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 Photo Jonathan Clark/Special To The Town Crier
Wunderkind violinist Stephen Waarts of Los Altos performed Mendelssohn at the Music@Menlo Festival. A number of Los Altos residents participated in the Music@Menlo Festival, a chamber music festival that ended its seventh season with a series of performances and activities July 17-Aug. 8.
Music@Menlo offers concerts, lectures, master classes and classes at Menlo School, its home base, and at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Palo Alto and Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. David Finckel, artistic director and co-founder, is cellist for the Emerson String Quartet. His wife, Wu Han, artistic director and co-founder, is a pianist.
The couple also serve as artistic directors for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
This season’s festival paid tribute to Felix Mendelssohn on the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Stephen Waarts, a 13-year-old violinist from Los Altos, attended Music@Menlo for the fourth time, performing in the Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 1.
The festival featured concerts performed by renowned adult artists, Prelude Concerts performed by younger artists either in advanced study or already playing professionally, and Koret Young Performers Concerts performed by “extraordinary” students, aged 8-18.
Waarts said he likes playing chamber music because he enjoys the group efforts, but he also performs as a soloist. He said the adult musician coaches were very supportive.
The young musician, who performed at Carnegie Hall this year, won KDFC radio’s award for Best Young Musician and the AFAF International Award. He is a student at the School for Independent Learners in Los Altos, and he studies violin with Li Lin.
He is scheduled to play a recital Saturday at the Steinway Society.
Los Altos residents Bill and Pat Blankenburg, Diane Lillibridge and Alice Wong volunteered at the festival.
The Blankenburgs have been involved since the first season. Pat Blankenburg has served in a number of volunteer capacities, including ushering, mailing and serving lunches. She is also a trustee of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra.
Zachary Green of Los Altos plays the bass, but for the three weeks of the festival he acted as Patron Services Intern. Green, who graduated from Mountain View High School, attends Northwestern University, where he studies music performance.
Los Altos Hills residents Robert and Sue Larson, Stuart and Helen Bessler, and Joel and Eileen Birnbaum also contributed their help to the festival. The Birnbaums have hosted events for the festival in their home and presented home concerts. They have purchased festival “immersion” tickets to attend every concert for four years.
The Birnbaums said they are thrilled that “such a high-caliber of performers is here in our backyards.”
Dr. Joel Birnbaum said they had attended other festivals, but they were usually out in the countryside. The Birnbaums chose to get involved because of the master classes and lectures, which they said adds to the total experience of the music, but it’s the artistry that makes them return.
For more information, visit www.musicatmenlo.org.
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