The Castleton Festival, held on conductor Lorin Maazel's estate in Rappahannock County, Va., announced today that several high-profile guests will be joining the 2014 festival, which is set to open on June 28.
Guest conductor Donald Runnicles, music director of Deutsche Oper Berlin, will lead "King Mozart," a program of Mozart concertos and symphonic works on Sunday, June 29.
The Festival also welcomes Broadway and television stars Maria Tucci (Law & Order, To Die For), Dylan Baker (The Good Wife, Spider Man 2), and Patrick Breen (Blue Bloods, CSI Miami), who will present a theatrical reading of George Bernard Shaw's Don Juan in Hell. Tucci will direct this reading on July 12 at 1:30 p.m.
This year the Festival is presenting an Independence Day program, "All-American Band Concert," led by Col. John Bourgeois, director emeritus of the United States Marine Band. Joseph Alessi, principal trombone of the New York Philharmonic, will appear as soloist on this program, July 4 at 2:00 p.m.
Here's an invitation from Col. Bourgeois to attend this special event:
"In the last two weeks, we've seen the arrival of our orchestra, singers, production team and faculty, begun rehearsals, and welcomed our largest group of visitors yet... we're positively buzzing," said soprano Nancy Gustafson, who is working on the other side of the stage this summer as the Festival's general manager.
"We are so fortunate to have Maestro Maazel here at this festival, held quite literally in his backyard. He is in great spirits, working daily with his 15 master class conductors, our impressive young orchestra and our talented singers," she said.
Maazel, 84, recently announced his resignation as music director of the Munich Philharmonic due to ill health, and cancelled many of his planned activities in the 2014-15 season.
According to an announcement on the Festival's website made by his wife, Dietlinde Turban-Maazel, Maestro Maazel was suffering from "a case of complete exhaustion brought on by a daunting conducting and travel schedule."
Maazel also said that his doctors gave him the green light to resume his conducting duties in the season following 2014-15. But he is planning to make some conducting appearances during this year's Festival, and is scheduled to conduct Madame Butterfly on June 28, the Festival's opening night.
A full schedule of Festival events is available at castletonfestival.org.
