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2016 Lake Tahoe Music Festival kicks off this week on West Shore

Staff report
A look at one of last year's performances on Lake Tahoe's West Shore.
Courtesy photo |

TAHOE CITY, Calif. — The 2016 Lake Tahoe Music Festival, featuring a 22-piece Academy Orchestra, kicks off next week and will presents five concerts this year, the theme of which is “Sunset Serenades.”

This year’s festival will feature soloists Nathan Hughes, Principal Oboe for the Metropolitan Opera; and Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, Internationally renowned cellist.

The festival includes beautiful music at lake-front and intimate settings on the West Shore of Lake Tahoe, Tahoe City and Truckee.



Bring your picnic, low-back lawn chair and wine for wonderful outdoor evenings. Gates open at 4 or 5 p.m., depending on show. The schedule is as follows:

August 16: Sugar Pine Point Park, Highway 89, Tahoma



August 18: West Shore Café, Highway 89, Homewood

August 19: Salty Gebhart Amphitheater, Truckee

August 20: Gatekeepers Museum, Tahoe City

August 21: PJs at The Golf Club Grays Crossing, Truckee

The highlight of this year’s festival will be on Aug. 20, when Conductor Timm Rolek will lead the Academy Orchestra in a performance of Sketch No. 1 for String Orchestra, composed by Dr. David Wendell Nelson.

Nelson is a composer with a Ph.D. in music theory/composition who taught at Cerritos College in Los Angeles for over 25 years and now lives in Truckee.

Dr. Nelson believes in pursuing chance encounters and following unexpected opportunities, and this year, LTMF is the beneficiary of this philosophy.

In 2015 he and his wife Cindy retired to Truckee. He retired from teaching music, but not from the love of music, and immediately began to explore the many musical events Tahoe has to offer.

“I wrote it as a show piece, where these musicians can show off their musical skills,” explained Dr. Nelson. “The piece is reflective of the beauty of Lake Tahoe and has the restless energy of nature,” Nelson says of Sketch No. 1. “It consists of two basic themes that are put through a variety of permutations. The first theme has a rolling quality with a meter of six and slowly attains full speed. The contrasting second theme has a slow rising quality similar to the exquisite opening theme in the prelude to Parsifal by Wagner.”

Ticket costs for this year’s performances vary; visit tahoemusic.org to learn more.

For special needs or access requirements, contact the Festival Office at 530-583-3101 or email georgette@tahoemusic.org.

Donations to support and continue the Lake Tahoe Music Festival are appreciated — mail to Lake Tahoe Music Festival, PO Box 7, Truckee, CA 96160. Online donations will be accepted in the near future.


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