Download 2008 Program of Events (PDF)

July 6, 7:30 pm. !zing began as do so many enjoyable encounters- around a kitchen table. In 2001 a group of friendly singers decided to form a chorus that was more jazz oriented and challenging than the other choices available in Portland, Maine. !zing is now 16 voices and a piano trio with a mission to update the ’50s vocal group sound with choral treatments of bebop and other music of our time. The combination of interesting material and arrangement with cool performance is what !zing is all about – a great way to start the OPMF season.

July 13, 7:30 pm. PORTopera has been producing summer opera in Maine since 1995 and their singers have made appearances in the OP Music Festival every year since. This year enjoy Maine’s Emerging Artists, the talented stars of tomorrow, as they present Too Many Sopranos by Edwin Penhorwood. This entertaining spoof tells of four sopranos who go to Heaven only to learn they cannot sing in the heavenly choir because there are not enough tenors and basses (the majority having gone to Hell!) The sopranos are tasked with recruiting the needed tenors and basses by traveling to Hell and doing a selfless deed – will they succeed? Returning MEA singers Dan Cyr, Sarah Mawn, and John Coons lead the cast.

July 20, 7:30 pm. The Edith Jones Project is Maine’s only all-female big band, billing themselves as having 86% less testosterone than the average big band with 200% more swing. The band was founded in 2003 and is named after a Yorkshire terrier belonging to founder Alison Jones. EJP performs big band jazz made famous by such greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Brubeck, and the Count Basie Orchestra. Members of the band include some of the most talented performing and teaching musicians in Maine, including faculty from Bates College, USM, UNH, and Bowdoin, and other schools throughout southern Maine. If you like jazz, if you like big band music, if you simply have a pulse, you will love the Edith Jones Project!

July 27, 7:30 pm. The audience gave an enthusiastic welcome to Boston Saengerfest Men’s Chorus when it appeared at the 2005 Music Festival. The 65 voice Saengerfest will present a concert of international men’s choral music including selections by their 14-man “Very Large Octet”: Sound Investment. This September, the Chorus, currently in its 17th season, will join the London Welsh Male Voice Choir in the Boston area, and on September 16 will join 400 singers from the UK and other countries at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

August 3, 7:30 pm. For many years Schooner Fare has won unanimous praise from world-wide
audiences for captivating harmonies and winning stage presence. In addition to their numerous original songs on contemporary and traditional themes, they write and perform topical songs, country ballads and maritime masterpieces which have made their name synonymous with the “Down East” style. Consummate entertainers, Schooner Fare’s Chuck and Steve Romanoff’s energetic concerts are laced with a Maine brand of universal humor.

August 17, 7:30 pm. “I’m just a saloon piano player!” insists modest yet amazing pianist Bob Milne, who was last in Ocean Park in 2006. Bob specializes in ragtime and the colorful player-piano styles of the early 1900s. A wonderful storyteller, he peppers his performances with historical background, detailing how American popular music developed from early folk styles. Bob is one of the busiest solo touring artists of today, crisscrossing the U.S., Mexico, Northern Ireland, Switzerland and Japan in 2008. As one fascinated listener exclaimed: “No one should miss this!”

August 24, 7:30 pm. Pianist Chiharu Naruse was a hit at the 2006 Music Festival. Now she is back with Dean Stern on violin and Christina Chute on cello in the Atlantic Piano Trio. Chiharu Naruse is on the piano faculty of the Portland Conservatory of Music, has won many awards and performs regularly with the Jim Chi Duo and the Chiarina Trio. Violinist Dean Stern has performed throughout the world in recital, with orchestras, chamber music ensembles, and as soloist.  Maine audiences are most familiar with Mr. Stein through his work with the DaPonte String Quartet, and as Artistic/Executive Director of the Arcady Music Festival. Christina Chute is on the faculty at both Bates and Bowdoin Colleges. An active performer in southern Maine, she is also the principal cellist of the Maine Musical Society.