Jennifer Epps
Experience full-throttle talent, exhilarating programs and a spectacular setting at the Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival. The Festival presents five center-stage concerts at its breathtaking venue at Signal Hill Ranch, located halfway between Twisp and Winthrop, every summer. The spacious barn has superb acoustics and a rustic, intimate feel. Plenty of free parking. Directions
Tickets Now Available
at our new online ticket window.
Artistic director Kevin Krentz creates musical programs that are both powerful and elegant, resonating with audience members on a very personal level.
In addition to our main concerts, the Festival offers a variety of other musical opportunities, including free open rehearsals that invite you to watch the artists "hash it out" as they prepare for concerts, and other events around town. summer program
We are a 501(c)(3) organization. Your donations are appreciated. Donate.
SHR-Directions | Video from the festival | More about the festival...
Seattle Times Says,
"Energetic Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival artistic director Kevin Krentz uses words such as 'flamboyant' and 'sensual' when talking about his Methow lineup, which plays out at Signal Hill Ranch in Winthrop. Food and wine and 'After Glow' parties are part of the bill at the fest..." read more
Joys of Hosting
Nancy Acheson relates the joys of hosting a professional musician during the festival week read more...
Summer Concerts
A message from our Artistic Director,
Chamber music, its guardians suggest, is possibly the purest form of music. The identifiable personalities of the players in dialogue with each other, and with the composer's intentions, evoke a powerful reaction from the audience. The purity of this direct communication with the audience is what attracts me to the music.
When crafting the program for a Chamber Music concert, I combine something familiar, something new, and something that knocks you out of your chair with virtuosic flamboyance. Like a good screenwriter, I try to deliver programs that appeal to the audience on every level.
This year the "new" component will be very exciting. Some of you may know that I was a singer before I became a cellist. I remember marveling at the incredible expressive range of Pavarotti and trying with great futility to match it on the cello. Certainly the tone itself was beautiful, but the cries, moans, shouts and other inflections tied together with words, music, and plot can be arresting. That explains why its defenders call it the highest form of art.
Our festival is blessed with a small, intimate venue that makes it possible to clearly see a performer's face onstage, almost as if you were talking with the player. This season we shall capitalize on that asset by performing a few short, sometimes humorous, works of modern chamber opera.
A modern chamber opera is a work tailor-made for just a few singers and a small chamber ensemble. Neal Goren, founder of the Gotham Chamber Opera, says, "Because you're so close you have no choice but to feel a part of it." The experience, he says, is, "Really visceral."
The particular short chamber operas I hope to include in our program are by San Francisco based composers Jake Heggie and Jack Perla, and New York's Daniel Felsenfeld. Their superb scores, which combine text, acting, and music, play out scenes of great drama, romance, and, perhaps most needed by a chamber music festival crowd in general, humor.
To complete the full breadth of your musical evening, may I suggest that you complement the musical program with local wines, beers, and hors d'oeuvres created fresh by Chef Teresa Mitchell of the Rocking Horse Bakery, all served onsite before the show during our community social hour.
Intermission will be framed by a golden sunset over the Cascade mountains. Each concert ends with a heartwarming afterglow celebration where you can meet the musicians. That's our way.
Thanks so very much for your generous support.
Kevin Krentz
