"Summer classical music festival": this phrase hints at extravagance and a certain bohemian atmosphere, I think. A bunch of artists getting together in the off-season, probably in a picturesque location, enjoying festivities because it is a festival, after all.
If you've never participated in one, you might be wondering what goes on behind the scenes at this kind of festival — what daily life is like for the musicians involved. I can answer for myself — at least, for one festival: the Northern Lights Music Festival, where I'm playing french horn in the Carmen orchestra.
In my accommodations there is much to praise. Some musicians are staying in bed-and-breakfasts, cottages, or hotels, while others like me are lodged in a dorm. My actual room is clean and spacious, but can only be described as adequate in other ways. The memory foam mattress I lugged along helps, and it's nice to have a partial kitchen available, even if the fridge is full of days-old Chinese food and the freezer full of soggy, falling-apart ice cream cartons.
The immediate surroundings of the dorm more than make up for any shortcomings. The landscape here is breathtaking, especially in contrast to where I live: flat-as-a-pancake Moorhead with its relatively few trees. For example, I just returned from a walk of truly incredible beauty. We experienced the latest of several cloudbursts this evening, but soon afterward the sun was out in full strength. As I walked along a golf course path that winds through gorgeous, aspen-lined fairways, I really felt like I had entered a magical realm.
Meals run the gamut from gourmet to, again, what can only be described as adequate. Several of our lunches and dinners are prepared by Chef Doug, the husband of one of the festival cellists. They are so delicious — bahn mi sandwiches, salmon with buttery sauteed Brussel sprouts, vegan chili — that I wish he made every meal. On the other hand, it's nice that the festival spreads business around to all the local establishments, including the A&W drive-through and small family restaurants. These meals are generally good, too — if on the heavy, fried side.
The timing of meals and portion control measures are occasionally bothersome. Today's dinner is scheduled for 4:15, a time of day I sometimes find too early even for an afternoon snack. And then there was the cornbread muffin incident of a few years back. I was eating dinner with my friend Jonathan, and when he went to get another cornbread muffin, he was told by a stern-faced volunteer that muffins were limited to one per person. It's a memory we chuckle at now, but at the time it didn't exactly feel "festive."
I imagine that at some summer classical music festivals, the top musicians live pretty high on the hog. But I'm sure that musicians at many festivals don't have it nearly as good as we do here at the Northern Lights Music Festival. And I would give up any number of cornbread muffins for another walk like the one I had last night.
Gwendolyn Hoberg is a classical musician and the owner of the editing and writing business Content & Contour. She lives in Moorhead, plays with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, and writes the Little Mouse fitness blog. She is also a co-author of The Walk Across North Dakota.
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