Award-winning classical musicians to perform at Lake Tahoe SummerFest

Internationally renowned soloists and a world-class orchestra of 38 instrumentalists will contribute to an exclusive series of classical concerts and performances during Lake Tahoe SummerFest, the first three weekends of August.

Set against the backdrop of the Sierra Nevada and Lake Tahoe, nine concerts will comprise the SummerFest Concerts program and feature artists from the New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Seattle Symphony. A 500-seat outdoor venue in a specially-designed acoustical concert tent at Sierra Nevada College will offer pure sound from instruments without amplification along with inclined seating for unencumbered sightlines.

The impressive lists of artists include a mixture of soloists and principal players, including:

Sharon Robinson is an internationally recognized Grammy-nominee and winner of the Avery Fisher Recital, Piatigorsky Memorial and Pro Musicis Award. Whether as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra or member of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, critics, audiences and fellow musicians respond to what the Indianapolis Star has called, "A cellist who has simply been given the soul of Caruso." She has appeared on The Tonight Show, The Today Show, Kennedy Center Honors, CBS Sunday Morning and a guest of Garrison Keillor public radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion."

Jaime Laredo has performed for more than 50 years to world-wide audiences in multiple roles of soloist, conductor, recitalist, pedagogue and chamber musician. Since his orchestral debut with the San Francisco Symphony at age 11, Laredo has appeared with more than 100 orchestras, internationally and has made dozens of recordings that have garnered him several awards, including the Deutsche Schallplatten Prize, the Gramophone Award and several Grammy nominations, which he won in 1991 for Best Chamber Music recording.

Joseph Kalichstein is a renowned Israeli-born, American classical pianist who performs in the concerto, solo recital and chamber music repertoire, the latter mainly with Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson in the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. He is also a professor at the Juilliard School in New York and recognized world-wide as a recitalist and soloist. Orchestral engagements have included performances with the Boston, Chicago, London and Vienna Symphony Orchestras and the Berlin, London and New York Philharmonics. In 1997, he was appointed Artistic Advisor for Chamber Music and Artistic Director of the Fortas Chamber Music Concerts by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Kate Lindsey is a rising mezzo-soprano star who has appeared in many of the world’s most prestigious opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Lille Opera and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Her repertoire includes Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Angelina in La Centerentola, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Nicklausse in Les Contesd’Hoffmann and Idamante in Idomeneo. An accomplished concert singer, she has also appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Met Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

Principal players also to be featured include:

Laura Hamilton, a violinist and Concertmaster for Lake Tahoe SummerFest. Hamilton is also Principal Associate Concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York City. At the Met, she has led hundreds of performances including live international HD video transmissions such as Carmen, Turandot, Salome, Nixon in China and Madama Butterfly. Prior to her work at the Met, she was a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a concerto soloist. She was featured in Musical America as a "Young Artist of the Year" and received numerous awards and competition prizes.

Milan Milisavljevic currently serves as the Assistant Principal Violist with the Metropolitan Opera and is a former member of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Having placed highest of all American violists in the 2004 ARD International Music Competition in Munich, Strad magazine described him as "resourceful and full of fantasy" and "very imaginative, with a fine, cultured tone." He has won numerous awards at competitions and has appeared as soloist with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Aspen Sinfonia and the Belgrade Philharmonic among others.

Peter Wyrick is the Associate Principal Cellist for the San Francisco Symphony after having served as Principal Cellist of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and Associate Principal Cellist of the New York City Opera Orchestra. As a member of the Ridge String Quartet, he has performed internationally, participating in Finland's Helsinki Festival, the Spoleto Festival in Italy and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. He appears regularly in the San Francisco Symphony's Chamber Music Series as a soloist.

Nathan Hughes is Principal Oboe of the Metropolitan Opera and a member of the faculty at The Juilliard School. He previously served as Principal of the Seattle Symphony and Associate Principal of the San Francisco Symphony. As a soloist, he has performed a variety of works for solo oboe and orchestra, including eight different concertos. As a chamber musician, he regularly performs with the Met Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall.

Demarre McGill is currently Principal Flutist of the Seattle Symphony, a position he also held with the San Diego Symphony, the Florida Orchestra and the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra. Winner of a 2003 Avery Fisher Career Grant, McGill has performed concerti with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Baltimore Symphony and Milwaukee Symphony, among others.

Erik Ralske is French Horn Principal for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Previously, the Julliard School-trained musician was Third Horn and later Acting Associate Principal Horn of the New York Philharmonic for 17 seasons. Other previous positions were with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, Florida Symphony and Tulsa Philharmonic.

SummerFest VIP Season Passes are available for premium seating to listen, see and immerse yourself in the finest music in the world. The concerts are scheduled for Aug. 3-5; Aug. 10-12 and Aug. 17-19. Themed Fridays include “All About Beethoven” and “Summer in Italy” while family concerts are featured on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. The transferable VIP Season Pass includes exclusive seating to all nine performances and a VIP ticket to “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” a featured play at the 40th annual Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. VIP Passes are available for $1,200 each.

Lake Tahoe SummerFest continues to seek partnerships with world-class performance and visual art luminaries from the Lake Tahoe Basin and beyond. Affiliations include the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival at Sand Harbor State Park (www.laketahoeshakespeare.com) and the American Impressionist Society.

For more information and to purchase tickets: www.tahoesummerfest.org or call (775) 298-0245.