Festival to present eight concerts, each with its distinctive flavor and combination of players

Violinist Jacqui Carrasco likes Gershwin's music so much that she and her friends are serving it up two ways on consecutive evenings.

Flutist Elizabeth Ransom is re-creating how musical Old Salem sounded during the Revolutionary War era, having scoured the Moravian Music Foundation's archives for music from that period.

And horn player Joe Mount is betting that brass, percussion and North Carolina trivia will be just the thing that families want to hear on Saturday mornings.

Carrasco, Ransom and Mount are running the Carolina Summer Music Festival. Each has taken on different tasks in advance of the festival's inaugural concert on Thursday in Gray Auditorium at the Old Salem Visitor Center. Seven additional concerts, each lasting no longer than 70 minutes without intermission, will be held through Aug. 31 at Gray, Reynolda House, the Jon Kuhn Gallery and the Zevely House.

"We're trying to be all-inclusive," Mount said, explaining the festival's eclectic approach. "Good music is our main goal."

The Carolina Summer Music Festival is a presentation of Old Salem Museum & Gardens and the Carolina Chamber Symphony Players of Winston-Salem. It has several aims. One is to fill a niche once held by the now-defunct Foothills Chamber Music Festival, namely satisfying a demand for chamber music in August, when nearby

festivals have come to an end and schools and arts organizations are still on summer break.

Organizers of the festival also see it as a way of raising the profile of the players, who perform during the winter months, and of bringing more people to Old Salem's museums. The festival's daytime concerts will be included in an all-in-one ticket to Old Salem.

Mount, who also had a hand in programming the Nielsen and Beethoven pieces in the "Festival Finale" (Aug. 31), notes that nearly every festival concert has a different theme. In the festival as a whole, however, "there is no over-arching theme," because such an approach "kind of puts you in a box," Mount said.

A quick glance at the festival's lineup shows how diverse it will be:

In "Gershwin, By George," one of two Gershwin programs organized by Carrasco, vocalist Martha Bassett and leading jazz musicians from the area will perform such favorites as "Our Love Is Here To Stay" and "Someone To Watch Over Me." "Gershwin" will be similar to "It's De-Lovely," Cole Porter fare performed by the Carolina Chamber Symphony Players last year.

As for "Rhapsody in Blue," this will feature Carrasco and Ruskin Cooper teaming up in violin-piano arrangements of music originally written for other instruments and singers, including Rhapsody and Blue and the opera Porgy and Bess.

Carrasco, who teaches at Wake Forest University, plays classical music but is equally adept in such styles as jazz and tango. She seemed excited about the "Rhapsody" program, noting that it features "fabulous" arrangements by Jascha Heifetz, the late virtuoso violinist.

"The harmonies and the counterpoint that he works out … are just really fascinating and really beautiful and rich," she said. "And he makes the violinist work a lot."

As for "Music in Revolutionary Salem," when Ransom began putting that program together, she turned to Philip Dunigan.

Dunigan taught Ransom at the N.C. School of the Arts. He has spent much of his time in retirement from the school digging through the archives at the Moravian Music Foundation. Ransom said she told Dunigan the instruments she had in mind -- namely flute, violin, viola, cello and harpsichord -- and Dunigan came back with too many good possibilities to include on one program.

"We'll probably have a good start on a program for next year as well," Ransom said.

In the end, the selections were narrowed down to include pieces by Moravian composers and their contemporaries, everything from a Sonata No. 1 in G Major by Frantisek Kotzwara to the Sonata in A Major by Leopold Hoffmann.

In addition, sacred songs by David Moritz Michael, Johann Ludwig Freydt and Johann F. Peter will be sung by Marilyn Taylor, a soprano who teaches at NCSA. Taylor will be accompanied by Susan Bates, with the latter performing the Tannenberg organ in Gray Auditorium.

"We really wanted to include the Tannenberg organ," Ransom said. "Because the pitch of that organ is … low … it's extremely difficult to play modern string and wind instruments with that organ. A way to include the organ in this program was to do works with a singer."

Festival patrons of all ages will have two Saturday-morning opportunities to attend "Carolina Scrapbook: A Family Concert," on Aug. 23 and 30. Mount has been organizing "Scrapbook," which is described in press materials a "multi-media musical journey through the history of North Carolina."

Projected images of the state will be accompanied by a band consisting of Mount, several other brass players and a percussionist (John C.B. Wilson). A narrator will not only narrate but also engage the audience in a question-and-answer quiz titled "North Carolina, Land of Firsts."

"It's a little trivia quiz, where the narrator asks questions like, ‘Which came first, the Wright brothers' flight or the invention of Pepsi cola in New Bern?'" Mount said.

■ Ken Keuffel can be reached at 727-7337 or at kkeuffel@wsjournal.com.

Concert Schedule

The Carolina Summer Music Festival will run Thursday through Aug. 31. With the exception of the Zevely House concert (Aug. 27, $58) which includes dinner, tickets for all performances are $15, $10 for seniors and $5 for students. See www.carolinasummermusicfestival.org or call 366-682-8524.

• THURSDAY: 7:30 p.m. "Gershwin, By George," in Gray Auditorium at Old Salem Visitors Center. Vocalist Martha Bassett, backed by a jazz band of local musicians, will sing Gershwin favorites.

• NEXT SUNDAY: 3 p.m.: "Rhapsody in Blue," at Babcock Auditorium at Reynolda House Museum of American Art. Violinist Jacqui Carrasco and pianist Ruskin Cooper will perform Gershwin favorites.

• AUG. 21: 7:30 p.m.: "Sparkling French," in Jon Kuhn Gallery, 701 N. Liberty St. Mezzo-soprano Mary Siebert will be featured in Ravel's Chansons madecasses, and Faure's C-Minor Piano Quartet will be performed.

• AUG. 23 and 30: 11 a.m. "Carolina Scrapbook," in Gray Auditorium. A brass-and-percussion ensemble will accompany a narrated, multimedia tour through North Carolina history.

• AUG. 24: 3 p.m.: "Music in Revolutionary Salem," in Gray Auditorium. Rarely heard gems from the Moravian Music Foundation's archives.

• AUG 27: 6:15 p.m. "Festival Sampler," at Zevely House, 901 W. Fourth St. Evening begins with hors d'oeuvres. Music will include samples from festival programs. Dinner and music cost $58 per person; for reservations, call Zevely House at 336-725-6666 or the festival 366-682-8524.

• AUG. 31: 3 p.m. "Festival Finale" in Gray Auditorium. Music of Nielsen and Beethoven, including the latter's famed Septet in E-flat Major.