Music festival is OK

Music festival is OK
By JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer
2/15/2007


Annual OK Mozart Music Festival will focus on Sooner performers
This year, the OK Mozart International Festival in Bartlesville will celebrate the other half of its name.

In 2006, the music world was awash in all things Mozart to honor the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth. OK Mozart, not surprisingly, made sure there was a little bit of Mozart's music is every major concert it presented.

Since 2007 is the Oklahoma Centennial, this summer's OK Mozart festival will feature a number of Oklahoma performers drawn from the worlds of classical, popular and country music, in addition to some of the world's leading musical artists.

Tickets for the 2007 OK Mozart International Festival are on sale and may be purchased by calling OK Mozart, (918) 336-9800; in person at the OK Mozart offices, 550-A S. Dewey Ave., in Bartlesville; or online at www.MyTicketOffice.com.

Prices range from $25 to $50 for evening concerts, held at the Bartlesville Community Center; and $7 to $22 for Chamber Series concerts, presented in the Bartlesville High School Performing Arts Center.

The 2007 OK Mozart begins June 8 with the traditional Opening Celebration
outside the BCC, with free entertainment, food vendors and fireworks.

Oklahoma-born songwriter Jimmy Webb will present "A Night With Jimmy Webb" June 9. Webb, a multiple Grammy Award-winner, will perform some of his classic songs -- "Up, Up and Away," "Galveston" and "MacArthur Park" -- as well as "Oklahoma Rising," the official Oklahoma Centennial anthem Webb wrote with Vince Gill.

Pianist Jiyoung Chung, winner of the first OK Mozart/Oklahoma Israel Exchange Young Artists Piano Competition, will perform in recital June 10.

The Philadelphia Dance Company -- Philadanco for short -- will perform June 11. Dance Magazine said this contemporary dance company "can represent the possibilities of the human spirit through dance." It will perform several pieces, including "Southern Landscapes" and "On the Shoulders of Our Ancestors," as a tribute to the Osage Nation.

The June 12 concert will be the Spencer Prentiss ChamberFest concert, featuring members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, legendary pianist Leon Fleisher, and the McDermott Trio, which includes one of OK Mozart's most popular guests, pianist Anne-Marie McDermott with her sisters, violinist Kerry and cellist Maureen.

One of the most versatile and acclaimed musicians of recent years, Oklahoma native Edgar Meyer, returns to OK Mozart to serve as the festival's composer in residence. Meyer also will be the soloist for his own Concerto No. 1 for Bass and Orchestra, to be perform as part of the June 13 concert, with the festival's orchestra in residence, the Amici New York.

Meyer, a bassist and composer whose music easily melds American folk with classical influences, received a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant in 2002. JoAnn Falletta, music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Virginia Symphony, will conduct.

Writer-guitarist Mason Williams, whose "Classical Gas" has become a guitar standard, will join with bluegrass legend Byron Berline and his band June 14.

The Woolaroc Outdoor Concert, held at the Woolaroc Ranch and Wildlife Preserve, will feature the Amici New York Orchestra led by Joel Levine, music director of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. The concert, which will include a salute to the musical "Oklahoma!," will conclude with the traditional fireworks display over Clyde Lake.

Fleisher will conduct the Grand Finale Concert with the Amici New York Orchestra. He will be joined by his wife, Katherine Jacobson-Fleisher, for Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos in E-flat Major, K. 365.

The Chamber Series Concerts will be held June 11-15, and will feature members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in solo recitals of contemporary music in the morning, and ensemble performances in the afternoon.

The festival also is planning to offer about 180 separate events as part of the Festival Showcase, including lectures, concerts, tours, workshops, children's events and the like. Tickets for the Festival Showcase will go on sale March 1, and a list of events will be posted on the festival's Web site, www.okmozart.com .

James D. Watts Jr. 581-8478
james.watts@tulsaworld.com