HARRISON – The Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival will celebrate its 36th season this summer by presenting five Tuesday concerts at 7:30 p.m. July 15, 22 and 29 and Aug 5 and 12 at Deertrees Theatre. Once again, world-class musicians will gather to present a variety of music for first-time concert-goers as well as the most discriminating aficionados.

Departing from a long tradition of strictly chamber music, the festival will present the Portland Symphony Orchestra July 29.

The opening concert July 15 begins in the Baroque era with works by Vivaldi and Bach and features Susan Rotholz, principal flutist of the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra and the New York Chamber Ensemble. She also performs regularly with the Orchestra of St Lukes, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Pops and Broadway orchestras. In this program, the virtuosic Rotholz will play both piccolo and flute parts in Vivaldi’s Piccolo Concerto in C Major, Bach’s Trio Sonata in C Minor from “The Musical Offering” and a set of tangos by Astor Piazzolla arranged for flute, cello and jazz trio.

Also featured in the Vivaldi and Bach offerings is Peter Sykes, noted harpsichordist and organist. He has performed at such festivals as the American Guild of Organists, the International Society of Organbuilders, Boston Early Music Festival, Aston Magna Festival and a New England Bach Festival, and with the Ensemble Project Ars Nova, the King’s Noyse, and Musica Antiqua Koln. Completing the ensemble are violinist Marty Pogossian, cellist Eliot Bailen and bassist Joseph Higgins, a newcomer to the festival.

The concert finishes with the lively Quartet in E-Flat Major for strings and piano by Czech master Antonin Dvorák. Longtime festival favorite Stephen Manes is the featured pianist in this piece and is joined by violinist Varty Pogossian, violist Laurie Kennedy and cellist Jonathan Golove.

The July 22 concert is devoted to the music of Beethoven. The program will follow the life path of this great master, from his early struggle to gain popularity, through his heroic period of expanding productivity and fame, to his final turn inward – the result of profound deafness. The lighthearted Serenade for Flute, Violin and Viola is followed by the Piano Trio in E-Flat major nicknamed “The Ghost.” The program concludes, as did Beethoven’s creative output, with the deeply intimate String Quartet, Op. 135.

On July 29, Matthew Fritz will conduct the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Rossini’s “Barber of Seville Overture,” Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” and Mendelssohn’s Italian symphony.

A romantic evening is on tap for audiences on Aug. 5. The richness of the lower strings is featured in Gian Carlo Menotti’s Suite for Two Cellos and Piano and Mendelssohn’s Viola Quintet in A Major. The evening concludes with the ultra-romantic Piano Quartet in C Minor by Brahms, an enduring masterwork which many believe to be his greatest expression of passion.

The final concert on Aug. 12 features works of unusual contrast. Fairy Tales for Clarinet, Viola and Piano by Robert Schumann, depicts the dark and mysterious atmosphere of the fairy world. Zoltán Kodály’s Duo for Violin and Cello abounds in Hungarian folk idioms but is embellished by virtuosic technical demands. Ernö Dohnányi’s Sextet, for the unconventional grouping of clarinet, horn, strings and piano, is rooted in Hungarian tradition with a little jazz influence.

This summer, the Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival will continue its popular Music for Kids concerts. The program titled “Beethoven’s Ghost” will be performed by festival musicians and young guests at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Wednesday, July 23, at Deertrees Theater (tickets:$4/$5) and at 1 p.m. Thursday, July 24, at Oxford Hills High School in Paris (tickets; $2/$4).

Tickets are available by mail: Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival, P.O. Box 544 Harrison, Maine 04040. All tickets will be held at the box office. They are also available at Books N Things in Bethel; The Cool Moose, Bridgton; Center Lovell Market, Lovell; The Country Sleigh, Naples; and Fare Share, Norway. They may also be purchased online at www.sebagomusicfestival.org or by calling 583-6747.

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