Despite the death of Leslie Harlow, founder of the Park City Beethoven Festival, the show must go on. Actually, there will be 18 great shows over six weeks.
A pass for the full festival is $150. New festival Director Russell Harlow said there will also be free concerts in City Park every Monday at 6:30 p.m. until the end of August and they will have really wonderful, fun and flashy stuff.
“We have giveaways and my big question was how can you make chamber music fun because for the players and for me, and for a lot of people, chamber music is fun," said Russell. "And we're doing our best to get the stiffness out of people's minds as to what classical music is because it's just great music.”
Russell said there will be performers new to the festival and many others who have played for 40 years. Next week, they will have two acclaimed artists: Christopher O’Riley, a keyboard player, and Matt Haimovitz, a cellist.
“People would know them, and they're going to be doing the music of Bach on an original instrument," said Russell. "And the fun thing about this concert is O'Riley is going to be playing on a keyboard that he can make sound like a Bösendorfer, a harpsichord, a Steinway, an old piano, or a combination of all of them and it is just a marvelous thing.”
Even though the festival is named after Beethoven, it features the music of many classical composers. And there’s a fun story behind it all that dates back to when Russell was 12 years old and he had a bust of Beethoven on his desk.
Fast-forward many years later, he said Leslie was always thinking about what they could do to get more people interested in classical music. So, one Independence Day in Park City, she did something a bit different than the standard practice of waving the American flag.
“And one day during Fourth of July celebrations here, she carried this thing that I had, the bust of Beethoven, around with her," said Russell. "And she found out that kids, even little kids would point and get excited and say, ‘That's Beethoven!’ They knew him.”
Russell said that is when she decided to start a festival that would feature all sorts of classical and contemporary music…and call it the Park City Beethoven Festival.
Beethoven famously began to lose his hearing at 28; by 44, he was deaf.
“But he composed some of the most glorious music of Symphony No. 9, of course, everybody knows that," said Russell. "And, just a number of symphonies and chamber music and piano sonatas. So, music is more than just what goes into your ears. It also proves that it's from the heart.”
The same could be said for Leslie’s 40-year legacy of the Park City Beethoven Festival.
