Bar Harbor Music Festival's distant cousin/supporter in New York City
NEW YORK CITY, April 20, 2025 - First, it’s about the music and the talented musicians who are the vessels for such extraordinary audible experiences. That would be violinist Eric Wyrick and his fellow chamber players who filled the room at the Kosciuszko Foundation townhouse at 15 East 65th Street on April 16.
They opened the evening with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, which I never had heard before played live. Most people are familiar with the 15-second elevator version. But the “winter” season truly accentuated the strings and challenged the ensemble.
The acoustics in the wood-paneled second floor parlor allowed for clear delineation of the lower strings and both violins.
Some of same musicians will be performing this summer at the 59th season of the Bar Harbor Music Festival.
Here’s the thing: Many of the benefactors who came to the performance had never been to Bar Harbor.
At dinner I sat at the same table as Barbara Myers, one of the foundational supporters of the “Fortier Legacy Club,” where you may donate money from your estate for the festival.
How many times had Barbara Myers been to Bar Harbor? Zero.
But she knew a young violin virtuoso named Francis Fortier, who in 1967 accepted the challenge to re-create a summer music festival in Bar Harbor which started with violinist Fritz Kreisler in the 1920s, with the help of George Dorr and the Vanderbilts, until the fire of 1947.
Bar Harbor needed two decades to recover but when it did, classical music returned as mainstay of summers on Mount Desert.
His friends and loyal patrons in New York City played an important role.
(Imagine today, some private equity henchman grinding a donor request through a blender chewing up NDAs, business plans and five-year payback schedules?)
Fortier’s talent and promise, along with his wife Deborah’s steadfast loyalty, sustained the modern festival for almost 60 years. He would take risks, bank-rolled each season with his own paycheck and wooed donors. But he always made sure the musicians were paid a fair wage, some said.
In 2023, at failing health, Fortier turned the reins over to flutist Allison Kiger, who envisioned someday operating such a non-profit but it came a few years earlier than expected. Fortier died on March 23, 2024 in New York City.
Kiger reported at the April 16 event that the festival is on sound financial footing but still relied on the largesse of donors like Allison Sullen, whom she called called out for her recent rescue of the Criterion Theater in Bar Harbor, along with her husband Stephen Sullens.
The evening ended with Mozart’s Piano Concerto 21 with Chris Johnson at the piano. Allison Kiger, festival president, played the flute.
Here is the tentative schedule for 2025. The QSJ will update it throughout the season.
July 3rd Tea Concert at La Rochelle Flute and Guitar
July 4th Bar Harbor Town Parade
July 5th Popover Concert and Evening Recital Christopher Johnson, piano
July 7th Opera Preview Lecture-Concert with Mt. Desert Chamber
July 8th Director’s Dinner at Havana 6PM for top donors and hosts
July 9th Omar Najmi, Tenor Recital
July 10th Isaac Bray sings Rossini with the Bar Harbor Town Band
July 12th Jazz Club Night 7:30PM at Neighborhood House with Mt. Desert Chamber
July 15-16 “Elixir of Love” full opera
July 19th Janey and Friends Chamber Music
July 23rd Popover Concert and Evening Recital Vadim Serebryany, piano
July 26th FREE Jesup Library concert Skip La Plante
July 30th Wyrick String Trio Popover Concert and Evening Recital
August 1st Acadia Dance Festival with live music from the BHMF
August 3rd Festival Orchestra at Monteux, Pyotr Akulov, piano
August 4th Festival Orchestra Bar Harbor Concert
August 6th Popover Concert and Evening Recital, Pyotr Akulov, piano
August 7th FREE concert, Sorrento, Maine Flute and Guitar
August 13th Popover Concert and Evening Recital, Audrey Goodner, violin
August 16th Tristan Piano Trio
August 20th New Composers Concert
August 22nd Organ Recital St. Saviour’s Peter Adamczyk
August 31st Popover Concert and Evening Recital, Christopher Johnson, piano
October 12th Chamber Music Concert
Plus…3 FREE concerts on Great Cranberry Island thanks to Ned Swain and Devenish Wines, 3 FREE concerts at Birch Bay Retirement Center, 3 FREE Young Audience Concerts, 3 Public school visits, at no charge to the schools, and everything FREE to 21 and under thanks to the Thirsty Whale in Bar Harbor.
P.P.S. Give smarter and avoid taxes by giving from your IRA. Call your account advisor to make a direct transter to: Bar Harbor Festival Corporation, 311 W 97thSt, #4B New York, NY 10025, Tax ID #132590315