By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
RUSSELL — The Ad Astra Music Festival in Russell bills itself as a selection of new classic music mixed with professionally rendered performances of favorite historical pieces.
Alex Underwood, co-artistic director, said the music is easily digestible for both the new listener of classical music and the long-time lover of the genre.
Performances will include classical, opera, jazz with hints of bluegrass.
“We like to think each performance of the festival is slightly different — a different shade of music. I think we are able to produce music at a relatively high level,” Underwood said.
“I think that is what ties it all together. It is not just your everyday jazz. It is really, really great jazz, and it’s not just your community opera program. It is a really wonderful professional program. The same with the string quartet. We have such really strong musicians that we’re able to attract to the festival. I think that unites it.”
Tickets are now on sale for the concert series that goes through the end of July. Tickets can be purchased online at https://www.adastramusicfestival.org/tickets/, at the Russell Economic Development Office or at the door. Tickets are $10 per performance or $50 for the series.
For a complete schedule, click here.
The opening performance of the series is Friday, July 14.
Friday night’s a capella choral concert titled “Metamorphosis” features the world premiere of a work by composer Moira Smiley.
The title for the performance came from the text from a Renaissance piece to be performed that night by William Byrd.
“It is all about transformation,” Underwood said. “In this case in a religious setting, it is the wheat becoming bread, becoming the body of Christ and grapes becoming wine becoming the blood of Christ.”
The transformation theme was carried to the Smiley piece, which details the transformation of Russell.
The commissioned work is made possible through grants from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation and the Russell County Area Community Foundation.
The performance will feature the Ad Astra Chamber Choir, joined by Kansas bluegrass duo Scenic Roots. Start time is 7:30 p.m. at St. Mary Queen of Angels Catholic Church.
For a totally different listening experience, patrons have the opportunity to enjoy Jazz at the Barn at 8 p.m. Saturday, July 15 at Granny Mae’s Barn.
This is the second year for this event, which will feature Fort Hays State University jazz professor Brad Dawson on trumpet with his ensemble of Matt Otto, saxophone, Roger Wilder, piano, Gerald Spaits, bass and Todd Strail, drums. Cocktails and bar snacks will be served.
“Second Nature,” a contemporary opera in one act, which debuted in 2015 at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, will be the feature of Sunday afternoon’s performance. The opera is performed in English.
Read a synopsis of the opera by clicking here.
“Hopefully it is super digestible,” Underwood said. “It is an hour-long. It is not like we are going to the opera for five hours to listen to Wagner in German telling this epic ‘Lord-of the-Rings’-style tale.”
The work will feature local singers Calder Craig and Michael Davidson as well as other vocalists who have sung in prior years with the festival, including Aani Bourassa, Janie Brokenicky, Katelyn Mattson-Levy, and Dan Moore.
Returning conductor Max Holman will direct the performance with Mary Box at the piano, Kristin Pisano guest clarinetist, and Allison Lint, violinist. Pisano is a clarinet professor at FHSU. Lint also teaches in Hays.
The work, unlike most operas, is advertised with a performance time of one hour at the Deines Cultural Center beginning at 2 p.m.
The festival will conclude this year with a performance of Handel’s “Samson” from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, July 29. The libretto tells the Biblical tale of Samson after Dalila cuts his hair, robbing him of his strength. Samson struggles with his existence while in prison.
James Reece, a Yale graduate student is playing Samson. Megan Pachecano, who just sang at the Metropolitan Opera, returns to the festival this year to portray Dalila. Tim Parsons, tenor, portrays Micah. Parson sings at Trinity Wall Street in New York. Dan Moore, a Yale graduate who performs at St. Thomas Fifth Avenue in New York, will sing baritone.
The festival was founded in summer 2014, employing one full-time musician and 20 part-time musicians. This year’s festival employs 17 full-time and 32 part-time musicians in addition to more than 50 volunteers.