A special initiative between the Colorado College Summer Music Festival and Festival Mozaic launched this summer and made a profound musical impact — both on the communities that each of the festivals serve, and on the young musicians who were selected to perform.
The CC Summer Music Festival and Festival Mozaic, based in San Luis Obispo, Calif., began their new Young Artist Program this year. After attending the CC Summer Music Festival in June, four pre-selected Fellows went on to California, forming a string quartet and engaging in an immersive residency with Festival Mozaic during its summer festival season in July. The inaugural Young Artists were violinists Anne-Marie Wnek (Eastman School of Music) and Sophia Molina (Juilliard School), violist Daniel Simmons (Juilliard School), and cellist Ethan Blake (Eastman School of Music).
The two festivals offer contrasting experiences, both for music lovers and for performers. The CC Summer Music Festival is a three-week intensive teaching festival for pre-professional musicians who receive lessons, coachings, and masterclasses in addition to performing in chamber ensembles and in orchestra on campus and in the Colorado Springs community. Festival Mozaic, in addition to presenting chamber concerts and series throughout the year, puts on a two-week summer music festival with professional artists performing in dozens of venues across California's Central Coast.
The Young Artist Program was brought to life thanks to the long partnership between Festival Mozaic music director Scott Yoo and CC SMF music director Susan Grace. The two are longtime contributors to each other's festivals, as Grace regularly performs on piano during Mozaic and Yoo has been the conductor for the CC Summer Music Festival for more than 20 years.
Grace and Yoo both said the Young Artist Program's launch far exceeded expectations.
"The whole thing went even better than I had hoped," Yoo said. "The patrons at Moziac loved having these young musicians perform during the festival. They welcomed this young talent, their openness, hard work, accessibility, and bear witnesses to the most exciting new experience in these people’s lives. This program is creating something joyful that belongs at the festival."
While in California, the Young Artists enjoyed chamber music coachings and masterclasses with Yoo and cellist Bion Tsang and presented outreach concerts in the community. As the Young Artist String Quartet, they performed mini concerts for standing-room-only crowds at three public libraries and as a culminating concert at a local church, which included "a stunning and emotionally-charged" performance of Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), along with Yoo and Tsang (watch it here!). Festival Mozaic's social media team reported that "someone whispered, 'wow' into the momentary silence after the final notes, and then the audience celebrated the performers with a full minute standing ovation."
Perhaps the biggest, but exciting, challenge for the Young Artists was saved for later in July, when they performed with the Festival Mozaic Artists during the festival's Main Stage concerts.
"The most memorable moment was performing chamber music alongside some of the world's most renowned musicians," said Simmons. "Having the opportunity to work with established artists as colleagues was truly extraordinary, and I'm grateful to have experienced this at Mozaic. ... Being an inaugural fellow at Festival Mozaic has given me invaluable performance experience and significantly boosted my confidence in both performing and collaborating in chamber music settings."
To be eligible for consideration for the Young Artist Program, musicians must not only be accepted into the CC Summer Music Festival for the current summer, but they also must have attended CC SMF in a previous summer. Yoo said that criteria is intended to be an incentive.
"We created this Young Artist Program to encourage Fellows to return to the CC Summer Music Festival to further their study with faculty that they already have a relationship with, which encourages some fellows to really take what they receive in coaching to a new level," he said. "In addition, by giving these alumni this kind of goal to attain, the Fellows can work to take their playing from pre-professional to the professional level at this early stage in their lives."
Yoo said the environment that is ingrained into the CC Summer Music Festival makes it a perfect stepping stone for a young artist to prepare to perform in a place like Festival Mozaic. He described CC SMF as just the right balance of supportive and encouraging faculty with very high standards of excellence.
Simmons agreed: "Attending CC SMF for the past three years provided me with both the artistic and mental preparation needed to succeed as a musician at Mozaic. The extensive coachings, productive orchestra rehearsals, and mentorship from Scott gave me the foundation I needed for this unique and rewarding opportunity as an inaugural fellow at Festival Mozaic."