Musicians take a break from baroque

Baroque music is centuries old, but the following for the yearly Montana Baroque Festival at Quinn's Hot Springs Resort is nothing new either, as more than 460 people flocked in from Montana and across the country to hear the musicians play last week at the 16th Annual Montana Baroque Music Festival at Quinn's Hot Springs Resort.  

Adam LaMotte, the festival's artistic director, said he recognizes about half of the people at the festivals each year and calls them "baroque groupies." Organizers said there were people from throughout Montana, Oregon, Idaho and Canada. Hans and Marianna Melief traveled from South Carolina for the event. Sandee McLaughlin and Lynn Poitras, both of Missoula, have missed the festival only one year. And Richard and Beverly North of Portland, Oregon, have attended the festival all 16 years. "We wouldn't miss it. The music is wonderful and they play so well," said Beverly.

Most of the audience this year was from outside Sanders County. On Tuesday, the first of three days of the festival, there were only five of 133 people from Sanders County, said Carol Brooker, who volunteers to help each year. The event had been sponsored by the nonprofit organization, the Clark Fork Enrichment Corporation and Quinn's Hot Springs Resort was a partner in the event, providing free rooms for the performers, but this year it was completely turned over to Quinn's. Jean Morrison, who started the baroque partnership with Quinn's, stepped down as president of the Clark Fork Enrichment Corporation last year, but before she did she wanted to turn the baroque over to Quinn's to ensure it would continue. 

Morrison said the Clark Fork Enrichment Corporation will continue to sponsor the Montana Repertory Theatre, the Piatgorsky Foundation, the Baroque Music Foundation, and will pay for subscriptions of the Christian Science Monitor for the Plains school and public libraries for the next four years.

Denise Moreth, the festival's executive director, said attendance was down slightly, but Quinn's is committed to continuing the baroque tradition. "People love it. They make plans for the next year while they're here," said Moreth, also the general manager for Quinn's.

This year's program for "Baroque and Beyond" was also different in that only Tuesday's concert, "Baroque Masters," was true baroque period music, which went from 1600-1750, and with pieces from seven baroque composers from Germany, Italy and France. Wednesday's concert, entitled "Mozart for Andre" was done in memory of the late Andre Melief, who owned Quinn's and loved the work of Wolfgang Mozart.

Thursday's session was called "Faux Baroque," meaning fake or imitation baroque. "They're new compositions, but in the style of baroque," said Janet Coleman, LaMotte's wife, who played the organ for two pieces Thursday. "It's a loophole so I could play," she added. LaMotte composed two of Thursday's pieces.

LaMotte said they try to play different baroque music each year, but there are pieces they've done before at Quinn's. Normally, he gets a list of potential numbers from violinist Monica Huggett, originally from Great Britain, and flautist Matthias Maute of Germany, both world renown musicians, and runs the pieces by the rest of the musicians.

All of the Montana Baroque Music Festival musicians rehearsed for about six hours on Monday for the Tuesday performance and practiced each day for the following day's performance. "It's great to get together once a year and scramble together some music. It's a family reunion for us," said LaMotte, who started a violin business four years ago in Portland and sometimes plays with a violin that was made around 1800. He and Huggett are the only two who have played at the festival all 16 years.

The group also included: Joanna Blendulf on the cello, violinists Victoria Gunn and Carrie Krause, bassist Curtis Daily, and flautist Sophie Lariviere, wife of Matthias. Krause is the only member from Montana. The Bozeman resident uses a violin made in 1720, during the baroque period. 

This year, the 66-year-old Huggett, co-founder of the festival, had to go to a large electronic monitor to read the music, due to macular degeneration. Huggett started playing the violin at age 6 and has performed in every European nation, as well as countries in Africa and Asia. She taught at The Juilliard School in New York City and is the artistic director at the Portland Baroque Orchestra. She plans to retire from the Portland orchestra in two years, but hopes to continue with the Montana Baroque Music Festival, which she calls "Carnegie Hall of the West."