THE NEW YORKER

August 2003

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 WOODSTOCK FRINGE FESTIVAL 2003:

“AMERICAN SONGFEST”

Maverick Concerts may be the best known of the Hudson Valley’s smaller classical-music festivals, but, as its name implies, it had to break away first—and what it broke away from was Byrdcliffe, founded as a Ruskinesque Arts and Crafts colony in 1903 by the millionaire idealist Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead and his wife, the painter and musician Jane Byrd McCall. The place is still going strong a hundred years later, supporting not only a number of artists-in-residence but also Woodstock Fringe, a summer series of avant-garde theatrical events that includes a mini-series of classical concerts organized by the composer-administrator Larry Alan Smith. “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?,” the final program, includes contributions by the composer and pianist Larry Bell, the soprano Catherine Thorpe, and other musicians and showcases American works by Gershwin, Bernstein, Schuman, and Carlisle Floyd in addition to songs on Shakespeare texts by Bell (a première) and Castelnuovo-Tedesco. (Byrdcliffe Theatre, Woodstock, N.Y. 845-679-0167. Aug. 30 at 2.)