Inaugurated in 2021, the Festival of Winds series is to young wind musicians what the Emerging Composers Intensive series – which just wrapped up – is to young composers. Both programs are designed by Hidden Valley Music Seminars to assist talented young musicians from all over the U.S. in the transition from being a star student to being a star performer.
“The program simulates the intensity of an orchestra career,” says HVMS Program and Development Associate Deanna Ross. “Since it’s a chamber music situation, there’s no conductor. The musicians have to sync together by themselves. It’s very collaborative and the fellows really learn to play with each other. There will be a lot of changing of chairs.”
Elaine Douvas, Metropolitan Opera’s principal oboe and Hidden Valley’s oboe master teacher for nearly 15 years, raised the funds to make it possible for 22 brilliant players and five master teachers to gather for 10 days of intensive learning, rehearsal and performances. Festival of the Winds connects five master teachers from major orchestras: Seth Morris (principal flute at Metropolitan Opera), Liam Boisset (professor of oboe at Princeton), Anton Rist (principal clarinet at Metropolitan Opera), Harrison Miller (principal bassoon at Baltimore Symphony) and Rebekah Daley (principal horn at North Carolina Symphony).
It’s also an important reunion after the pandemic lockdown. “Students were suffering,” says Douvas, also an oboe instructor at Juilliard School. “There was no place to play.”
Ross adds, “With the Festival of the Winds, the idea was to not worry about the whole orchestra and focus on the winds.”
The result is local music events that feature some of the most beautiful and interesting works composed for wind instruments by such names as Mozart, Beethoven or Thuille, but also more contemporary composers. Douvas says the experience is “life-changing” for the players. Some pieces are being recorded for the first time in history.
HVMS has been around for 60 years, created by its current director Peter Meckel. Many alumni have ended up in principal positions among the world’s top orchestras and operas.
FESTIVAL OF WINDS’ FINAL FELLOWS AND FACULTY CONCERT 7:30pm Friday, July 21. Hidden Valley Music Seminars, 104 W. Carmel Valley Road, Carmel Valley. $25. 659-3115, hiddenvalleymusic.org
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