The Charles Ives Music Festival forges educational opportunities with world-class concert experiences to provide the public as well as participants two-weeks worth of music, artistic exploration and fun. The program, which launched in late 2019, is based out of the Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra.
Contributed photoRIDGEFIELD — A music festival honoring Danbury-born composer Charles Ives is coming to town for its first full summer of programming since before the pandemic.
The Charles Ives Music Festival forges educational opportunities with world-class concert experiences to provide two weeks of music, artistic exploration and activities.
The program, which launched in late 2019, is based out of the Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra and run by local composer Paul Frucht. As its artistic director, Frucht envisioned a “high-level chamber music program” that would benefit students of all ages.
“The core element of the program is to bring in phenomenal young performing artists that hold principals in major orchestras ... and have them work with students for a week,” he said. “We have the artists embedded directly into the group, playing with the students, which is a great way for them to learn.”
CIMF offers educational programs for youth and adult musicians. The first gives students a chance to perform with faculty artists in chamber music groups and the CIMF Orchestra, while the second is a chamber-centric program for adults.
“CIMF is geared toward improving students’ musicianship and (giving) them an orchestral experience, but it’s also a social program,” Frucht said. “The energy is really special.”
This summer, roughly 70 area musicians are participating in the educational programs, which will be held at First Congregational Church in Ridgefield.
Recent Ridgefield High School graduate Dmitri Volkov is one of seven student composers in the youth program. And although he’s been playing the violin since he was 5, CIMF was the first place he was able to try his hand at composing.
The faculty artists, he explained, “Give you feedback on different aspects of the playability of (a) piece and how it works on (an) instrument. I don’t play cello or harp, and there’s no better way to learn how to compose for the instruments than working directly with those who do play them.”
Volkov is working on a piece that will be performed by faculty artists at CIMF’s concert on Aug. 6.
“These people have incredible musicality — they’re the best of the best — and to get your piece performed by them is already a rare enough circumstance,” he said. “It’s really unrivaled in my experience.”
The title of the concert series, “The Promise of Living,” recognizes a movement from Aaron Copland’s “The Tender Land.” The opera takes place on a Depression-era farm in the Midwest and follows a multi-generational family searching for hope and meaning amid challenging circumstances.
“Today, this story feels as timeless and relevant as ever,” Frucht said. “Ideally, art challenges people to think more deeply about themselves and the world around them, to help them find meaning in life, and perhaps hope. (Our) series of concerts (is) about (the) various aspects of life that make it worth living.”
Frucht also noted the significance of the festival’s namesake and how Ives deviated from the traditions of his peers to create compositions audiences had never heard before.
“At the time many American composers were writing in a style meant to invoke or imitate what people were doing in Europe,” he said. “Ives took folk music that he heard in his community — in Danbury, Redding and Ridgefield — and put it directly into his music. It’s for and about the community itself.”
The series includes five live concerts focusing on the work of American composers and kicks off at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum on July 31.
For the complete schedule and ticket information, visit charlesivesmusicfestival.org
alyssa.seidman@hearstmediact.com