Published November 24, 2023

NCMF 20^th

by Scott Faulkner

Like milestone birthdays for your kids, it is impossible to think that the Nevada Chamber Music Festival turns 20 this year. But so, it does. December 28-31, 2023, the Reno Chamber Orchestra will present the 20^th NCMF. As executive director of the RCO at the Festival’s founding, this is very much like a kid’s birthday for me, and I am eager to celebrate!

The upcoming festival, led by the wonderful cellist and person, Clive Greensmith, will once again wow audiences with its offerings, and the sheer musical talent of the participants. Instead of doing a blow-by-blow preview of what’s to come, I hope you will indulge me in a bit of a walk down memory lane. 

When in late September 2004, newly appointed RCO music director Theodore “Ted” Kuchar, then board vice president Jill Winter, community philanthropic pillar Jeane Jones, and I went for lunch to discuss the idea of a chamber music festival in Reno. I couldn’t have imagined what we were about to birth. Ted had enjoyed great success with his Australian Festival of Chamber Music, held each July in Townsville on the Great Barrier Reef. As we talked about what such a festival would look like in the Truckee Meadows, Ted wisely said, we should hold it between Christmas and New Year’s, since very few musicians are working during that time and they will be available. Three months later, after one of the busiest stretches of my career, the first notes of the Nevada Chamber Music Festival resounded, and they were sublime. 

The plan was to finish with concerts on New Year’s Eve, but several feet of snow overnight December 30 to 31 caused us to cancel the final day. Not only was this decision arrived at because of the dangerous travel conditions, but it snowed so much, the musicians couldn’t find their buried rental cars in the Reno Hilton (now Grand Sierra Resort) parking lot! I stupidly said, “Next year we’re not canceling, come Hell or high water!” In 2005, it rained 12”, but we did play the concerts.

Drawing on relationships with musicians from around the world, as well as including some of Reno’s shining stars, from the beginning the music-making at the NCMF has been astounding. As someone who has performed and been involved in all but one Nevada Chamber Music Festival, a thrill for me is when patrons tell me EVERY YEAR, “this is the best one ever.” Readers of my writing know that I am disproportionately proud of my Reno musician colleagues, and I still am, but the international stature of the “out-of-town” musicians who’ve come to the NCMF over the years is stunning. A shameful part of my job as I promoted the festival became dropping the names and pedigrees of the folks who would be coming to town. One festival, we performed Bach’s 4^th Brandenburg Concerto. This work features three solo treble instruments (usually flute and two violins). We played it with three violins, and those people were the concertmasters of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. That’s tall cotton!

In the modern day, improvisation is often not at the top of most classical musicians’ list of skills. Two longtime NCMF pianists, Robert Levin and James Winn, are other worldly exceptions. They are two of Earth’s greatest improvisors. Full stop. One New Year’s Eve, they asked the audience to call out a handful of pitches, and then each of them performed their own unique and spontaneous composition based on these notes. Gadzooks, it was flabbergasting.

One violinist, James Oliver Buswell IV (or “Jamie” to all who knew and loved him), was an anchor of the NCMF from the beginning. Before Ted and I walked into the origin story’s first lunch, he said, “We can’t have a festival without Jamie. I’ll call him.” Jamie picked up the phone, agreed to come, and became a crucial part of the NCMF for years. Perhaps the great American child prodigy, Jamie was “discovered” by Leonard Bernstein when he performed with the New York Philharmonic on a Young Person’s Concert in 1965 (17:10 into this video). Jamie went on to be one of the great violin soloists and teachers of his generation. Sadly, he passed away in 2021 after a battle with cancer. The list of Jamie’s NCMF highlights is too long to list, but one annual miracle was when he and Reno’s own James Winn would perform a piano and violin sonata. They always chose gigantic repertoire that only titans of their caliber could pull off, and every year they brought the house down. To honor Jamie at this year’s festival, RCO concertmaster Ruth Lenz will join Dr. Winn in a performance of Ravel’s gypsy, no-holds-barred Tzigane. This performance will be on December 30 at 7:30 p.m. in UNR’s Hall Recital Hall.

When Maestro Kuchar left his Reno post in 2018, LA Phil concertmaster, Martin Chalifour, ably took over the interim artistic director duties. The following year, after an exhaustive search that included a number of remarkable applicants, the RCO engaged longtime NCMF colleague, cellist Clive Greensmith, to helm the festival. The former principal cellist of the Royal Philharmonic and cellist of the Tokyo String Quartet, and now professor of cello and chamber music at the prestigious Colburn School in Los Angeles, Greensmith has brought to the Festival some of the brightest young stars in the musical firmament, as well as established ensembles of international repute. His leadership instills confidence that the Festival will be in good hands for many years to come.

I could go on and on with memories and stories, but will stop here to encourage you to come to the 2023 Nevada Chamber Music Festival. Again, a combination of international and local talent, this year’s festival will celebrate the first 20 years of the NCMF and look to its shining future. 

For tickets and information: (use text) renochamberorchestra.org/ncmf (but use the link https://www.renochamberorchestra.org/ncmf)

Scott Faulkner is principal bassist of the Reno Chamber Orchestra and Reno Phil. He is the former executive director of the RCO, and in that capacity helped found the Nevada Chamber Music Festival.

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