Indian River Festival: making beautiful music in a church with near-perfect acoustics

Performing Arts & Entertainment in Canada, Summer, 2002 by H. Shirley Horne

INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN NEW YORK PIANIST RICHARD KAAP AND HIS VIOLINIST FRIEND MELA TENENBAUM HAD HEARD ABOUT THE WONDERFUL ACOUSTICS OF ST. MARY'S Roman Catholic Church. So one summer afternoon while touring on Prince Edward Island, they decided to find it. St. Mary's is not clustered in a village as churches often are but stands alone in the verdant countryside. Immediately Tenenbaum and Kaap were struck by its white turreted majesty. The interior, with its delicate NeoGothic altar and graceful ceiling ribs of cherry wood, was just as impressive. Tenenbaum, who just happened to have her violin, lifted her bow and began to play. That was when the idea of The Indian River Festival was born. The year was 1995.

Since 1987 Sunday concerts had been held in the summer months as part of a fundraising campaign to help with upkeep of the church. Mary Crane, co-ordinator of the concerts said, "When Richard and Mela came by to ask if they could do a concert I was delighted. That was August. We just had about two weeks to get a concert together. But that first concert went so well and they enjoyed it so much they asked if they could come back in the fall." Another concert was arranged for October, which was just as successful.

Tenenbaum and Kaap offered to help "develop something at St. Mary's." Crane thought the timing was perfect. She had been thinking it was time to take the festival to "another more focused level, and their help with artistic integrity was invaluable." During the winter months of 1995 and 1996 a committee was formed and, with much emailing back and forth, to Richard ("It was wonderful to have his knowledge"), the Indian River Festival was organized and incorporated in January of 1996.

Meanwhile when Mary discussed the festival idea with the parish they were agreeable and even helped with a little seed money. "I think they thought it was a project that would be good for St. Mary's, and since I had been doing it all along they had faith that I would ensure integrity of the festival, and also everyone involved was interested in protecting the architecture of the church," she says. "But I don't think we realized the festival would take off as it has." The 2001 season was the sixth. "Richard and some of his friends came up from New York and played beautiful music and CBC came and recorded it," says Crane. But in 1997, with continued partnership with CBC, it became necessary to have an artistic director. It was decided to approach Robert Kortgaard, a pianist who had performed at the festival in 1997. It was felt that since he had organized a similar festival in New Brunswick he would be a good candidate. He was interested. Thus the festival reached another level.

"It's been wonderful working with Robert," explains Crane; "He has such a knowledge of the music business. He didn't have a lot of time to plan for that first concert, but managed to come up with a good program for '99. But with lots of time to plan, the year 2000 concert was incredible."

Right from the beginning it was decided that classical music would be the main focus since most PEI venues had other interests. Many artists, including Kortgaard, Kaap and Tanenbaum, enjoy performing at the Indian River Festival. There's a wonderful variety of music, most performed by Canadian artists. Hendrik Bauman has performed on the harpischord; Margot Aldrich on the viola, and Ifan Williamson on cello. There have been local groups like Este Mundo who play in styles from Flamenco to classical. And there are always surprises like jazz-classical performances with vocalist Jeri Brown, guitarist Sylvie Proulx, percussionist David Burton and bassist Danny Sutherland.

The Indian River Festival has progressed beyond most of the organizers' dreams. From July 7 to August 25 the Festival will be "Celebrating a Century" (the centennial of Saint Mary's Church) with performances that include Toronto's Amabile Youth Choir, Montreal's Petits Chanteurs ,du Mont-Royal; New York's Mescal Wilson (piano) and John Kneiling (cello); PEI's Celtitude, New Brunswick's Wendy Nielsen, and, on July 28, the Nova Scotia Mass Choir in a special performance for the centennial celebrations.

Concerts at the Indian River Festival are held on Sunday evenings throughout July and August, along with intermittent performances by the original concert series in between. But from August 1 to 5, during Midsummer Magic, performances go on for four evenings to give audiences a real feast of music over a long weekend. This year's edition features mezzo-soprano Susan Platts; Este Mundo; violinist David Greenberg, and Quartet Artur LeBlanc, among others.

The designer of St. Mary's Church, William Harris, would have been delighted with the success of The Indian River Festival, since, as well as being a talented designer, he was also a pianist, and designed churches that were not only be beautiful but with acoustics as perfect as he could make them.

The ambience of a concert at St. Mary's during the Indian River Festival is something to be experienced -- enjoyed more if you bring a cushion. You might even get Malpeque oysters along with other goodies served during intermission in the tent.