Artistic Director Edwin Huizinga Takes Us Inside The SweetWater Music Festival 2024
By Anya Wassenberg · Originally published on LudwigVanToronto, August 28, 2024.
L-R: Violinist and Festival Artist Yusuf Tajbaksh (Photo courtesy of SweetWater Music Festival); Soprano/Pianist Rachel Fenlon (Photo: Karyn Avalon); Composer Matthias McIntyre (Photo courtesy of SweetWater Music Festival); Cellist Karen Ouzounian (Photo: Ebru Yildiz).
Songs & Serenades is the theme for this year’s SweetWater Music Festival, the 21st season for the event. The Festival takes place from September 11 to 15 in various locations across Owen Sound, Meaford and Leith in the Grey Bruce region of Ontario.
There’s a wide variety of concerts, recitals, and experiences available to audience members, including opportunities for amateur musicians to join in a performance.
The list of guest artists is a long one: Measha Brueggergosman-Lee (voice), Michael Gurevich (violin), Matthias McIntire (composer/violin), Rachel Fenlon (voice, piano), Keith Hamm (violin), Julie Hereish (cello), Edwin Huizinga (violin), the Canadian Chamber Choir (voice), Stephanie Morin (alto flute), Aaron Davis (composer, keyboard), Karen Ouzounian (cello), Amy Hillis (violin), Catherine Gray (violin/viola), Dr. Julia Davids (voice), Dr. Joel Tranquilla (voice), Sherryl Sewepagaham (voice).
We spoke to violinist, composer and Festival Artistic Director Edwin Huizinga about the festival and its lineup for 2024.
The 2023 Jam Session led by SweetWater AD Edwin Huizinga (Photo courtesy of SweetWater Music Festival)
Artistic Director Edwin Huizinga
Huizinga is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he now works as a professor alongside his performing, and programming, careers.
Giving audiences a range of experiences, including active participation, is part of what drives the Festival, says. Huizinga. “It is a really big important mandate for me,” he says. That means all all levels. “I really think that’s so important, and I love that about the festival.”
The opening Gala includes performances, along with the chance to meet headliners like Measha Brueggergosman-Lee — who will be performing her jazz/classical hybrid project Zombie Blizzard along with Aaron Davis and his trio, and the Hannaford Street Silver Band — Rachel Fenlon, Karen Ouzounian and others.
Huizinga’s own artistic journey has taken him across North America, including many projects in New York City, and put him in contact with many artists and organizations. Bringing some of them back home to perform in the Festival has been one of his pleasures.
That includes people like noted cellist Karen Ouzounian, an Armenian-Canadian whose career is taking off south of the border, and soprano and pianist Rachel Fenlon, a Canadian with a thriving career in Berlin. Fenlon is noted for both singing and accompanying herself, a rare feat in the opera world. She will perform “Sing Nature Alive” by Festival composer Matthias McIntire.
Both will be performing in ticketed mainstage events.
Joining In Jam Sessions
However, along with the internationally known musicians and virtuosic concerts, the festival allows string musicians and vocalists to join in.
“We have these two jam sessions that I’m organizing,” Edwin says. “Last year we had about 60 musicians just soaring through the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 by Bach.”
A look at the jam session from 2023:
On Saturday the 14th, any string musician, at any level, can bring their instrument to join in a jam session of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings. The sheet music is downloadable from their website here, and was distributed to local music teachers.
“Even if they can just get through the first 16 bars,” he says, “and then have this giant smile on their face for the rest of the piece.”
Both jam sessions are free of charge.
The Choral jam session, held on the same day, is open to singers at all levels, age 12 and up. The afternoon workshop includes warm up and vocal style tips, and will be led by the Canadian Chamber Choir’s Artistic Director Dr. Julia Davids. A founding member of CCC, she is also the Stephen J. Hendrickson Professor and Director of Choral Activities at North Park University in Chicago.
The choral session will include learning a new work by Canadian/American composer Paul A. Aitken titled “Peace Flows Into Me”, set to poetry by Sara Teasdale. That work, as Edwin notes, is also part of the repertoire for the CCC’s mainstage performance.
“I think that some of the people might sing along, and why not?” Huizinga says. He’d like part of the audience experience to include opportunities for anyone trying to find their own path in music.
The CCC mainstage (ticketed) concert also includes “Papîyahtik: Peace Chant” by Cree-Dene composer, Sherryl Sewepagaham and Andrea Neuman, along with “Sun on Water” by Hussein Janmohamed. Edwin also notes the Canadian premiere of “Shorthand” by Anna Clyne, performed by cellist Karen Ouzounian.
Drawing the audience into the music creation is about more than letting people try out career aspirations, though. It’s part of the more essential role that music plays in our lives. “I really believe that music is a healing art form.”
There’s a sound healing session on both weekend mornings, where people can soak in the sounds of crystal healing bowls, with a real music therapist on hand.
“That’s something I also do on my own spare time,” he says of meditation, including writing and releasing albums of music for the practice. “That’s one of the things that I want to be able to offer.”
Free Events
Other free events in the Festival schedule include a children’s concert, a luthier exhibit with some of Canada’s premier string instrument makers, and artist talks with performers and the Festival composer composer Matthias McIntire.
The Canadian Chamber Choir is featured in another free event on Owen Sound’s iconic Kelso Beach, with Cree-Dene singer/composer Sherryl Sewepagaham. Audience members will be taken inside the choral collaboration between the composer and choir, with discussions, and the opportunity to ask questions, alongside performance of works by Canadian composers Tracy Wong, Scott Reimer and Hussein Janmohamed.
Festival Artists
The Festival Artists perform the Next Wave Showcase. Young musicians apply for the opportunity via audition. If selected, they receive coaching from the Festival’s international artists, and a small honorarium, along with the opportunity to practice and perrform.
“That’s an initiative that I’ve been working on for the last five years,” Edwin says. The event is being organized by an alumnus of the program. “Every generation is being taken care of,” he notes, from young musicians to emerging artists to the next step up the rung, all the way to professional musicians.
“I try to find a space for all of them. It’s so important to have a multi-generational thing. We want to be available for everyone.”
For that purpose, the ticketing system is multi-tiered, on an honours system according to what you an afford. “I think that’s been really successful for us,” he reports.
Ticketed Shows
Haydn, Hindemith, Beecher and Schumann are on the bill for a candlelit concert at a historic church, featuring Haydn specialist Michael Gurevich and other Festival artists.
Along with the Jam, Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings is also on the bill for the finale concert, the SweetWater Jamboree, although playing along from the audience won’t be possible. Festival guest artists will perform a variety of works, including a world premiere by composer-in-residence Matthias McIntire, commissioned by the Festival, and Measha Brueggergosman-Lee performing Mozart.
“It’s very exciting.”
Huizinga incorporated a concern about the environment into Festival programming. The CCC’s mainstage concert is titled Sun on Water. “I just wanted to bring today’s issues into the concert hall.”
It underscores the relevance of the music in today’s world. Likewise, the Festival itself extends to the larger community, with each concert presented in a different venue, from a historic church to late night jazz venue.
“Even the small towns, I think it’s our responsibility as an artistic venture to go to the people,” he says.
Find more details, and tickets, for the SweetWater Music Festival [HERE].