Sunday, June 29, 2008

The Gathering Note: “many disappointed singers” as “Cascade Festival of Music closes”

[The Firebird Suite; The Rite of Spring; Igor Stravinsky; James DePreist, Conductor; Delos DE 3278]

Cascade Festival of Music closes
June 28, 2008 by James Bash
After 27 years of successfully offering classical music in Bend, Oregon, the Cascade Festival of Music has decided to fold and file for bankruptcy. According to the Bend Bulletin newspaper, the festival ended last fall with $190,000 in debt and successfully reduced that to $93,000. You would think that with all of the new money in the Bend area, that this amount could be easily retired, but the board of the festival says that they cannot make that happen. The Portland Symphonic Choir, of which I am a member, was scheduled to sing
Carmina Burana at the festival at the end of August. I know that there are many disappointed singers who were looking forward to a last hurrah with Murry Sidlin, the artistic director of the festival. This was to have been his last year, and James DePreist was appointed to take over the reins next year.




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