News from Britt Hill – July 2025

ONE OF THE (possibly weird) things I adore about running arts organizations is flyby problem-solving. I often joke that we should gather arts administrators together, open a couple bottles of wine, and set out some of the world’s “unsolvable” problems. My bet is that at least one of them will be solved before the wine is gone. Problem solving is energizing! It lights us up! And for many of us, who have advanced educations as musicians or artists ourselves, it activates a part of our brains that just feels good.

Here’s a June example: two days before our June 18 performance with the Britt Festival Orchestra, we received a phone call from our violin soloist. He’d become ill—not too serious, but a big enough deal that he couldn’t get on a plane that day to join us for rehearsals or the upcoming performance. It was 9:02am, and we were stepping into a full day of back-to-back meetings. I immediately texted a friend of fifteen years, who currently works as one of the top classical music agents in the country. The text said:

“HELP! Violinist has canceled for the Korngold Violin Concerto in two days! Do you have anyone who knows it on your roster?”

Within 90 seconds, a reply: “I think so! I have two in mind. Standby and I’ll check.”

Without giving you the play-by-play, two hours later we had secured sign-off from conductor Chia-Hsuan Lin, the violinist was confirmed, and we were buying plane tickets. Rehearsal schedules were being juggled, McCully House was changing the lodging reservation, rental cars were being booked, and we were printing new materials to include in our print programs. An email was ready to be sent out to patrons, and all was well with the world.

The epilogue, of course, was experienced by many of you: the Korngold Violin Concerto was sublime. The orchestra, soloist, and audience were all happy. And we got to experience that extraordinary magic of what happens in live performance, where things go unexpectedly awry, but we fix issues as we go and suddenly… magic happens.

This is why live performance is so special, and it’s also a small piece of the work that happens behind the scenes for any given Britt show. It’s why those of us who work here get up in the morning and go to bed in the evening exhausted and satisfied. The magic we make together, both behind the scenes and with the audience, is so special, and I love doing it again and again. I can’t wait to see you on the hill for another magical night this month!

All best, Abby