felt that the Bach Festival would be a perfect base for him to learn about style and develop as a musician.”

That was in 2005, when Huizinga became the youngest player in the festival. An early highlight of his history here came in his third year with the festival, when Wallfisch sustained an injury and couldn’t make a concert date. She asked Huizinga to take her role as soloist in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, one of the most technically challenging works in the entire violin repertoire. “He stepped in and brought the house down with his heroism and his playing,” Wallfisch says.

Huizinga’s recollection is a little different: “I stayed up all night practicing, worrying and being nervous.”

Eleven years later, Huizinga is a perennial festival fixture. He’s also spent the past decade-plus working with and trying to learn from some of the best players on the planet, in addition to striving to bring pop listeners into the classical milieu.

These days, Huizinga’s side projects include five studio releases and a 2012 tour of North America and Europe with Wooden Sky, a five-piece indie rock band; playing in Acronym Ensemble, a 12-piece baroque orchestra dedicated to finding and performing obscure compositions from that era; a Celtic-infused acoustic project with guitarist William Coulter called Liquid Gold, for which he is currently recording a new album in the Santa Cruz mountains; and a once-a-year tour with The Knights NYC, which has allowed him to rub elbows with the likes of Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman.

For Huizinga, it’s about building relationships with both artists and communities. “What I care about in life is bringing people together,” he says.

The Carmel Bach Festival has helped him achieve that: “This place and the people here have really become a part of me.”

THE CARMEL BACH FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA performs each evening and its members also play afternoon events numerous times during the 15-day festival at eight different Peninsula venues; 34 events are free; for 40 other concerts, tickets range from $10-$128. 624-1521, www.bachfestival.org