Welcome to the 58th Season of the Bar Harbor Music Festival
“A glorious summer of music!”
Allison Kiger, Artistic Director
Francis Fortier, Founder
Tickets are on sale now. Season Brochures will be mailed soon. NEW for 2024: Discounted rear section seats and FREE tickets for all students 21 and under to most events. Season subscriptions available for $350. Call or text the Festival office to order or for ticket assistance 212 222-1026.
Francis James Fortier, III Obituary
Violinist, conductor, artistic director, fly fisherman, brother, and husband, father, grandfather, Francis J. Fortier, III passed away early Saturday morning at the age of 86. His wife of 40 years, Deborah, and his dear friend Allison were by his side.
“Maine’s Premier Music Festival” – WGBH Classical New England/Boston
Recitals • Chamber Music • Jazz • New Composers • Opera • Chamber Orchestra • Dance • Broadway • New Composers • Young Audience
Most concerts FREE to everyone age 21 and under – sponsored by the Thirsty Whale
Sunday, June 30
1pm at the Great Cranberry Island Church
FREE Young Audience Concert on Great Cranberry Island. Sponsor Ned Swain and Devenish Wines. Stories, Poems, and Music. Willie was Different by Norman Rockwell and Seymour Barab, Sail Away by Langston Hughes and Ashley Bryan, Portraits of Langston by Valerie Coleman. Allison Kiger, flute, Eric Thomas, clarinet, Christina Spurling, piano.
Isaac Bray
Monday, July 8th at 7:30PM
FREE Isaac Bray with the Bar Harbor Town Band on the Village Green featuring Rossini’s most popular aria “Largo al factotum” from the Bar Harbor of Seville (and classic cartoons!)
Isaac Bray has performed numerous opera roles and other solo engagements with musical organizations around the United States including Florida Grand Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Central City Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, Opera San Antonio, Charlottesville Opera, the Bangor Symphony, and Opera in the Pines. Notable opera roles include Marcello in La Bohème, the title role in Don Giovanni, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, John Proctor in The Crucible, Le DancaÏre in Carmen, and Sam in Trouble in Tahiti. Bray has performed solo engagements in New England with Bar Harbor Music Festival, Bagaduce Chorale, Acadia Choral Society, and Blue Hill Bach. Bray was a member of the Florida Grand Opera Young Artist Studio, the Bonfils-Stanton Apprentice Program with Central City Opera, and the apprentice artist program with Natchez Festival of Music. He is a graduate of the Boston University Opera Institute, The Boston Conservatory, and Abilene Christian University. Mr. Bray teaches on the voice faculty at the University of Maine and also serves on the board of the Maine chapter of NATS.
Veronica O’Brien
Wednesday, July 10 at 7:30PM
Pianist Veronica O’Brien (Festival debut) Music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Gershwin, and Scriabin – at St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church.
Info and Purchase
Steven Crawford
Kelly Hill
Friday, July 12 at 4PM
Oceanview Tea Concert – Kelly Hill, mezzo-soprano and Steven Crawford, piano at the Bar Harbor Historical Society. With donated tea and pastries.
Info and Purchase
Omar Najmi
Celine Mogielnicki
Kelly Hill
Isaac Bray
Tuesday, July 16 at 7:30PM
Bar Harbor Festival Opera Theatre: Sondheim Tribute Revue – Celine Mogielnicki, soprano, Kelly Hill, mezzo-soprano, Omar Najmi, tenor, Isaac Bray, baritone with Steven Crawford, piano at the College of the Atlantic.
Bar Harbor Music Festival
Licensed by special arrangement with Music Theatre Internetional
with the permission of the Estate of Stephen Sondheim
Steven Crawford
Isaac Bray
Celine Mogielnicki
Kelly Hill
Omar Najmi
Friday, July 19 at 6PM
Pre-concert reception with Steven Crawford, Former conductor, Metropolitan Opera
Friday, July 19 at 7:30PM
Best of Beloved Italian Opera, music by Rossini, Verdi, Puccini, and more – Steven Crawford pianist and former Met Opera conductor leads a program showcasing the exciting and talented young singers of the Bar Harbor Music Festival at the Neighborhood House, Northeast Harbor.
Celine Mogielnicki, soprano, Kelly Hill, mezzo-soprano, Omar Najmi, tenor, and Isaac Bray, baritone.
Wolverine Jazz Band
Christina Spurling
Sarah Joyce Cooper
Saturday, July 20 at 10:30am
FREE Young Audience Concert at Jesup Library. Sarah Joyce Cooper, soprano and Christina Spurling. Spirituals and more.
Wolverine Jazz band
Saturday, July 20 at 1pm at the Great Cranberry Island Church
FREE Young Audience Concert on Great Cranberry Island – Dance and sing along with Bob Barta, banjo and John Clark, clarinet and saxophone of the Wolverine Jazz Band.
