The Lake Tahoe Music Festival has been a staple for the music community of Lake Tahoe for 32 years.
It came to Tahoe in 1981 in collaboration with the 40-piece San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and held its first performances at the West Shore Café. Since this inaugural show, the festival has seen it all.
It is common for festivals of this caliber and genre to book rock/pop acts to subsidize costs for the classical shows. Unfortunately, LTMF booked so many gigs that it almost bankrupted the festival. Thanks to a few valuable board members and the support of the community, the festival is still going strong, and brings classical music to Truckee/North Lake Tahoe for one week every summer.
This year, the orchestra — which is made up of 20 talented graduate-level musicians about to embark on their professional music careers — will be performing at five locations around North Lake Tahoe/Truckee: Sugar Pine Point State Park, West Shore Café and Inn, Gebhardt Amphitheater, Gatekeeper’s Museum, and PJ’s at Gray’s Crossing Golf Course.
The Academy Orchestra, the name given to the group of musicians, comes from all over the country to participate in this unique event, including Juilliard School, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Oberlin College, and the Manhattan School of Music.
The Gatekeeper’s performance is especially unique because it features the work of Truckee resident David Nelson and a performance by the Lake Tahoe Dance Collective to music from Haydn’s Symphony 87. Nelson, who has a PhD in music theory/composition, is inspired by nature, pursuing chance encounters, and following unexpected opportunities.
The LTMF is the beneficiary of his philosophy as Nelson wrote a piece specifically for the festival’s Academy Orchestra. Sketch Number 1 for Strings will be played alongside the works of Haydn and Mozart on August 20.
“We are thrilled to be playing this piece. It is rare that a composer surprises you with something written just for you,” Timm Rolek, recruiter and conductor for the 22-piece orchestra, said. “So rare that I can count the number of times on the fingers of one hand.” Rolek said Nelson’s piece is reminiscent of Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Liszt’s Totentanz.
A portion of proceeds goes to supporting the LTMF’s Truckee Youth Mentoring Program, an after-school program dedicated to introducing classical music to elementary students in the form of instruction and instruments, at no cost. The program is unique because the mentors are high school students, and hopes to expand to North Lake Tahoe in the coming years.
