The Hamptons Festival of Music Finds Its Footing in Year Three

Back in 2022, Michael Palmer and his partner, Michael Yip, came to the East End with lots of enthusiasm and a singular vision — to create a new music festival that celebrates and shares the beauty of symphonic compositions.

At the time, Maestro Palmer was winding down his professional career as a conductor in Atlanta and nearing his retirement as Georgia State University’s Director of Orchestras. The couple had bought a home in Springs in 2017 and were looking to replicate on the East End the kind of experience Palmer had created in Washington State with the Bellingham Festival of Music, which he founded in 1993.

They named their new nonprofit venture The Hamptons Festival of Music (TH·FM for short) with Palmer as the artistic director and Yip in the role of executive director. In its inaugural season in September 2022, TH·FM presented three concerts at LTV Studios in Wainscott performed by The New American Sinfonietta, a 41-member symphony made up of top musicians Palmer had recruited and assembled from major orchestras across the U.S. and beyond.

Now, TH·FM has found its footing (and an enthusiastic audience) and is gearing up to present its third annual series of mainstage concerts at LTV Studios on September 6, 10 and 14. The lineup will feature some of classical music’s most notable works, including Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella Suite,” Ginastera’s “Variaciones Concertantes,” Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” and Mozart’s “Sinfonia Concertante” for violin and viola, featuring concertmaster violinist Richard Roberts, and Richard Young, principal violist. The festival will also present two iconic works from the symphonic masterwork repertoire — Brahms’s “Serenade No. 1” and Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 8.” Another highlight will be “Bridges” by East Hampton resident and composer Victoria Bond, and baritone Thomas Dreeze will perform a set of Mahler lieder.

While ticket sales for the trio of upcoming concerts have been brisk, as anyone who lives here year-round knows, it takes time to truly understand this place. While the September concerts represent the pinnacle of TH·FM’s 2024 season, what Yip and Palmer have come to realize in their time here is the importance of building audiences beyond those who typically attend the mainstage performances.

For that reason, as Yip and Palmer explained recently during an interview in Sag Harbor, 2024 has been all about outreach.

“We spent a lot of this year building community awareness,” Yip confirmed.

That awareness has expanded TH·FM’s musical offerings to a wide ranging East End audience through programs like the Salon Series — intimate performances at venues across the region with soloists or a handful of chamber musicians, Soirées Musicales which are house concerts for “Friends of the Festival,” and Community Outreach Programs that bring the music to East Hampton schools and students of all ages.

In May of this year, the Salon Series focused on educational outreach with conductor Logan Souther and soprano Greer Lyle teaming up to perform for and interact with East Hampton students from grades preschool through high school

“We had a total 550 kids,” said Yip. “Logan and Greer did opera’s greatest hits — famous arias — for the little ones at Springs Elementary School, Project MOST and Eleanor Whitmore [Early Childhood Center].

“It was about getting the kids to participate,” he added. “They were singing along to songs about things like the cat and the mouse and doing it in an operatic voice so they could appreciate how classical music sounds.”

“It was pop opera tunes,” added Palmer. “What I think they found out was that the little ones were very responsive to what was happening. A little girl came over to Greer and wrapped her arms around her legs.”

“The kids were bowled over. Then it transcended to East Hampton high school,” Yip said, explaining that for the older students, Souther and Lyle presented a rehearsal performance of a concert they then took on the road, with members of TH·FM’s Salon Orchestra joining them for a three-day East End tour. The group presented affordable community outreach concerts at Springs Presbyterian Church, Montauk Community Church and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton Village.

“The whole idea came from the fact that we have this orchestra — a great group of people who are close by and who we can we bring in throughout the year,” Yip explained. “We can channel a few from the symphony, which is a big orchestra, and bring in 10 or so of them.

“The tour of the Hamptons was the first time we built this concert series,” Yip added. “Logan conducted 10 musicians in ensemble performances. It’s kind of a bridge, more affordable, more cost-effective and it helps build audiences. We’re meeting people here we would never have known since we don’t have brick and mortar presence.”

In addition to deepening local relationships, Yip and Palmer are finding that the East End’s bucolic nature and proximity to New York City, Boston and other coastal cities is turning out to be a major boon for TH·FM.

“The proximity to Manhattan is definitely an advantage,” Palmer confirmed. “We’re fortunate that people seem to like us and want to come back.”

Not only are the big cities of the Northeast ideal for attracting a cultured audience that appreciates symphonic music, but it also turning out to be advantageous when it comes to filling the orchestra. Just last week, one of TH·FM’s London-based violinists had to pull out of the upcoming concert series due to a family illness.

“Here we are, a week away,” said Yip. “Fortunately, the location is ideal. People are reaching out to us. Basically, this morning we said we have to fill this seat and put a call out to people and now it’s filled with a Perlman alumni.”

Fortunately, because of Palmer’s extensive experience and long career as a conductor and a creator of music festivals, getting the word out and attracting top talent is not a difficult proposition.

