LONE WOLF - Executive Director David Palmer and the Quartz Mountain Music Festival Board of Directors plan two concerts by professional musicians from across the nation as an introduction to an exciting new regional event which will eventually be on the scale of Massachusetts' Tanglewood Music Festival.

This pilot festival weekend is scheduled at 6 p.m. July 28 and 8 p.m. July 29 at the Robert M. Kerr Performing Arts Center at Twin Peaks, a part of the Quartz Mountain Resort Arts and Conference Center near Lone Wolf. Palmer and the QMMF directors hope to fill the Performing Arts Center's approximately 600 seats each night.

Advance-purchase tickets sell for $30 for both Friday and Saturday concerts or $20 for one evening only. Box-office tickets sell for $25 per seat at the performances. To purchase advance tickets by credit card or for more information, call 580-649-7596; QMMF board members and the Altus Chamber of Commerce will also sell tickets. To reserve a guest room at Quartz Mountain Lodge, call 580-563-2424.

Palmer, of Amarillo, Texas, said QMMF plans to establish within two years a world-class annual summer Music Festival, featuring some of the finest regional and national musicians and internationally renowned guest artists. The three-week festival will conduct five institutes--orchestra, chamber music, vocal and choral arts, guitar and jazz. Talented young pre-professional college students in the United States and abroad (20 to 30 students at first, increasing to 80) on the verge of entering professional careers will audition or be recommended by instructors.

Public academy performances will be held on weekends in the Performing Arts Center and during the week at various venues within the Quartz Mountain Resort Arts and Conference Center, Quartz Mountain State Park and surrounding communities.

“The long-term goal is that this festival will gain national recognition and people will come from all over the country to partake of the events,” Palmer said. “We're also working with the possibility of establishing a year-round concert series that identifies several art organizations in the region-Amarillo, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Wichita Falls and everybody in that circle--coming to the concert hall and to the towns. We want to make a contribution bringing a high artistic level here, complementing what has already been established by the Oklahoma Arts Institute.”

Palmer founded the non-profit QMMF and established a two-state board of directors: Ken Fergeson, Altus, president; Jerry Smith, Amarillo, vice president; Jackie Witte, Altus, secretary; Billy Campsey, Amarillo, treasurer; Alice Dawson, Panhandle, Texas; Mary Frates, Oklahoma City; David Gantz, Pampa, Texas; Brenda Hickerson, Granite; Phil Kliewer, Cordell; Kim Leverett, Altus; Dodie Merritt Drechsler, Mangum; Louise Price, Mangum; Richard Ratcliffe, Weatherford; and Holley Urbanski, Altus.

The Friday night performance features the Bevan Manson Trio from Los Angeles. The Boston Globe hailed Manson as a “superb jazz pianistŠimaginative, yet accessible.” The piano, upright bass and drum-set trio will dazzle the audience in the magic of the Quartz Mountain setting. On Saturday, the Quartz Mountain Chamber Players from a three-state region and across the nation will present a stellar concert featuring the world-renowned vocalist Mary Jane Johnson in a medley of spirituals and works of Mozart, also the J.S. Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3; Antonio Vivaldi's Flute Concerto, the “Cardinal”; Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5, featuring Ty Myers, one of Oklahoma's most talented college students; and the exciting and beautiful Tchaikovsky String Serenade.

“The focus of this festival for the people of this region is that it's their music festival. We want their participation in it; we want them to take ownership of it,” Palmer said. “We want the communities to understand that this is something they can benefit from-on both an artistic and revenue-generating level. We will establish in the long term the ‘Tanglewood of the Midwest.' ”