Summit Music Festival is international gathering (08/08/99)

Summit Music Festival is international gathering

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. - The Summit Music Festival, held annually on the hilltop campus of Marymount College, overlooking the Hudson River, is a small international gathering of classical musicians and students. From August 1 to14, students, who come from almost a dozen countries, will take intensive master classes with instructors who also come from all over the world. Every evening performances are held in the acoustically excellent and intimate 150-seat PepsiCo Auditorium in Rita Hall, located on the college campus.

This year's group of 60 students, as well as their instructors are from Germany, Russia, France, Italy, Israel, Venezuela, China, Japan, the United States and several other countries. Applicants from Ukraine had been accepted, mostly students from the renowned Odesa Conservatory, but apparently were unable to attend because financing was not found.

According to Leonid Mordkovych, who for 30 years was a professor at the Odesa Conservatory, many of the festival's instructors are graduates and professors from the former Soviet Union's three most prestigious music conservatories: Odesa, Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and Moscow - the conservatory where pianist Mykola Suk, whom Prof. Mordkovych praises highly, received his training. Prof. Mordkovych, who has also taught at the music conservatory in Lviv, as well as at conservatories in Italy and Finland, now conducts master classes in violin and viola at the festival, and is also an instructor with the City Children's Orchestra in New York City.

Unlike many other music festivals held annually in the New England area that focus primarily on American composers and musicians, the goal of the Summit festival, now in its ninth year, is to expose students to a variety of international styles, as well as elevate each student's level through intensive interaction and instruction. The emphasis is on intensive individual discipline, on individual excellence, the method of teaching that, according to David Krieger, the festival's executive director, gave the world many brilliant soloists from Eastern Europe and Russia.

Concerts, which begin every night at 8 p.m., are $15 for general admission, $10 for students and seniors. The atmosphere is a casual mix of students, family members, instructors and classical music lovers from the Westchester area. The exception is the concert by the Tokyo String Quartet on Wednesday, August 11, which is a fund-raiser for the scholarship fund and with tickets beginning at $50. Selections from Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Haydn, Shostakovich, Handel, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Chopin, Schubert, as well as lesser-known composers are scheduled throughout the two weeks.

To receive a schedule (and driving directions) by fax, send a fax request to (914) 773-6776; to request information by phone, call (914) 773-6775 or (914) 323-7353. The phone number for general information at Marymount College is (914) 631-3200.

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