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Summer Festival Preview: Festival Amadeus

Summer music festivals, those great opportunities to experience favorite sounds and hear new potential favorites in relaxed settings and frequently outdoors, were an early casualty of the COVID pandemic. In 2020 performances were few and almost entirely virtual. 2021, however, is a year of resurrection and rebirth for these events that are an essential part of the art music world’s chemistry.

This is a two-part preview of regional programs: the Flathead Valley’s Festival Amadeus, and, along the Clark Fork River, the Montana Baroque Music Festival. We begin

The Fry Street String Quartet

with Festival Amadeus, planned and led by its founding artistic director, John Zoltek. Performances begin Tuesday, August 3rd and continue through Sunday the 8th and are offered at venues in Whitefish, Kallispel, and Bigfork. Participating musicians, this year including featured soloists, are from the Glacier Symphony Orchestra, joined by guest players from around the region.

After more than 25 years of teaching music, theater and English in San Francisco schools, Jim relocated to Spokane in 1995 to become organist/music director for St. Augustine Parish on the South Hill. Since around 2004, with the help and patience of Verne Windham, he has been able to realize his long-standing dream of doing radio. Jim specializes in classical music, but also can do the occasional jazz show. Jim and his wife, Carol, fill their free time caring for llamas, rabbits and chickens after having watched their two children grow up and leave the nest.