Musicians perform at Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival. Submitted photo by Mark Silver

Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival announce the program for the festival’s 51st season and 30th year performing at Deertrees with performances at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday evenings from July 11 through Aug. 8 at Deertrees Theatre in Harrison. The programs will showcase beloved masterworks by Bartok, Beethoven, Brahms, Dohnanyi, Dvorak, Franck, Gershwin, Kodaly, Mozart, Poulenc, and Shostakovich. In addition, lesser known but marvelous works by Ben-Haim, Haydn, Rachmaninoff, Saint-Saens, and Schubert will be presented.

Festival music director Mihae Lee said “Most of our favorite artists will be returning as well as many new, fantastic musicians who will join us for the first time. A crucial part of our artists’ experience has always been the chance to share their talent and commitment with our devoted audience and with this wonderful musical community in western Maine and beyond.”

Program I: July 11
PAUL BEN-HAIM: Serenade for Flute and String Trio
MOZART: Quintet in E-flat Major for Piano and Winds, K. 452
DOHNÁNYI: Sextet in C Major, Op. 37

Program II: July 18
HAYDN: Divertissement No. 2, Op. 100 for Flute, Violin and Cello
KODÁLY: Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7
DVOŘÁK: Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81

Program III: July 25
POULENC: Sonata for Flute and Piano
SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 57
BRAHMS: Clarinet Quintet in B Minor, Op.115

Program IV: August 1
SCHUBERT: String Trio in Bb, D. 471
RACHMANINOFF: Trio élégiaque No.1 in G Minor
GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue for Piano Four-hands
SAINT-SAËNS: Piano Quartet in B-Flat major, Op. 41

Program V: August 8
BARTÓK: Romanian Folk Dances for Cello and Piano
BEETHOVEN: Serenade for Flute, Violin and Viola, Op. 25
FRANCK: Piano Quintet in F Minor

“We are so excited with the masterful work of Mihae Lee. And the musicians’ lineup is outstanding,” remarked Barbara Graustein, President, Board of Trustees of the festival.

Guest artists

Pavel Vinnitsky

Pavel Vinnitsky photographed at Peenemúnde Historisch-Technisches Museum in Germany. Submitted photo Chris Lee

A native of Ukraine and Israel who has called the US home for the last 20 years, clarinetist Vinnitsky will play with Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival for the first time this summer. Vinnitsky is an associate professor of clarinet at the University of Cincinnati Conservatory College of Music. He has gained international acclaim through numerous solo, chamber music, and orchestral appearances at major concert venues around the world and is recognized as one of the most in demand clarinet performers and teachers in the United States. During the 2016-22 seasons he has served as an acting clarinet section member with the New York Philharmonic and as an associate clarinetist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 2009.

Pavel regularly appears as a guest clarinetist with the Chicago Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the American Symphony and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. His discography includes Grammy Award winning recordings for Deutsche Grammophon with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as well as Sony Classical and Deca Gold albums with the New York Philharmonic. Pavel can be heard on soundtracks for motion pictures as well as TV series on Netflix and Amazon.

Vinnitsky recently remarked, “This will be my first time in Maine, so I am super excited to be there and playing with the other artists at Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival.”

Festival music director Mihae Lee said of Vinnitsky “Pavel is an exceptional clarinetist and a very nice person. I can’t wait for our audience to hear his charismatic performance. Also, we look forward to introducing him to the wonders of Maine.”

Gabriela Díaz

Gabriela Diaz Submitted photo

Díaz, a violinist, began her musical training at the age of five. Today she is a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, A Far Cry, Castle of our Skins; is Co-Artistic Director of Winsor Music; and plays regularly with other chamber music ensembles throughout the United States. Her recording of Lou Harrison’s “Suite for Violin and American Gamelan” was highlighted in the New York Times Article “5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Classical Music.” Gabriela is proud to be a core member of the team that created Boston Hope Music, bringing music to patients and frontline workers during the pandemic.

Gabriela Díaz lives in the Boston area and teaches at Wellesley College and the Longy School of Music at Bard College. She has played many times with the Portland Chamber Music Festival, performing with them again this year.

Díaz has played with SLLMF once before, in 2010. SLLMF music director Mihae Lee said, “We are so pleased to welcome Gabriela back.”

Gabriela remarked recently, “I’m very much looking forward to being up in western Maine, I know how gorgeous that area is and can’t wait to make music with those wonderful folks in that beautiful setting.”

