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Lakes Region LiveText by Laurie LaMountain It’s late April and we’re on the return home to Maine from Ireland, a country where performance music isn’t so much a national pastime as it is a rite. Our journey goes from car to plane to bus and back to car, and we’re on the last leg of it. It’s windy and rainy and we’re tired as we throw our bags into the bed of our waiting pickup truck and climb into the cold cab for the two-hour drive home. The radio is tuned to Maine Public Broadcasting and the sweet strains of Gounod’s Petite Symphonie ease our displaced travelers’ blues. Then the announcer cuts in to inform us that we’re listening to a pre-recorded performance of the Sebago Long Lake Chamber Music Festival that took place at Deertrees Theatre in Harrison, Maine, on July 28th of 2009, and our spirits finally catch up with our bodies. Maine may not be Ireland, even though at 32,000 square miles it’s roughly the same size, but we’re lucky to have access to an impressive range of live musical performances, ranging from Bartok to Béla Fleck. Our little corner of southwestern Maine boasts several venues where you can take in “up close and personal” performances, the kind where you can see the performer’s shoe laces and even the little laugh lines around his eyes. It’s that which also makes the music of Ireland so special. I recall walking into a pub in Milltown Malbay in County
Clare on the west coast of Ireland that felt more like a home than
a pub.
A low-ceilinged room with a peat fire burning in the fireplace led
to another room that beckoned me with its music. I’m not sure
whether it was the smell of the peat fire or the sweet high sound
of
the ilan pipes wrapped around those of the button accordion, but
when I rounded the doorway and saw twenty or so people seated in
a circle playing music together, I had a kind of religious experience.
Their faces were serene yet concentrated, and the range in their
ages
spanned the better part of a century. An old man with a face like So, as we wait for the truck heater to warm our cold feet on a
raw spring day in Maine, the Sebago Long Lake Chamber Music
Festival’s offering of Petite Symphonie somehow brings us full
circle.
We may have left Ireland behind us, but we’ve come back to
a place
that understands and appreciates that music, as Kahlil Gibran put
Stone Mountain Arts Center
Along with soul-satisfying, pre-show suppers, Stone Mountain Arts Center has cooked up a musical menu of immense variety this summer, an approach Noonan said has been part of the plan since they opened in 2006. “We do it better than anybody. We work hard to make it special,” she said. Located “up a dirt road” on the western edge of Brownfield, Maine, the arts center is set in a post and beam barn that was originally built by local timber framer Andy Buck to house Flagg’s commercial fishing net business. In 2005 the barn was lifted and lowered over a new foundation and turned into a state-of-the-art performance space with towering windows opening to views of the White Mountain foothills, a vaulted ceiling that provides exceptional acoustics, and just 200 seats. Since then, Stone Mountain Arts Center has become a decidedly out-of-the-way yet favorite venue for such artists as Cowboy Junkies, guitarist Robert Cray and banjo player Béla Fleck. Cray and Fleck headline a summer schedule of shows bolstered by singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading, guitarist Richard Thompson and former “Saturday Night Live” and monologist Julia Sweeney. Noonan said Cray’s return for a third show illustrates how
Stone Mountain has attracted major artists who have chosen to include
the arts center on tours between larger New England towns. Upon
arrival for their first ever show at SMAC, she said Cray and his
band pulled up in a bus with a trailer carting gear and wondered
just If national recording acts and artists have found Brownfield
a good destination, so have acts with
Maine roots. The summer schedule
at Stone Mountain includes Despite the demands of running the arts center, Noonan also takes the stage for the Stone Mountain LIVE concerts that have grown to show the regard musicians have for her and the local musicians who started the show that is reminiscent of NPR’s “Prairie Home Companion.” Now when Noonan takes the stage with guitarists Duke Levine and Kevin Barry, a.k.a. The Stone Mountain Boys, renowned artists such as Mary Chapin Carpenter will join in the show. “It is my creative side when I don’t have my apron on,” Noonan said. For the full schedule of shows at the arts center, visit www.stonemountainartscenter.com.
