Amadeus
Thank you to Glacier Symphony and Chorale for the wonderful Festival Amadeus. In addition to nightly concerts featuring world-class musicians, my son attended Camp Festival Amadeus, hosted by North Valley Music School and run through a unique collaboration with GSC.
For five days during the Festival, young musicians learned and played with visiting festival artists from all over the world, as well as some of the best orchestral musicians and teachers in Montana. In addition, GSC graciously gave each camper tickets to all of the Festival performances. I cannot think of a finer example of Flathead Valley nonprofits working together to improve our community through education and the arts.
I was, however, truly disappointed to see Festival Amadeus concerts relocated from the Whitefish Middle School auditorium to Kalispell this year. These events were sparsely attended compared to those in the middle school auditorium last year.
Festival Amadeus has entertained thousands of people over the last three years, it gives students from all over Montana (and beyond) the opportunity to play chamber music, and it offers all of us world-renowned artists playing with our own GSC. Surely, it also deserves to be heard in the only venue in the Flathead Valley designed to accommodate a symphony. Especially considering that Festival Amadeus occurred in the middle of a two-week dark period in Alpine Theatre Project's performance schedule.
The middle school auditorium was built to be a resource for the entire community, and as we know from Old Man Walking, it is not yet paid for. A full schedule shows our community that diverse arts organizations need and use this space regularly. This, in turn, supports fundraising efforts. It simply does not make sense to allow this resource to sit empty on summer evenings when the only classical music festival in Montana can fill it to capacity.
Because this is a community venue, I hope that next year we will enjoy both Alpine Theatre Project productions and the Glacier Symphony and Chorale Festival Amadeus in this incredible auditorium.
Lynnette Donaldson
Whitefish