Christian Reif and Lakes Area Music Festival announce 2024 season
LAKES AREA MUSIC FESTIVAL’S 16th SEASON CELEBRATES THE HERO’S JOURNEY
Today, the Lakes Area Music Festival (LAMF) in Brainerd, Minnesota, announces its 16th season: HEROIC JOURNEYS, bringing more than 200 artists from top orchestra companies and opera companies around the world to the central Minnesota region. Grammy-winning Music Director Christian Reif and the LAMF musicians perform chamber music, orchestra, and opera – as well as various community outreach activities impacting the local community. Programming throughout the 2024 festival will explore the emotional journeys of heroes of all kinds, from Olympic athletes to comicbook and television superheroes, literature’s greatest protagonists, underdogs and the unlikely heroes we encounter each day, plus, of course, classical musical legends from now and throughout history.
SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
Highlights of the 2024 season, which runs from July 26 through August 18, 2024, include a season opening weekend that features an Olympic-inspired gala and LAMF’s largest musical collaboration yet: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with full orchestra, four vocal soloists, and a choir comprising the Brainerd High School A Cappella Choir, the Legacy Chorale of Greater Minnesota, and the acclaimed Minneapolis-based VocalEssence Ensemble Singers.
Recent Grammy Award-winning vocalist Julia Bullock also returns to LAMF to present a solo recital to celebrate her new album and upcoming Metropolitan Opera debut. Artistic Advisor and violinist Chloe Fedor leads a baroque chamber music program titled Storms, Shipwrecks & Sorcery, and virtuoso violinist Stefan Jackiw makes his LAMF debut in a chamber orchestra concert including Dvořák’s Violin Concerto and Mozart’s “Prague” Symphony, plus a new work sharing stories of survivors of human trafficking, written by American composer Leanna Primiani.
This season’s fully-staged opera is Igor Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, directed by award-winning contemporary stage director Omer Ben Seadia and featuring soprano Kearstin Piper Brown, tenor Miles Mykannen, bass baritone John Taylor Ward, and contralto Sara Couden.
The LAMF Orchestra also presents a superhero-themed Family Concert featuring Russell Peck’s The Thrill of the Orchestra, which introduces audience members of all ages to the sections of the orchestra.
The 2024 season closes with an epic hero’s tale in Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life), along with the U.S. premiere of Aurora, a work inspired by the Roman Goddess of dawn, by Danish American composer Lil Lacy.
NEW IMMERSIVE PACKAGES
New this season are two special immersive musical experiences for audience members: The Composer Fellowship Experience and The Opera Lover’s Package.
The LAMF Composer Fellowship Program will bring three of today's most talented composers–Hannah Ishizaki, Sage Shurman, and Liza Sobel Crane–to Brainerd for a week of workshops and performances. On Saturday, August 3, anyone in the community is invited to a free concert of three string quartet world premieres, performed by the Thalea Quartet, LAMF’s Resident Artist Quartet. On the same day, the LAMF Orchestra will hold a reading session of music currently in progress by this year’s Composer Fellows.
In partnership with Ruttger’s Bay Lake Resort, the all-new Opera Lover’s Weekend (August 9-11) is a unique opportunity to be immersed in world-class music while enjoying the beauty of the north woods. Culminating in a new production of Stravinsky’s rarely performed masterpiece, The Rake’s Progress, the 2024 Opera Lover’s Weekend will provide guests with education, enrichment, and amazing performances, featuring GRAMMY winners, artists from the Metropolitan Opera, and recipients of the MacArthur “Genius Grant.” Additional opportunities include pre-event online lectures, an opening reception and backstage tour, exclusive meet and greet with Julia Bullock and hearing her in an intimate performance, attending the opera at Gichi-ziibi Center as well as the cast party. Opera Lover’s Packages are available with or without housing at the Ruttger’s Bay Lake Resort.
TICKETS
LAMF uses a name-your-price ticket model to ensure equal access to all who are interested, regardless of financial means. Tickets for the 2024 season events will be available starting in May.
ABOUT LAMF
Since it began as a small summer chamber music series in 2009, LAMF’s programming has expanded year to year, now offering a packed three week calendar of musical activities for a wide and diversifying audience. Each season, performances range from chamber music to symphonic orchestra to opera and ballet. In addition, educational opportunities are offered for audiences of all ages – including a week-long day camp for children, performance-based opportunities for youth, open rehearsals, pre-concert lectures, and more. LAMF furthers its reach into the community through its Outreach initiative–bringing classical music into area public libraries, eldercare facilities, correctional facilities, women’s shelters and more.
Click here to see a full list of performances.