Wolverine Jazz band
Sunday, July 21 at 7:30PM
“The Wolverine Jazz Band” brings down the house at the Criterion Theatre with jazz, swing, and Dixieland – an audience favorite for over 15 years!
Info and Purchase
Wednesday, July 24 at 7:30PM
Janey ‘n’ Friends
Janey Choi, violin with Amadi Azikiwe, viola, Kirsten Jermé, cello, and Vadim Serebryany, piano. Beethoven’s “Archduke Trio” and chamber music by Dvorak and Hailstork. St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church.
Info and Purchase
Francis Fortier
Thursday, July 25 at 1PM
Celebration of Life for Francis Fortier (1937-2024) at Kebo Valley Golf Course.
RSVP to info@barharbormusicfestival.org
Nimbus
David Rahbee
Friday, July 26 at 7:30PM
Nimbus Dance, Copland, Brahms, Liszt, and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no. 3
Chamber Orchestra with Nimbus Dance conducted by American Prize Winner and former Monteux School faculty David Alexander Rahbee. This remarkable collaboration between the Bar Harbor Music Festival and the Acadia Dance Festival features Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, conducted by David Alexander Rahbee with Candace Chien, piano, and the acclaimed Nimbus Dance in Samuel Pott’s choreographic interpretation at the Criterion Theatre in Bar Harbor.
Info and Purchase
Sarah Joyce Cooper
David Rahbee
Monday, July 29 at 6PM
“After Hours” Event with the BH Chamber of Commerce including complimentary concert tickets for Chamber attendees.
Monday, July 29++*
Sarah Joyce Cooper soprano with chamber orchestra, David Alexander Rahbee conductor – music by Mozart Exsultate Jubilate, Grieg Varen, and spirituals by Jessie Montgomery and more, plus Mozart Symphony no. 37 and Antony and Cleopatra suite by Kurt Atterberg Atterberg at the Criterion Theatre in Bar Harbor.
Tuesday, July 30++*
1pm at the Great Cranberry Island Church TBD
FREE Young Audience Concert at Great Cranberry Island, sponsored by Ned Swain and Devenish Wines. “Riches to Rags” Music for flute, violin, and cello by Scott Joplin, FJ Haydn and French-African court composer Joseph Boulogne.
Eric Wyrick
Wednesday July 31*
Eric Wyrick
Violin recital with Candace Chien, piano. Music by Beethoven, Grieg, Debussy, Coleridge-Taylor, and Fritz Kreisler. St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church.
Info and Purchase
Skip La Plante
Alighieri Duo
Diana Rodriguez
Eric Thomas
Saturday, August 3 at 7:30PM
The “Margaret Mills New Composers Concert”
“Folk elements to the fore – Bartok and his Legacy” Eric Thomas, clarinet, Nicholas Pappone, violin, Candace Chien, piano, with world premieres by Diana M. Rodriguez and Skip La Plante.
Info and Purchase
“Ideas from Maine”
Full Day Seminar by Maine Composers
FREE to the public at the College of the Atlantic, schedule and presenters TBA.
Christopher Johnson
Wednesday August 7 at 7:30PM
Christopher Johnson
Piano recital “Celebrating a Feast of Chopin and the 100th Anniversary of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue” St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church.
Info and Purchase
Maestro Jeffrey Ellenberger
Saturday, September 21 at 4PM
Millbrook Benefit
Maestro Jeffrey Ellenberger conducts the Festival String Orchestra in music of Mozart, Bach, Mendelssohn, Doppler, and Elgar.
Info and Purchase
Christopher Johnson
Allison Kiger
Sunday, October 13 at 7:30PM
Allison Kiger, flute and Christopher Johnson, piano.
Indigenous Peoples’ Weekend in Bar Harbor – Storm and Sea – Undine Sonata by Reinecke, Beethoven Pastorale Symphony Storm and Joy movements, plus works by Debussy and Takemitsu. St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church.
Info and Purchase
2024 Season On Sale
“…one of New England’s great music festivals”
— Nan Lincoln, The Bar Harbor Times
Our Promise to the Arts
Acclaimed by Phi Beta Baton as “…one of the nation’s proving grounds for gifted young artists,” the Bar Harbor Music Festival, founded by violinist Francis Fortier in 1967, has gained national recognition for its unique and pioneering work.
The Festival has made a major contribution to the music world by advancing the careers of over 2,300 aspiring instrumentalists, singers, and composers. Coupled with our “Arts and Tourism” initiatives, it has provided a vital cultural and economic service for the community and visitors from all over the world.
The Festival’s outreach programs, such as the admission-free outdoor concerts in Acadia National Park, artist-in-residence programs in American schools, colleges, and universities, as well as its Young Audience Concerts have won new audiences for classical music and fostered music education.
Its annual Summer Festival and Touring Program have reached out to audiences totaling over one million, as music lovers gravitate to this musical gem in the spectacular setting of Bar Harbor, Maine.