Brian Hong 

Brian Hong Submitted photo

Korean-American Hong, a violist, will join Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival for the first time this summer. But it’s not his first time performing in Maine: The dedicated chamber musician’s festival credits include the Bowdoin International Music Festival while in high school and many summers with Kneisel Hall in Blue Hill during his college years. “In fact, following my performances with SLLMF in western Maine,” Brian remarked, “I will return to Kneisel Hall as a guest artist for a week playing alongside the faculty members who shaped my musical growth. This will be a very special summer for me.”

Hong will perform at SLLMF’s 2nd and 3rd concerts on July 18 and July 25.

Music director Mihae Lee said, “We are so pleased Brian Hong can join us for two concerts at Deertrees Theatre as well as several community performances. Brian is a fantastic violist and an amazing person, and I love working with him. I cannot wait to introduce him to our audiences.”

Hong has performed as soloist with such orchestras as the Juilliard Orchestra, Fairfax Symphony, American Youth Philharmonic, Chesapeake Orchestra, US Army Orchestra, National Philharmonic, and the Springfield Symphony. Other chamber festival credits include Marlboro, Yellow Barn, Music Academy of the West, the Taos School of Music, and the Perlman Music Program. Due to his thoughtful and empathetic approach to teaching, Hong is gaining recognition, joining the esteemed faculty at Bard College Conservatory of Music as a violist in Fall 2022. As a guest artist, he has taught private lessons, public masterclasses, and chamber coachings on both violin and viola at George Mason University’s Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music, Missouri State University, and The Juilliard School. He has also taught live virtual masterclasses for worldwide audiences. He is a graduate of Juilliard’s Artist Diploma program. As a Fellow of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, he performed in a variety of venues in New York City and abroad, and maintained a two-year teaching-artist partnership with Celia Cruz High School for Music in the Bronx. He also holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he was awarded a prestigious Kovner Fellowship. Hong is a co-Artistic Director of NEXUS Chamber Music Chicago in Illinois, an artist-driven collective of musicians whose mission is to make classical music culturally relevant through live concerts and multimedia content.

Laura Gilbert

Laura Gilbert SYSTEM

Gilbert, a flutist, has performed worldwide as chamber musician, soloist, recitalist and guest lecturer. Gilbert first played with Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival in 1998, but infrequently over the years. Because of a long-standing relationship between Gilbert and festival music director Mihae Lee, their collaboration has taken on many forms. For example, several years ago, with a halt during the worst of the pandemic, SLLMF artists performed repeat concerts with Electric Earth Concerts in New Hampshire. A SLLMF repeat concert is one rehearsed for and performed at Deertrees Theatre in Harrison, and then taken elsewhere to be repeated.

Previously co-artistic director of Monadnock Music, she is co-founder and co-artistic director of Electric Earth Concerts, based in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

Gilbert remarked, “My romance with music and Maine began at the same time, when I was in high school. I attended the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival – the place where my lifelong friendship with Mihae Lee began. There is no separating my love of musical collaboration from the salt air, the ocean, the smell of a Maine summer. Five years ago I purchased a little home in Portland, a lifelong dream for me – to spend my summer practicing and making music with my friends. Playing with Mihae and others at Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival feels like coming home again. I cannot wait.”

In addition, Gilbert is a founding member of Auréole, a trio composed of flute, viola and harp; additionally, she has performed with many ensembles including musicians from Marlboro, Brandenburg Ensemble, the Borromeo, Brentano and Saint Lawrence String Quartets, Chamber Music at the 92nd Street “Y,” Saint Luke’s Ensemble and Orchestra, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, The New York Philharmonic and Speculum Musicae. She currently holds the principal flute chair of CityMusic, Cleveland and Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic. She serves on the faculties of Mannes College of Music and Saint Ann’s School.

Vinnitsky, Díaz, Hong, and Gilbert is just four of the 24 outstanding artists from around the US performing with the Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival this summer.

The entire series of concerts, artists and artists’ bios are available at sebagomusicfestival.org.

Tickets can be purchased online. Season Tickets at $135/person are also available by mailing a check to SLLMF, P.O. Box 545, Harrison, ME 04044. In addition to cost savings, a Season Ticket provides access to free open rehearsals, post-concert receptions with musicians, and more. Individual tickets may also be bought at the box office at Deertrees Theatre before each festival concert.