A Season of Song

On an early July evening, the moon hangs big as a dinner plate and bright as a silver dollar over the hazy blue Siskiyou foothills in Jacksonville. Up at Britt Gardens and Amphitheater, a breeze ruffles the majestic ponderosa pines and the red limbs of curvy madrone trees glow in the sunset.

The real sounds of the night are about to begin. Britt Festivals, a glistening gem of an outdoor celebration from June through September, gives the radiant moon strong competition. Founded 40 years ago by visionary Portland conductor and educator John Trudeau, summer concerts feature such world-class performers as classical pianist André Watts, The Chieftans, Jethro Tull and the Indigo Girls. The outdoor stage nestles into the base of a gently sloping hill, once the homesite of 19th-century photographer Peter Britt.

Industrious and creative, Britt was drawn by Oregon’s 1851 gold rush to this small historic town, one of only eight towns in the country designated as national landmarks.

Today it is full of freshly painted Victorian houses and historic storefronts. If you look closely at the bricks on the buildings that line the charming main thoroughfare, you may see tiny flecks of gold, an echo of the past. Peter Britt was also the Johnny Appleseed of the Rogue Valley, planting some of the first fruit seeds that would spread into acres of apple and pear orchards, creating an industry for which the area is now renowned.

AN ECLECTIC MUSIC MENU
Although Britt initially offered just classical music, today audiences come to tap their feet to pop, country, folk and global sounds as well. “I love to brag about this place,” says Bill Williams, as his wife, Toni, sways to the beat of spirited Cajun music on a Saturday night. He’s left home in southern Idaho to attend Britt for the past five summers. “It’s a great place to watch really good acts.”

Hailey Kuhn, from Sebastopol, Calif., is warmed by the small-town feel of the place.“It’s wonderful to have a small venue that’s outdoors and very family-oriented. It just seems like the whole town joins together to make it work.”

Massachusetts native Ed Chapman, an Ashland resident and Britt volunteer since1987, has connected with about 200 other local folks to help things run smoothly.“When I was a kid, my father worked in the carnival, and I always liked seeing a piece of bare ground turned into a show,” he says, as he runs the souvenir booth next to kiosks selling local specialties such as cheesecake with fresh marionberry sauce.

A KICK-UP-YOUR-HEELS GOOD TIME
After leaving the Rogue Valley, head north on Interstate 5, turning east on Highway 20 near Albany. Soon you’ll come to Sweet Home, a little town that is just that. The first weekend of every August, Sweet Home’s cozy population of 2,028 shoots upward when the Oregon Jamboree comes to town.

A kick-up-your-heels country music festival, the Oregon Jamboree has attracted visitors from as far away as Australia, Germany and Guam. Sweet Home is about a hundred miles from both the Oregon coast and the Eastern Oregon desert, set in pristine farm country with the pointy mountain peaks of Green Peter and Little Peter standing sentinel nearby.

The first jamboree was launched in 1992 by the late Marge Geil who, like country singer Naomi Judd, suffered from hepatitis C. That first year, Geil invited Judd to come and sing during a one-day music fest; the event soon expanded to three days. Each year, a space the size of two football fields behind Sweet Home High School lures some 8,000 country-music fans wielding folding chairs. Some of the big names the jamboree has drawn include Reba McIntire, Kenny Rogers and Clay Walker.

An elevated dance floor allows kids of all ages to practice line or swing dancing to the live music. Food booths offer an overwhelming slate of culinary choices, including Scandinavian funnel cakes, vegetarian dishes and cuisine from northern India.

Despite the flashy technology onstage and the bustling professionalism of the 400 volunteers who dot the site, a casual, friendly atmosphere prevails. “It’s more of a town party than a festival,” says Justin Dunlap of Lawrence, Kan., who designs the jamboree’s stage lighting. “They’ve got three times as many people in the crowd than live in the town!”

Allyn and Kathy Gossage of North Carolina, who celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary at the last jamboree, are regulars each summer. “We love it here,” says Kathy, with a warm smile. “It’s such a beautiful state.” In a nearby camping site thick with RVs, they’ve parked next to the same people for the past four summers. The proximity to fishing holes, spotless campgrounds and some of the state’s most sublime scenery is all the more reason to come.

‘MUSIC IS BORN OUT OF NATURE’
Bend’s idyllic Drake Park has been linked with outdoor music from the get-go. In June 1920, when Bend citizens created the city park by cleaning up a parcel of land near the Deschutes River, the local Shevlin-Hixon Band provided live music for them to weed, hoe and shovel by.

Nowadays, in the last week of August, the Cascade Festival of Music fills the lovely riverside setting with glorious sound, and all visitors have to do is sit around under the towering pines and listen, either in the big white tent or outside on lawn chairs with picnics brought from home.

There’s the theory that food tastes better outdoors for some mysterious chemical reason, but does music sound better en plein air? Festival music director Murry Sidlin sees it this way: “Nature is right in our midst, and music is born out of nature. I think music sounds better, fuller and more meaningful in a beautiful environment.”

Festival performer Charles Kavalovski agrees. “It’s a perfect opportunity to mix music and pleasure, as music is not a business, it’s a labor of love,” says Kavalovski, principal hornist for Boston Symphony Orchestra. “A lot of symphonic musicians are stuck in cities they’re happy to get out of in the summertime.”

Broadway show tunes, Big Band sounds, salsa, Irish dancers and an entire program for children hosted by Sidlin mingle with the likes of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms for eight nights ending on Labor Day.

“I like the program — it’s not all classical,” says festival regular Barbara Bergmann, originally from Philadelphia. She walks her dog in the park, as pale swans glide soundlessly on the nearby river, and the horizon turns a soft orange as the sun moves toward it. “Murry Sidlin is wonderful. He gets you involved with what you listen to. There’s something more vivacious about the music here.”

A BELOVED PORTLAND TRADITION
In Portland, Chamber Music Northwest spreads across the summer like a benevolent breeze. On the Catlin Gabel School campus, people gather under tall fir trees near a building called The Barn, lined with cafe tables and white umbrellas, while staff from Papa Haydn’s restaurant offer Oregon bay shrimp salad, chevre pate, mixed berry tarts and other delicacies for a pre-concert supper.

Sharing a picnic and glasses of wine with two pals, Portlander Louise Watkins describes her night out. “It’s like the Ya-Ya Sisterhood meets Mozart. It’s an excuse to come out with your girlfriends and not cook for your husbands.”

What began in 1971 as a series of popular summer concerts has blossomed into a well-loved Portland tradition, wherein world-class musicians perform for enthusiastic audiences. The series also has spawned many CD recordings. Although concerts occur year-round, a five-week, 25-event summer season at Reed College and Catlin Gabel is the event’s crowning glory, featuring open rehearsals, informal pre-concert talks with the artists, lectures and outreach performances. Each year, a different local restaurant caters food outdoors, and people can bring their own comestibles.

Indoors at Catlin Gabel, a concert of music by Francis Poulenc, Antonin Dvorák and Richard Strauss features pianist Anne-Marie McDermott. Outside at intermission, a line of Lombardy poplars march along a gleaming white fence, and the fragrance of dusky fir trees fills the air.

“The concerts seemed like a summery, interesting thing to check out, so we did,” says Meg Pradlt, visiting from Chicago. “This is wonderful.”