Article which appeared in The Floyd Press

December 2, 2010
By Wanda Combs-Editor                                                                      

A two-week classical music festival-the National Music Festival http://www.nationalmusic.us/-is set for its debut in Floyd in spring 2011.

            The event, to be held May 29 through June 11, will be a training festival for college and graduate level musicians (known as apprentices) and will offer over 20 performances, some free and others with ticket prices of $10 and $15, and over 250 open rehearsals.

Organizers are orchestra conductor Richard Rosenberg and his fiancee Caitlin Patton, who have relocated to Floyd County. Rosenberg founded the National Music Festival in Hot Springs Arkansas 15 years ago and had worked with it up to this year. When that Festival’s board of directors decided to take it in another direction, he and Patton wanted to start another one elsewhere in keeping with an education mission. They considered locating the festival in several communities, including Shepherdstown, West Virginia, Frederick and Chestertown, Maryland, Port Townsend and Anacortes, Washington, and Arcata, California before coming to Floyd. ‘There are lots of great communities out there, but we are happy to be in Floyd,” Patton said.

Rosenberg, who had lived in Floyd County years ago, wanted Patton to see the area, and they drove here late summer. “We came up the Parkway,” Patton said, “and before we got to Floyd, I said I liked it and wanted to live here.” During their visit, the couple spoke to several people in the community, and Patton said “everyone we met seemed to be enthusiastic” about the festival being here. “We thought it was the right time and place for this type of program in Floyd.”

            http://www.nationalmusic.us/

For the first year of the festival, 70-75 students and 22 mentors are expected, Patton commented. “In future years it will be closer to 100 students.”

The couple is now trying to figure out venues for the festival. Possibilities are churches, the local high school, the Floyd Country Store, Dogtown Roadhouse, and others. “All of the rehearsals are free and open to the public. We hope most of those will be downtown where people can walk by and see the musicians rehearing,” Patton said.

The participating students, who will come from all over the world, will be chosen through a competitive application process, which also includes a submitted recording. “We will be housing musicians in private homes, and we are actively seeking people who would like to house musicians for two weeks,” Patton commented. “I think it is a rewarding experience for the musicians and the people who open their homes to them.

Some housing for students has already been found.

All of the students attend on a full scholarship and with their housing provided only face expense of meals, Patton said. “All they have to do is get here and feed themselves, which makes it easy for them to attend and learn their craft.”

Rosenberg can relate to the financial challenges sometimes facing rising musicians. He studied at expensive institutions and also did work at the Aspen summer music festival and in order to live in Aspen, because it was an expensive setting, he had to sell his piano. Musicians, he said spend a long time learning their craft but rarely receive the remuneration those in other careers do. The festival, he said, allows talented musicians on the crisp of their careers to make the transition from student to professional. The event is about “mentors and apprentices playing side by side in a boot camp for the Beethoven type crowd, he noted.

At the festival, the musicians will have the opportunity to play every kind of music to which they will be exposed in their careers.

The schedule of music (available for viewing online at www.nationalmusic.us) includes about four orchestral concerts, a number of chamber music concerts, and one musical theatre work with a wide of variety of composers represented.

Rosenberg, who recorded the yearly festivals in Hot Springs, will continue recording here. Two of his CDs have been nominated for Grammy Awards. His sixth CD from Hot Springs is being released in February. All of his CDs are recorded with Naxos, based in Hong Kong with offices on every continent. The company’s discs are printed in Malaysia and packaged inn London.

National Public Radio also broadcasts music from Rosenberg’s festivals. “We’re reaching an average daily audience of 3.6 million between radio and internet audiences and in person. I think it’s going to be a lot of exposure for Floyd County.”

Rosenberg said 60 percent of the audience in Floyd will come from outside of Floyd. These are cultural tourists. “There are many tourists who travel from festival to festival,” he remarked. “They come and spend a lot of money. They stay for longer periods…It’s a healthy interaction.

The festival will have and international flavor, Rosenberg added. “In our final concert there will be a 23-year-old cellist from Venezuela.”

Rosenberg who lived here about 30 years ago, had thought about doing a festival in Floyd County then, but it didn’t seem the right time. His teachers have included Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, and Sir Roger Norrington, and he has conducted throughout the Americas and Europe. He has produced several CDs with jazz legend Dave Brubeck.

Patton serves as executive director of the festival, and she and Rosenberg are the year round staff at this point. Half of the mentors needed for 2011 are already contracted, she said.

The couple is renting a home in Willis, but they will be moving in February to a 30-acre farm, where Patton can enjoy another passion-her horses.