KPLU Local News
(2010-08-08)
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The Olympic Music Festival hosts classical music concerts in a 100-year-old barn.
Photo courtesy of Olympic Music Festival
A string quartet rehearses -- A pair of violinists, a cellist, a violist - all focused on perfecting music written for an intimate setting.
Everything else about the scene, though, is loose and relaxed - we're in a 100-year old barn after all. The wood floor is worn. There are places where sunlight streams in through the walls. And while there are simple pews on the floor, up in a loft rows and rows of hay bales form a one-of-a-kind set of bleachers.
Which is where Alan Iglitzin - musician and festival organizer - leads me.
"I'll let you climb up here. I often go to that last row and just take my place and imagine what it was 30 years ago and what it is now," he says.
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| In addition to chamber music, the Olympic Music Festival offers patrons a chance to meet -- and feed -- its donkeys.Photo by Florangela Davila |
"Summer festivals are a long tradition in the United States. On the East Coast, there are several barns that started as festivals before mine and I, I thought, Why shouldn't we have that out here for folks?'" Igltizin recalls.
Iglitzin shows me the grounds - "We've got some raspberries, strawberries, blueberries" -- and the animals - "I've got a couple of great roosters." -- and he tells me how the chamber music festival has become a summer tradition here for the past 27 years.
As a violist, Iglitzin helped found the Philadelphia String Quartet in 1960. Six years later, that quartet moved its base to the University of Washington. Fast-forward to 1977. The quartet wanted to be independent. And it also wanted to stop touring the world, especially each summer. Iglitzin dreamt of finding a fixer-up, ideally set in a meadow, that the quartet could use as its summer home.
"I came out here on a dismal November Seattle day, Northwest day and this place was falling apart. And I thought I might take a crack at it," he says.
The quartet has since folded but Iglitzin, who still performs, also brings in guest musicians from all over the country.
We walk into the farmhouse, which resonates with the past, and Iglitzin shares a dark chapter of this place.
"Thinking about him being born in this very room gives me a pang always," he says.
He's remembering Sam Iseri, the son of the original owner who actually built the farm. The Iseris were Japanese Americans forced to abandon their homes when they were interned during World War II. They never came back but a half century later, Sam Iseri did return here and asked if he could take a look around. And according to Iglitzin, he really liked how the place looked now.
So do festival patrons. Dressed in T-shirts and shorts, they arrive hours early. Families camp out on the lawn to listen to the concert via speakers. Couples grab picnic tables and host elaborate meals before entering the barn, including Karyn and Rob Kelley:
"We have a little tablecloth here," she says.
"It's a very, very casual, very relaxed setting," he adds.
Is chamber music something they typically enjoy?
"No, not necessarily but this is just a great spot," she says.
Up in the barn's loft, Jim Sebring claims a hay bale for him and his daughter:
"We've been doing this for 20 years. And first couple years, we sat down below, but we found the best acoustics is here, second tier down. Lot of holes in this barn but boy oh boy, it's great acoustics right here."
I ask his daughter Linda what's it's like to sit here on a hay bale and listen to classical music.
"It's a lot better than a concert hall," she says. "Concert hall is controlled, stiff. It's great. You get the breeze blowing. You get the great classical music. You get the donkeys."
Yes, you get a pair of resident donkeys. Along with beer, ice cream and souvenir Ts, the festival concession stand also offers carrots for purchase.
During intermission, if you're not roaming the garden, picking and snacking on raspberries, you're likely feeding these carrots to the donkeys, named Jenny and Jack. That is until a bell sounds telling you the break is over and the hundreds of concertgoers reclaim their hay bales or their lawn chairs.
On stage, four musicians take their seats, pick up their instruments and begin to play Mozart's String Quartet in D Major, K. 575. And the fact that the quartet is dressed in jeans, well, it just adds an extra something to the whole feel-good affair.
Florangela Davila, KPLU News.
The Olympic Music Festival hosts concerts Saturday & Sunday afternoons through 08/22/2010.
