Curtain to Rise on Atlantic Music Festival’s sixth season

WATERVILLE — The Atlantic Music Festival will return to the Colby College campus for its sixth consecutive season July 7 to Aug. 3. Continuing the tradition set forth in past years, internationally recognized artists from all over the world will congregate in Waterville to partake in an inspiring musical experience, presenting beloved classical masterpieces alongside inventive and iconoclastic new works by today’s composers.

The Festival will offer all of its concerts free of charge. Through its I Am Four Years Old campaign, the Festival continues its vision of sustaining a public reaffirmation of its core values, cultivating awareness of the musicians’ place within the community and exploring the musicians’ response to violence, social injustice, or illness. In the past, the Maine Children’s Home (2013) and UNICEF’s Achieving Zero (2012) were chosen as recipients for their efforts in making a difference in communities near and far, providing aid to underprivileged children and families, and instilling hope. In 2014, with the renewal of the I Am Four Years Old campaign, the Festival is donating all of its proceeds to a charity of your choice. This year’s recipient will be announced at the end of the festival season, chosen through audience votes collected on our website and at our concerts. For more information about the campaign and to vote, please visit the I Am Four Years Old campaign page at http://atlanticmusicfestival.org/the-festival/i-am-four-years-old/.

A special season preview concert is set for 7 p.m. Friday, July 11, in Lorimer Chapel. The Manhattan based Cassatt String Quartet has garnered numerous accolades. Beyond charged performances, adventurous programming, and celebrated recordings, this prize-winning quartet’s acclaim stems in part from its championship of contemporary music.

The curtain officially rises at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 12, at the Lorimer Chapel with Delaware Symphony’s Maestro David Amado conducting the AMF Orchestra. Introducing a season filled with unique and inspiring works, the concert will feature Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, followed by George Tsontakis’s Laconika. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 closes the program.

AMF offers two additional orchestral concerts, conducted by Maestro Jonathan Schiffman and Artistic Director Solbong Kim. Both orchestra concerts offer performances by renowned guest artists. In addition to Dvorak’s Symphony No. 6, the first, held on July 26, features violinist Bella Hristova in performance of composer and faculty member David Ludwig’s Saturn Bells and a performance by the Piano Concerto Competition winner. The final concert, held on Aug. 2, presents violist Sang-Jin Kim, celebrated for his poise and warmth, in performance of Kim’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra.

For more information about AMF 2014, including the complete schedule of events, visit the Festival website at www.atlanticmusicfestival.org, or call 1-888-704-1311.

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