Ossipee Valley Music Festival
Originally known as the Ossipee Valley Bluegrass Festival, Johnson said the change in the name reflects the desire to include more genres of acoustic music. As the musical menu widens, Johnson said the festival intent remains the same. “It is G-rated. Bring the kids, camp out and share the music,” Johnson said. Headlining the festival are the Steep Canyon Rangers,
who spent the spring touring with Steve Martin and are fresh from
the Bonaroo
Festival in Tennessee. The rest of the lineup includes favorites
like
the Bagboys and Muddy Marsh Ramblers, but Johnson said the
sounds of Creole music and gypsy jazz will also ring through the He said last year’s festival was the best attended, drawing about 4,000 fans. This year he may have to turn fans away, and the musical offerings will fill two stages. The main stage will be active from noon until dark, July 23 through 25, and what is called “Stage Too!” will feature performances on July 23 and 24. Included in the Stage Too! fun is an amateur open mic session called Breakfast With The Beatles from 9 to 11 a.m. on July 24, where musicians are invited to take the stage and play their favorite Fab Four song. That kind of participation is a hallmark of the festival, which offers barn dances, workshops and flatpicking, banjo picking and songwriting contests. New this year are students from the Berklee College of Music who will teach the basics of playing instruments and create a student ensemble to perform the last day of the festival. No matter what evolves, Johnson said he is proud the setting
remains the same. “I think it is the nicest site,” he
said about the
Ossipee Valley Fairgrounds. “It is dead flat, has lots of old
pine trees
and all the open barns.” Even as the number of acts performing
increases, the festival remains legendary for the impromptu jam For more information about the festival, ticket and camping prices and the performance schedules, visit www.ossipeevalley.com.
Deertrees Theatre & Cultural Center
Whether it is tribute shows to Elvis Presley and the Beatles, a bicentennial celebration of composers Clara and Robert Schumann, or the venerated folk singer Tom Rush, Deertrees has a season in store for nearly all musical tastes. Felts said the theater is enjoyed by locals and visitors alike. An order for tickets for the July 31 TomRush show has already come from Texas, he said. The addition of blues shows and a performance by singer-songwriter Jonathan Edwards and his band are ways to add new spice to a familiar scene. Like the Stone Mountain Arts Center, Felts said Deertrees
is a favorite of musicians because
of its rustic setting and acoustics.“This is one of the few remaining Deertrees Theatre has been the setting for the Sebago Long Lake Chamber Music Festival’s concert series since 1993. Founded in 1972 by bassoonist Homer Pence and other professional musicians who summered in the region, the Festival is noted for presenting a wide variety of chamber music. Laurie Kennedy, Principal Violist of the Portland Symphony, is the present Music Director. The musicians are professional string, wind and keyboard artists who come together on Tuesday evenings from July 13th through August 10th to share their love of chamber music with a devoted and fortunate audience. Familiar works are balanced with lesser known works, and concerts often include music for unusual instrumental combinations in compositions from the 17th century to the present. The 2010 season features the work of Rameau, Faure, Barber, Mozart, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Crusell, Schumann, Haydn, Arensky and Dumka. Because the theater is operated as a nonprofit, funded in part by grants and foundations, Felts said the ticket prices can be kept affordable. Most prices are $20 for shows, with family and children’s specials sprinkled throughout the season. To view the full schedule and order tickets, visit the Deertrees Theatre Web site at www.deertreestheatre.org.
Other music venues in the lakes regionThe International Music Arts Institute has been presenting its summer chamber music concert series at Fryeburg Academy for the last 13 years. Classically trained musicians representing some thirty nations on five continents present more than 50 major works during the month of July at the Academy’s Bion Cram Library. Concerts are held Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings and on Sunday afternoons. For more information about IMAI and the concerts, visit http://home.earthlink.net/~imaifryeburg. The Leura Hill Eastman Performing Arts Center, also
on the campus of Fryeburg Academy, is presenting rebroadcast performances
of the Metropolitan Opera in HD on Wednesday evenings.
You’d swear you were at the Met, except every seat is good
and the
tickets are just $15. Student and package discounts are also available. The bandstand at the Cornish Fairgrounds will be the
site of Tuesday evening concerts sponsored by the Saco River Festival
Association. Since its founding in 1976, the Saco River Festival
Association has hosted over 300 national and internationally known
as well as Maine-based musicians each year through its annual summer For the festival schedule, visit www.sacoriverfestival.org.
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These days, it may seem Carol Noonan is spending more time
in the kitchen than on stage. Co-owner of Stone Mountain
Arts Center with her husband Jeff Flagg, Noonan unabashedly
admits a draw for the musical acts venturing to the door is the
food they get when they arrive.
Once upon a time in a town not so far away, Hiram residents
Raetha Stoddard and Bill Johnson threw a party at the Ossipee
Valley Fairgrounds. Twelve years later, the Ossipee
Valley Music Festival is a summer staple in South Hiram, with four
days of music and camping along the Ossipee River set to begin
July 22 and run through July 25.
On the other side of the lakes region, what could have been a
training exercise for the Harrison Fire Department is now a
centerpiece of musical, theater and comedic offerings. It has
been 22 years since Deertrees Theatre was saved from a smoky fate
to become a nonprofit arts center listed on the National Register
of
Historic Places. Built in 1936, the restored theater remains close
to
its architectural roots and operates as a summer venue only. Executive
Director Bill Felts said the 2010 season will be something of a
transformation for music fans especially.