“We’ve established a reputation among top players all across the country,” said Palmer.

They come for the music, but being on the East Coast ups the target interest,” added Yip. “This programming we’re doing is adding to it. Our mission is to build a year-round program, not just in terms of orchestral music, but also concerts curated for locals with a smaller price point, tailored to who’s here. It’s concerts that are a little more atmospheric. It’s a lot more thought out now that we’ve figured it out and it’s exciting to be diving into it.

“We’re now more structured and locked into these offerings,” he said, adding that the efforts appear to be paying off, as close to 50 percent of ticket buyers this season are new.

“What we have to bring — that’s what we need to do to stay relevant in their minds, reach out and enhance music year round,” added Palmer. “We’re not forgoing symphonies, like Beethoven, we’re shaping things to provide greater stability.”

As the artistic director, Palmer notes that the first two years of TH FM’s mainstage programming have concentrated on the standard classical compositions of the popular composers. In terms of what audiences will see during the full symphonic concerts at LTV in the coming week, Palmer explains that it will be a bit different this time around.

“One of the things I wanted to do this year was concentrate on the standard popular composers, but with pieces people may not have heard before. The first one is Johannes Braham’s early works for orchestra.”

That piece, Brahms “Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11,” will be performed in the second half of the September 6 concert at LTV.

“It’s quite early,” Palmer explained. “He was still finding his symphonic feet. Schumann said Brahms is the follower of Beethoven. This piece is glorious.”

Palmer explains that the second TH·FM program at LTV on September 10 is an orchestral show piece that will feature the virtuosity of the orchestra as a multifaceted instrument.

“It has so many colors and sounds to utilize and emotions to be able to project,” Palmer explained. “It opens with Igor Stravinsky’s ‘Pulcinella Suite,’ one of his most famous works for a smaller orchestra. We also have Victoria Bond’s piece ‘Bridges,’ a wonderful piece with each movement a portrayal of a bridge in a different location — Brooklyn, Golden Gate, Mackinac Bridge.’”

Also on the September 10 program will be Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin, ” a piece that Logan Souther will conduct. But the piece de resistance, notes Palmer, will be “Variaciones Concertantes, Op 23” by the Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera.

“You hear the composition at the beginning and then seven variations on that, each one like a smaller concerto for a different player in the orchestra,” he explained. “It really shows off the orchestra.”

The final concert of the TH FM season on September 14 will feature concertmaster Richard Roberts on violin and principal violist Richard Young performing Mozart’s “Sinfonia Concertante” for violin and viola.

“It’s Mozart’s double concerto, a beautiful, gorgeous piece,” said Palmer, who, as a child growing up in Indiana, saw it performed by violist William Primrose and violinist Jascha Heifetz who were touring it around the country at the time.

“We’re opening that concert with Samuel Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings’ and closing with Beethoven’s 8th Symphony, which has all the energy and vitality of Beethoven on steroids,” Palmer said. “By the time he wrote it, he’d gotten older and gotten to know himself better as a composer. The 8th was written 10 years before the 9th Symphony. The first time I did the piece, the concert master of the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra said, ‘Please, not too fast.’”

“Our final concerts have been Beethoven for two years, and Maestro is an interpreter of Beethoven, it’s true to the score,” explained Yip. “You feel the crescendo with the audience. They leap up and feel the energy.”

Palmer admits that it can often be a love/hate thing with Beethoven. He recalls that the first time he conducted the composer’s Missa Solemnis, which is considered the most difficult choral orchestral work in existence, he felt like the piece wasn’t coming together.

“After the fifth or sixth rehearsal, it felt like the brakes were on. The chorus was deflated,” said Palmer, who was the music director of Wichita Symphony Orchestra at the time and turned to conductor Robert Shaw, his mentor at Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, to ask what gives.

“I called Robert and I said, ‘What’s going on?,’” Palmer recalled. “He said, ‘Michael, don’t worry about it. They’re not mad at you. They’re mad at Beethoven.’”

Tickets and VIP passes for TH·FM’s 2024 concert season are available at thehamptonsfestivalofmusic.com and ltveh.org. LTV Studios is at 75 Industrial Road in Wainscott.

The Hamptons Festival of Music Schedule

Friday, September 6 – 8 p.m.

TH FM 2024 Festival Opening Concert: Beethoven “Egmont Overture”; Mahler selected lieder from “Des Knaben Wunderhorn” and “Rückert Lieder” with Thomas Dreeze, baritone; Brahms “Serenade #1 in D Major.”

Tuesday, September 10 – 6 p.m.

TH FM 2024 Festival Concert #2: Victoria Bond “Bridges”; Stravinsky “Pulcinella Suite”; Ravel “Le Tombeau de Couperin”; Ginastera “Variaciones Concertantes.”

Saturday, September 14 – 8 p.m.

TH FM 2024 Festival Finale Concert: Barber “Adagio for Strings”; Mozart “Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat for violin and viola” with Richard Roberts, concertmaster and Richard Young, principal viola; Beethoven “Symphony #8.”