The festival concludes this week with three varied concerts. Performers include violinists Yura Lee and Jack Liebeck clarinetist Anthony McGill
The dynamic violinist Simone Porter, a rising chamber-music star, is between two worlds. Or, better put, between two age groups.
Before starting rehearsals at La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest last week, she spent a few days with the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra. An alumna, she performed and taught masterclasses.
“It’s interesting,” said Porter, 27, speaking from Seattle, where she started learning to play the violin at age 3. “In some places, like at the summer festivals, I feel like a baby in many aspects of my life. And then this week, working with the high school students, I was like: ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m an authority figure!’ I have to check myself.”
SummerFest 2024 caps off its four well-attended weeks of celebrating chamber music with concerts at Baker-Baum Concert Hall Wednesday, Friday and a sold-out finale concert on Saturday. Porter was also the featured soloist at last night’s “California Dreamin’” SummerFest concert and she will perform as an ensemble member on Wednesday and Friday.
When she was 12, Porter started commuting between Seattle and Los Angeles’ USC Colburn School of Music. At 15, she moved into the dorms there to attend full-time.
Now a successful touring soloist, the New York-based violinist is eager to return to La Jolla.
“My two weeks at SummerFest are like a true dream come true,” Porter said. “So many friends will be there, and people who I’ve looked up to and admired on the stage. I’ll be appreciating, learning — and trying not to be agape the whole time!
“SummerFest is a magnet for such incredible people.”
Moment in the sun
On Wednesday, the festival will shine a light on some of those people. Several musicians will be featured in videos produced by filmmaker Tristan Cook. The videos will put the spotlight on the players.
It fits nicely into SummerFest 2024’s theme: “Inside Stories,” said Inon Barnatan, music director of the festival.
Wednesday’s concert, “Instrumental Stories,” will begin with Bartok’s Contrasts, features violinist Yura Lee, pianist Gilles Vonsattel and acclaimed clarinetist Anthony McGill.
“We’ll find out more about the instrumentalists and their instruments, So, we’ll learn a little bit more about Anthony,” Barnatan said. “The piece that he’s going to play was written by Bartok for another famous clarinetist, Benny Goodman.”
Next up will be a work by San Clemente-born, Massachusetts-based composer Michi Wiancko. Written in 2018, “Lullaby for the Transient” tells the tale of a mother and son searching for a resting place.
“I love playing music by living composers,” said Porter, who will be performing with McGill, cellist Paul Wiancko (the composer’s brother), and others. “It’s like you’re meeting a new person for the first time. You have to just look, make eye contact and figure out what it’s all about.”
The Wednesday concert will close with Brahms’ String Sextet in B-flat major. You might think someone could get lost in the shuffle with this configuration of two violinists, two violists and two cellists. But the chances of that are slim.
“Sextets are almost symphonic in their textures, but they’re small enough that every player has a unique voice,” Barnatan said. “Each player gets their moment in the sun. You can enjoy the timbre of the individual instruments as well as the whole.”
Beautifully evocative
Barnatan describes Friday’s concert, “The Road to Victory,” as a story of conflict and resolution. The first work, Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 11, Op 95, subtitled “Serioso,” was written during a difficult personal period for the composer. He was further upset by Napoleon’s invasion of Vienna, where Beethoven was living.
The piece, known for its extremes of violence, chaos and irony, will feature violinists Lee and Porter.
“This will be my first time performing ‘Serioso,’” Porter admitted. “It’s obviously a pillar of the quartet repertoire. The opportunity to play it with these artists, in this context, is certainly a privilege.”
Friday’s second piece, written during World War I, is British composer and pacifist Frank Bridge’s Cello Sonata, H 125.
“It’s one of the most beautifully evocative pieces from that period,” Barnatan said. “It was when British composers were reacting to the war and its horrors, but also to the emotional impact of the war and the hope that comes out of it.”
Barnatan’s gift for curating is especially evident in “The Road to Victory,” which will close with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s clarinet quartet, featuring McGill.
Coleridge-Taylor was a British composer and conductor of mixed-race descent. He was successful in his home country and did three popular tours in the U.S. during the early 1900s.
“War looms large over the first two pieces of this concert, but the Coleridge-Taylor work is a different kind of victory,” Barnatan explained. “It’s the victory over societal wars and conflicts. An Afro-British composer managed to gain recognition and write incredible music at a time when that was not common.”
Due to an unforeseen scheduling conflict, violinist James Ehnes has withdrawn from performing in the last three SummerFest 2024 concerts, including the sold-out Saturday night finale. Jack Liebeck will replace him as the soloist in Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending.
Another equally visible change at SummerFest is Simone Porter’s hair. Blonde in all the event’s brochures and on the festival’s website, she is now brunette.
“I needed to stop catfishing and show my natural color,” Porter said with a laugh. “I haven’t had photos taken for two years and now I’m back to brunette. I have so much fun with hair and outfits. Maybe it’s related to being a performer — or maybe it’s the same instinct that led me to being a performer!”
2024 SummerFest finale week
Midweek Masterworks: Instrumental Stories
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday
Tickets: $38-$85
The Road to Victory
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday
Tickets: $48-$90
Finale: A Song and Dance
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Tickets: Sold out
Each concert will feature a Prelude interview or performance an hour before
Where: Baker-Baum Concert Hall, Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, 7600 Fay Avenue, La Jolla.
Phone: (858) 459-3728
Online: theconrad.org