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This week we highlight the extraordinary "Sitka Summer Music Festival" held for the past 40 years in beautiful Sitka, Alaska.Ken gets to talk with Festival Artistic Directors Paul Rosenthal and Zuill Bailey. During the interview we will hear several selections which will illustrate the type of music performed at the Festival, so our listeners can take an extraordinary in-depth look into this marvelous summer festival.
A note from Paul Rosenthal, Artistic Director
The Sitka Summer Music Festival has been for me that rarest of rarities -- the dream that has come true and remained true.The magic of the Ocean and the Mountains has remained as inspiring and refreshing as the first time I felt it back in the sixties. The town of Sitka has kept its charm and energy and its people have welcomed the visiting musicians hospitably and eagerly every year. Visitors from all over who have been captivated by the beauty of the music and the town return again and again.
The musicians, though most of us are no longer the kids we were in the early days of the festival, still arrive full of enthusiasm for the place, for the concerts, for the magnificent auditorium with its unique view, and for each other. Year after year these wonderful artists return without fee to enjoy this magic and the dream that somehow has kept its luster through the years.
Perhaps it is because in Sitka we don't play for money or glory that the music itself and the concerts mean so much to us. Whatever the reason -- and I believe it is better not to look too closely into such mysteries -- a very large percentage of the musicians at the Sitka Festival have that extra something that makes all of us, performers and audience members alike, feel the special joy that is the gift of great music, lovingly played and heard.
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