A reimagining of the “Spring for Music” festival has been announced by The Kennedy Center and Washington Performing Arts. The new festival, which will take place in Washington, D.C., will be called “Shift: A Festival of American Orchestras,” and will showcase ensembles from around the country in performance and community events.
The new festival is initially scheduled for a three-year run starting in spring 2017. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $900,000 grant for the collaboration, of which $700,000 will be leveraged as matching funds for new gifts to support the program. Each participating orchestra will have a community outreach component, and the festival hopes to focus on not only performances and community events, but also symposia and workshops.
“Shift” hopes to fill the void left by “Spring for Music,” a festival that ran in New York from 2010-14 at Carnegie Hall. Though critics and musicians praised the festival for its innovative programing, ticket sales were low and funding stopped after the initial grants from the Mellon Foundation ran out.
“There was so much good will, so much momentum,” says Jenny Bilfield, president and CEO of Washington Performing Arts, to the Washington Post. “We wanted to do something that would continue it.”
“Shift” will present four or five orchestras per year to perform at the six-day-long music festival, but the groups hope to focus on community effort just as much as performances. The orchestras will be selected based on there artistic talents as well as the relationships they have with their communities.
“Just because you put together the most compelling concert program does not guarantee participation if you do not come with other activities,” says Deborah Rutter, president of The Kennedy Center.
After the closing of “Spring for Music,” looks like orchestra fans finally have something to look forward to again.
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