WHAT IS THE HARVARD MUSIC FESTIVAL?
The Harvard Music Festival is an annual, weeklong chamber music festival — open to the public, in Harvard Massachusetts — for musicians to be coached by established performers and educators from the Boston area. This event is designed to attract young professionally-bound musicians who focus on learning and improving chamber music skills and knowledge. Musician ensembles work during the week to perfect a chosen piece and participate in daily preparation, rehearsal, coaching and masterclasses, culminating in a live concert performance for a community audience. The public is invited to observe rehearsals and masterclasses and provide feedback to musicians, in order to stretch them in their discipline. These sessions are FREE to the public, although donations are welcome.
Masterclasses: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday at Unitarian Universalist Church (3:30-5:30pm)
Musician Coaching Sessions: Thursday at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Building, the UU Sanctuary, and the Congregational Church
(9:00am-10:30am and 10:45am-12:15pm
Sessions are free to the public.
JULIE LEVEN – “Disruptive Creativity: Musicians and Social Change”
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21 @ 7:00PM (Free to the Public)
Violinist Julie Leven is the Founder and Executive and Artistic Director Emeritus of Shelter Music Boston. She is a member of the Handel + Haydn Society Orchestra and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. Her talk will focus on her life as a musician for social change. Shelter Music Boston is disrupting who and what a concert is for, providing live concerts to organizations dedicated to serving men, women, and children experiencing homelessness, housing insecurity, or in substance misuse recovery throughout Greater Boston.
Unitarian Universalist Church
9 Ayer Road
Harvard, MA 01451
SATURDAY, JUNE 24 @ 7:30PM
SUGGESTED DONATION: $20 (at the door)
Unitarian Universalist Church
9 Ayer Road
Harvard, MA 01451
MEET OUR COACHES
Our coaches help musicians improve their understanding of the work and how to impart emotion when playing. They are highly respected in their disciplines and in addition to working with each ensemble, they provide individual instruction to musicians. These workshops offer necessary skills as musicians advance toward becoming professionals performing for an audience on a larger stage.
FESTIVAL GOALS
The festival’s primary goal is to build connections within and beyond the community, through the shared experience of music making, listening, and performance. Key to achieving this is the guidance coaches provide to ensembles, as well as to musicians individually. Audiences auditing rehearsal and coaching sessions throughout the week can follow the musicians’ progress and gain appreciation for individual pieces – as well as for the time and work invested in the process – as they observe musicians and coaches working together. A secondary goal has been to foster a deep appreciation – by both musicians and audience members – of music-making and engaged collective listening, and to introduce the community to musicians from diverse backgrounds and cultures. The audience is welcomed to observe the musicians’ process and build relationships with them at a personal level, through curiosity and interactive engagement. The event has become a place of learning, making, teaching – a time for shared appreciation of the creative arts.
