Cover story: Encore performance -- A growing corps of volunteers and a small staff perform a range of support roles to make the Music@Menlo chamber music festival happen Cover story: Encore performance -- A growing corps of volunteers and a small staff perform a range of support roles to make the Music@Menlo chamber music festival happen (July 21, 2004)

By Renee Batti
Almanac News Editor

Under the spotlight, the musicians end their performance with brilliance and brio. A storm of applause erupts, and the performers take their bows.

They've worked countless hours off stage to be able to present this gift to their Music@Menlo audience. And they've worked a lifetime to perfect their skills on the violin, the piano, the cello -- whatever happens to be their instrument of choice.

Thanks to the world-class musicians who converge on the Midpeninsula for more than two weeks to perform and teach at the Atherton-based chamber music festival, Music@Menlo is widely viewed as a musical success after only one full season.

But like most grand enterprises, what ends up before the public's eye is only a small part of the picture. Behind the scenes of the well-attended performances, the open master classes and the widely praised Encounter lectures, a corps of volunteers performs a range of tasks that, though not important to the staging of a single concert, are critical if a music festival is to succeed.

From opening their homes to guest artists and hosting meals and receptions for musicians and students, to ushering at concerts or staffing the festival's "Welcome Center," "volunteers are a gift," says Suzanne Field, Music@Menlo's managing director.

But volunteers' efforts go beyond having a physical presence at events or providing temporary lodging during the festival season. Many of them also work throughout the year to help raise money for the festival, which is largely funded through private donations. And many also are significant financial contributors.

"We simply could not do Music@Menlo without the community support," Ms. Field states.

Ms. Field, her small staff and 16 interns, and the scores of volunteers who support the festival are preparing to launch the second annual Music@Menlo festival. This year's event runs from July 29 through August 15.

Origins

When pianist Wu Han and cellist David Finckel began scouting for a site to stage a chamber music festival in Silicon Valley several years ago, they found themselves drawn to the Midpeninsula.

A married couple with a small daughter, they had connections to the area -- she had a sister living in Hillsborough and he had been performing with the Emerson String Quartet at least once a year with the Stanford Lively Arts series.

The scouting eventually led to Jack Phillips, a retired high school English teacher whose Atherton home is near Menlo School. Through the years, Mr. Phillips had met a number of musicians by opening up his guest house to those who perform in the area.

After learning about the effort to find a site for the festival of concerts and student education, Mr. Phillips turned his thoughts to Menlo School's stately Stent Hall, formerly Douglass Hall. In an interview with the Almanac in 2002, Mr. Phillips said he approached the school's headmaster, Norman Colb, about the possibility of opening the mansion to the chamber music concerts, and credited Mr. Colb's vision and support for the successful match between festival and performance venue.

Support from the Menlo School community for the planned festival grew quickly, with the president of the school's board, Eff Martin, getting behind the idea.

Atherton resident Hugh Martin, who has two children at Menlo School, became involved with the music festival effort when he attended a "rally and demonstration to drum up support," hosted by Eff Martin (no relation).

Hugh Martin, who now calls himself "a shameless promoter" of the festival, sits on the Music@Menlo board of directors and envisions a festival five years from now with its own performing arts hall "designed from the ground up to facilitate chamber music."

Both Mr. Martin and Mr. Colb emphasize the educational value of the festival. Calling the collaboration between the festival and Menlo School an "electrifying affiliation," Mr. Colb says, "It's such an honor for the school to be affiliated with an education project of such scope and vision." The scope includes not only the training of young musicians but enriching the adult community as well.

He has strong praise for the festival's Encounter series -- "lectures full of delectable nuggets" about the music to be performed during the festival.

Hugh Martin sees the festival as an opportunity to raise awareness and appreciation of classical music, and envisions a possible collaboration with local schools. "I'm really excited by the synergies that can exist," he says.

Welcoming homes

With an extended performance schedule comes the need for the performers to find a pillow for the night, and area homeowners who have opened their doors to the approximately 30 visiting musicians have filled an important need, says Ms. Field, the managing director.

Among them are Mark and Anne Flegel of Atherton and Boris and Marilyn Wolper of Woodside.

The Flegels got involved when friends who were already supporters of the festival asked if they could provide housing during the 2003 festival. They became so fond of the couple -- harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper and soprano Josephine Mongiardo -- who stayed with them last year that they asked them to return.

"We can't wait to see them again," says Ms. Flegel. "We made a couple of friends."

In addition to housing Mr. Cooper and Ms. Mongiardo this year, the Flegels will also host a post-production dinner for the musicians, and will continue to attend concerts. "It's really fun to experience it -- to get caught up in it," Mr. Flegel says of the festival. "And the music is wonderful."

The Wolpers didn't have to adjust to new circumstances to house violinist Philip Setzer during the time he performed at Music@Menlo last year. That's because they'd been putting him up for some 25 years, when he would come to town with the Emerson String Quartet to perform with Stanford Lively Arts.

The Woodside couple had been supporters of the Lively Arts series for some time when they were first asked if they would be willing to take in a musician. At first Ms. Wolper was reluctant, she admits, but her husband talked her into it.

"He's become a son," she now says, and Mr. Wolper nods in agreement.

In fact, the couple has welcomed the entire quartet into their home to rehearse in a wide-open room with a sweeping view that Mr. Setzer found to have great acoustics.

The Wolpers, like the Flegels, are now big supporters of the music festival. Although Boris Wolper has appreciated classical music for years, Ms. Wolper says she has "come to appreciate it" over time.

Mr. Wolper praises the founders' vision and their commitment to increasing the public's awareness of music, and cites the AudioNotes -- compact discs that are sent out with concert tickets that serve as detailed program notes -- as an important component of the music programs.

Founders David Finckel and Wu Han "have done a magical thing with this festival," adds Ms. Wolper.

A natural fit

Jane Fowler Wyman decided to become involved with two volunteer projects after retiring. But, she says, "I didn't want to do something (that involved) fashion shows."

The Project Read adult literacy program was a natural for the former English professor. And when she caught wind of the soon-to-be-launched Music@Menlo festival, she jumped at the opportunity. A former volunteer with the Ojai Music Festival when she lived in that area, she was eager to become involved with the new chamber music enterprise.

Her role in this year's festival will be much as it was last year, when she staffed the festival's Welcome Center on the Menlo School campus every morning, co-hosted meals and receptions and helped with other tasks.

Much like Hugh Martin, Ms. Wyman also has become an enthusiastic promoter of the festival, recruiting her friends and acquaintances as volunteers and spreading the word about the program's benefit to the community. The festival, she says, "brings so much pleasure and so many enriching things to the community."

She attends all the concerts and encounters, and emphasizes that "you don't have to be a blue-haired lady with pearls" to enjoy the music. "It's important that it not be seen as elitist," she says. "It's about fun and joy."

A new community

Ms. Wyman echoes many other festival supporters in her praise for founders Finckel and Wu Han, and notes that their vision for creating a successful chamber music festival wisely included attracting strong community support.

And from the coming together of so many community members working in behalf of Music@Menlo, a new community has blossomed, Ms. Wyman says.

Managing director Suzanne Field agrees, noting that after only one year of existence, the festival "already feels like a family reunion" this year.

The festival attracted about 80 volunteers last year -- a figure that has surpassed 100 this year. Those supporters, Ms. Field says, "are the ambassadors in the community."

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