News from Britt Hill – March 2015

At the February 5th Classical Festival Announcement, Music Director Teddy Abrams promised an “epic season,” and after hearing about it, we believe him! Not only is Teddy’s enthusiasm infectious, his programming is diverse, bold and inspiring. The 2015 Britt Classical Festival lineup is already generating an energetic buzz around town, thanks, in large part, to Teddy’s community-mindedness and inclusive nature.

If you have not heard what the talk about town is yet, the Britt Orchestra will perform seven orchestral concerts this season, starting big on Friday July 31st. Big as in: over 250 performers gracing the Britt stage to present the amazing cantata, Carmina Burana. A chorus of upwards of 160 voices—including the Southern Oregon Repertory Singers, the Rogue Valley Chorale and members of the San Francisco Girls Chorus—will join our 90-piece orchestra for this magnificent, frank and uninhibited work made up of medieval poems set to music by the German composer Carl Orff (1895-1982). According to Teddy, this cantata is satirical, fun, complex and dramatic.

The season will also feature the first Britt performance of Stravinsky’s epic The Rite of Spring, a folk-inspired set featuring fiddler Jeremy Kittel and vocalist Aoife O’Donovan, Teddy’s own Sixth Floor Trio, the return of violinist James Ehnes on Barber’s Violin Concerto, an all-Bernstein Symphony Pops concert featuring the Broadway and recording artist Morgan James, and an all-orchestral program on closing night, celebrating our wonderful Britt Orchestra.

With this innovative, spontaneous and fresh programming, Britt is embarking on new marketing strategies to increase cultural tourism aimed at broadening the geographic reach of the classical festival. Fully supportive of these efforts, the Britt Board of Directors has allocated a new investment in marketing that we will use to begin reaching into the San Francisco area, and increase our efforts in the Portland area. We will be targeting music lovers in a myriad of ways, from targeted ad buys to cultivation events, in hopes of introducing our historic Jacksonville and our wonderful Britt venue to new tourists and patrons.

Recently, I was speaking with an orchestra host and he told me that he felt something more than music was happening around our classical festival—something powerful and meaningful to our community—in remarkable ways yet to be realized.

Tickets are now on sale to the general public and available for purchase by visiting our website at www.brittfest.org or by calling the Box Office at 541-773-6077.