MARLBORO — Artistic Director Mitsuko Uchida was one of 80 international artists who arrived over the weekend at the hilltop campus of Marlboro College for the 67th season of Marlboro Music, the storied retreat where master artists and exceptional young professionals explore music together with the rare opportunity of unlimited rehearsal time.
Uchida, who chooses to live on-campus in a dormitory apartment, was among the “senior” artists at the opening dinner on June 25, greeting young musicians returning for their second or third year (there is a three-year limit), as well as the 20-plus artists attending Marlboro for the first time.
The “participants,” as everyone is referred to at Marlboro, will spend seven weeks exploring and exchanging ideas on the approximately 250 works that the musicians themselves have proposed to study.
Some 18 of the participating artists will also have the opportunity of receiving insights from Resident Composer Brett Dean on five or six of his works that they will explore.
Marlboro's first week schedule includes 65 works involving a wide variety of instrumental and vocal combinations.
At a retreat where the mission is to delve into music in great depth, rather than to focus on performance, less than 25 percent of the works rehearsed are presented in the weekend concerts. Programs are decided only a week in advance and are drawn from those works that the musicians feel have gone especially well and should be shared with others.
Performances will be given on Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 2:30 p.m., between July 15 through Aug. 13. There will be two special concerts on Fridays, July 28 and Aug. 11, at 8 p.m. Further information and tickets may be obtained at www.marlboromusic.org or by calling 802-254-2394.
A list of the 2017 participating artists is available on the website with many of the “seniors,” like Uchida, being musicians who first spent formative summers in Vermont at the beginning of their careers and have returned to share their Marlboro and personal musical experiences with new generations.
They include pianists Jonathan Biss, Cynthia Raim and Anna Polonsky; members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Orion, Mendelssohn, Cherubini, Pro Arte, St. Lawrence Quartets and the New York Woodwind Quintet; and principal wind players from the Met Opera, Royal Concertgebouw, San Francisco Symphony, to mention just a few.
Participating for their first or second season are pianists Paul Lewis and Shai Wosner and violinist Nick Eanet, a former member of the Mendelssohn and Juilliard Quartets and a concertmaster with the Metropolitan Opera.