Caroga Lake Music Festival

 

Presented by Caroga Arts Collective, Caroga Lake Music Festival is a five-week summer music festival in the Adirondacks offering a series of free performances and community outreach programs in the upstate New York region and beyond. Attracting thousands of audiences locally and nationwide, Caroga Lake Music Festival is dedicated to increasing accessibility to chamber music, cultivating creative and interactive experiences and showcasing some of the world’s top professional artists from the U.S. and abroad.

The multi-genre programming makes this festival unique and exciting; from classical music to contemporary music and from small ensembles to orchestras. The festival features well-established young instrumentalists as well as vocalists from opera backgrounds to singer-song writers.

Caroga Lake Music Festival produces four popular series; Sherman’s Revival Series, Caroga Chapel Series, Encore! Jazz Sessions at Nick Stoner Inn and The Barge at Canada Lake Marine. Most notable performers on these series include Chris Jamison (finalist on NBC’s The Voice), Mike Block (cellist from Silk Road Ensemble), David Cook (Music Director for Taylor Swift), Jason Anick (Professor at Berklee College of Music), J-Music Ensemble, Geoff Saunders (bassist from O’Connor Band)Alyson Stoner (singer and dancer from film Step Up) and Cara Samantha (from American Idol).

The festival  has performed in prestigious venues such as St. John Divine Cathedral (NYC), Saratoga Performing Arts Center and PROCTORS Theatre. In addition, the musicians engage the community through performing at non-traditional concert venues such as the Sherman’s Amusement Park, The Barge at Canada Lake Marine, Nick Stoner Inn, Timberlane Blueberry Farm, Pavilion at the Concordia Club and Mettabee Farm among others. The festival has been presented by  L.L. Bean, PROCTORS, Sacandaga Valley Arts Network (SVAN) and Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts, and has also performed pre-concerts for Yo-Yo Ma, Grammy Award winning O’Conor Band, Keith Lockhart, David Finckel, Wu Han and The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Caroga Lake Music Festival also serves teaching residencies at Paul Nigra Center for the Arts and Fulton Montgomery Community College Summer Academy program. Students have the opportunity to learn and play with the festival musicians, and perform a finale concert together on its campuses.

 

Founder & Artistic Director

 

Kyle Barrett Price, Artistic Director and Founder of the Caroga Lake Music Festival, was named winner in the 2015 Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition, winner of the Coltman Chamber Music Competition with KASA Quartet, and finalist in the 2015 G. Gershwin International Music Competition. A medalist in the Saint Paul String Quartet Competition, Kyle was featured on NPR’s From the Top! radio show and has recorded with artist Alyson Stoner. Kyle has also received acclaim for his composition Requiem in memory of his aunt, cellist Constance E. Barrett and his work, Serenade, premiered by the Calidore String Quartet and the Chamber Music Connection. Kyle completed his Master of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Bachelor of Music at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Cellist and founder of the KASA Quartet, he currently serves as principal cellist of Lacrosse Symphony while pursuing a Doctorate of Music under the mentorship of Uri Vardi and as Madison Symphony’s graduate Hunt Quartet fellow.

Kyle founded the Caroga Lake Music Festival in 2012 at the age of 19 and has developed the festival into a noteworthy national music festival bringing in over seventy highly accomplished artists hailing from the U.S. and abroad. Kyle, who grew up in Worthington, Ohio, has vacationed with his family in Caroga Lake at his Grandmother’s lake house (Joyce Barrett) since the young age.  He often mentioned the idea of creating a chamber music festival in the area. This idea became a reality in the summer of 2012 when he invited some friends to stay at his grandma’s house and play chamber music.

Artistic Administration

 

Deborah Barrett Price, Assistant to the Executive Director

Violist Deborah Barrett Price is recognized throughout the country as an innovative pedagogue and versatile performer. She is the founder and artistic director of the Chamber Music Connection, Inc. (CMC), a nationally recognized program providing education, service and performance opportunities to students of all ages and skill levels.

In recognition of her work as a chamber music entrepreneur, pedagogue, and performer, Debbie has received numerous awards, including the Alumni Achievement Award from Baldwin Wallace Conservatory and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra Community Educator of the Year, in addition to receiving commendations from both the Ohio State Senate and the House of Representatives. She has also received multiple nominations for the Ohio Governor’s Award for Arts Education and Arts Administration.
A respected performer, Debbie currently serves as principal violist of the Opera Project Columbus and the McConnell Arts Center Chamber Orchestra. In the summers, she is an artist-in-residence at the Caroga Lake Music Festival (NY) and serves on the faculty of several summer festivals. As a chamber musician, she has performed with members of the Hausmann, Cavani, KASA, and Claremont, and with numerous artists in faculty collaborations. She has directed and performed in festivals throughout Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and Czech Republic including performances at Santa Cecelia in Rome and the Beethoven Festival in Prague. For over a decade, she served as the co-conductor of the Cleveland Institute of Music Youth Camerata Strings and as the music director of the Women-In-Music String Sinfonia. Debbie is an advocate of new music and has debuted several new works as part of the Denison Tutti Festivals, commissioned several chamber music works, and served as principal violist for Tom Vignieri’s There will Come Soft Rains, recorded in Boston’s Symphony Hall.
Debbie serves on the faculty of Denison University, the Columbus Suzuki Institute, and ASTA/OSU Midwest String Teachers Conference. She is a Yamaha Certified String Educator Clinician, a frequent guest artist for chamber music and orchestra festivals, and has given numerous presentations at music schools and national conferences. Articles highlighting her unique teaching style are published in American Music Teacher, Journal of American Viola Society, Keyboard Companion Magazine, American String Teacher, and Chamber Music America.

 

Stephanie Price-Wong, Production Assistant

Stephanie Price-Wong grew up in a musical and arts administrative family that instilled and nurtured her passion in the art, performance, and education of chamber music. She is currently the Assistant Artistic Director and Fellowship Program Director of the Chamber Music Connection based in Worthington, Ohio. Stephanie also has a private studio in Columbus and is the Adjunct Viola Professor at Ohio University.

As a violist, she has performed recitals in the United States and Europe, notably at the Kennedy Center, Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome, and on National Public Radio’s From the Top! series. Stephanie has been a performing artist at the Caroga Lake Music Festival since it’s founding in 2012 and went to Switzerland with CLMF. Her diverse performing styles have resulted in collaborations with world-renowned artists including the Cavani Quartet, Jeffrey Irvine, Peter Salaff, Michael Tree, and percussionist Jamey Haddad. Stephanie is currently the founding violist in the KASA Quartet.

Stephanie received a Master of Music from the Eastman School of Music with a certificate in Arts Leadership. In 2012, she graduated with a Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music where she was the recipient of the Alumni Jim Hall Graduate Studies Scholarship.

History

 

Inspired by the serene, beautiful area and inviting community, each of the Caroga Lake Music Festival (CLMF) artists is dedicated to presenting chamber music in this relaxed, naturally intimate backdrop of the Adirondacks.

As the best kept secret in Upstate NY, our artists come to the little town of Caroga Lake, NY from across the world. These artists hail from top performance groups and have attended premiere music conservatories including the Juilliard School, Curtis Institute of Music, Yale School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, New England Conservatory, Eastman School of Music among many others. Caroga Lake Music Festival artists have won various prizes at international solo and chamber music competitions and regularly appear in notable media programs.