The festival, scheduled July 26-28, kicks off at 7 p.m. Thursday with an evening of great American jazz, accompanied by a barbecue dinner at the Blair Catering Hall (southwest corner of Blair's downtown intersection). An evening of chamber music is scheduled at 8 p.m. Friday and the Quartz Mountain Music Festival orchestra performs at 8 p.m. Saturday, both at Quartz Mountain's Robert M. Kerr Performing Arts Center. The Performing Arts Center is part of the Quartz Mountain Resort Arts and Conference Center near Lone Wolf.
“Last year we held a pre-festival to test the waters,” said David Palmer, executive/artistic director for the Quartz Mountain Music Festival and also Chamber Music Amarillo. “This year we're really going for it, including adding a third night, as we realize that this festival will work in our wonderful Southwestern Oklahoma community.”
Advance-purchase tickets for the weekend's three-performance combination sell for $64.80 (including tax). For individual evenings, tickets cost $27 each (including tax). Box Office tickets one hour or less before the performances sell for $30 per seat (plus tax). Tickets may be purchased by mail through the Altus Chamber of Commerce, 123 W. Commerce St., Altus, Okla. 73521 or by calling the Altus Chamber of Commerce at 580-482-0210. The Quartz Mountain Music Festival accepts Master Card, Visa or checks and will send the tickets by return mail. For lodging reservations, as well as for concert tickets, patrons may call Quartz Mountain State Park and Conference Center at 877-999-5567.
The first festival event at 7 p.m. Thursday will afford music lovers a fun-filled evening of great American jazz music with “Polk St. Jazz” of Amarillo, Texas, and a barbeque dinner catered by Forrest Ray of Altus. The five-member jazz group enjoys great popularity in Southwest Oklahoma. “They will do a wide variety of jazz from throughout that idiom,” said Palmer. “I envision a New Orleans-style evening, a relaxed affair for a good time to begin the festival and celebrate the centennial; this evening will be a lot of fun.”
The chamber music evening at 8 p.m. Friday will celebrate the Oklahoma Centennial with some of the greatest American music written. Michael Palmer, director of orchestral studies at the Georgia State University School of Music in Atlanta since 2004, will conduct Aaron Copland's “Appalachian Spring Suite” in its original version of 13 players. “Both the choreography and the music are famous, but the music is probably one of the most performed American works in our history,” David Palmer said. “It is very accessible, very beautiful. Personally, I think of the wonderful, innocent, hard-working Quaker lifestyle when I hear it.”
Other works scheduled on Friday's chamber music program include a tango by Astor Piazzolla, a Mozart flute quartet and the Brahms piano quartet in c-minor, one of Brahms' most famous works.
At 8 p.m. Saturday, Michael Palmer will conduct the Quartz Mountain Music Festival Orchestra, a larger group than performed in 2006, in the world premier of a newly commissioned work by Jerry Neil Smith, one of Oklahoma's most prolific composers. Smith enjoys a long association with Quartz Mountain through the Oklahoma Arts Institute. Oboist Joseph Robinson, one of the world's foremost concert players will also perform the Richard Strauss Oboe Concerto on Saturday evening. In celebration of the state's 100-year history, the Saturday program concludes with the Beethoven 5th Symphony, led by conductor Michael Palmer.
Members of the Quartz Mountain Music Festival Board of Directors include: Ken Fergeson of Altus, president; Jerry Smith of Amarillo, Texas, vice president; Jackie Witte of Altus, secretary; Billy Campsey of Amarillo, treasurer; David Palmer of Amarillo, executive/artistic director; Ben Bailey, Johnette Howard, Kim Leverett, Geno Redmon, Cyndie Smith, Holley Urbanski, Robin Wilmes, all of Altus; Phil Kliewer, Cordell; Brenda Hickerson, Granite; Joe Hancock, Hobart; Dodie Merrit Drechsler, Mangum; John Clinton, Norman; Mary Frates and Richard Ratcliffe, Oklahoma City; Alice Dawson, Panhandle, Texas; and Vaughn Dean Dobbs Fuller, Tulsa.
David Palmer, founder of the Quartz Mountain Music Festival, grew up in a family quite familiar with establishing large music festivals. Born in Atlanta, Ga., he spent his early years in Wichita, Kan., and at the family's summer home in the San Juan Islands, north of Seattle, Wash. After graduating in piano performance at Rice University in Houston, he took lessons at Julliard School of Music in New York City and moved to Amarillo, Texas, in 1977.
“This exciting festival promises to capture through the melody of music the truly inspirational location of Quartz Mountain and the wonderful people that surround it,” David Palmer said. “Inspired by what I saw four years ago during my first visit to Quartz Mountain, we set about to create a festival comprised of music for every person in this region to enjoy and with which to enrich their lives. The result is the Quartz Mountain Music Festival, which the good people of this region have worked very hard to create. Come join us during these wonderful summer days at one of the most strikingly beautiful locations in this region, as we bring you some of the finest music to be found in the United States.”
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