For cellist Mark Kosower, performing the final recital of the summer-long Hidden Valley Masters Festival is also a beginning.
“As trained soloists we love to perform,” Kosower says, “but as educators the most important thing is to pass on the musical culture from teacher to student and musician to audience. It’s how we keep this great music alive and relevant.”
He sees the festival as more than just playing and teaching. It’s a musical retreat, for both teacher and students.
“It’s a relaxed environment, free from the pressures of modern life, conservatory curricula, grades and hectic schedules,” Kosower says. “It’s intimate and engaging, and we can really focus. It allows the students to really absorb the material in close contact with a teacher who they study with, eat with, and rehearse and perform with.”
Kosower, principal cellist of the venerable Cleveland Orchestra, is one of the newest educators to join the Masters Festival faculty. Like so many others, it was Hidden Valley founder and general director Peter Meckel who reached out to Kosower after the previous cello instructor retired.
“Everyone who had anything to do with Mark had nothing but the highest praise for him.” Meckel says. “It made our job rather easy.”
Kosower’s wife, Jee-Won Oh, an accomplished concert pianist, will accompany both her husband and his students here in recital, and Kosower is particularly excited about the number of students involved.
“In 2015 I had eight students,” he says. “This year it’s 16. There’s wonderful momentum created by students who return merging with new players. The collective rise in the talent level has been incredible. These are the stars of the future.”
Meckel echoes the sentiment, and yearns for more. All of this year’s performers are set to return in 2019.
“Making the jump from academia to becoming a professional musician is not an easy thing to do,” he says. “All of us here are very excited about the work this year. Classes have been strong, with lots of interesting, new information being passed from this generation to the next.”
It’s a profound mission, the passing of this torch, and Meckel and all the Masters Festival instructors rise to the task.
MARK KOSOWER, cello 7:30pm Monday, Aug. 13 Hidden Valley Theatre, 104 W. Carmel Valley Road, Carmel Valley. $25. 639-3115, hiddenvalleymusic.org.