Welcome to the 58th Season of the Bar Harbor Music Festival
Allison Kiger, Artistic Director
Francis Fortier, Founder
Tickets are on sale now. Season Brochures will be mailed soon. NEW for 2024: Discounted rear section seats and FREE tickets for all students 21 and under to most events. Season subscriptions available for $350. Call or text the Festival office to order or for ticket assistance. 207-288-5744.
Francis James Fortier, III Obituary
Violinist, conductor, artistic director, fly fisherman, brother, and husband, father, grandfather, Francis J. Fortier, III passed away early Saturday morning at the age of 86. His wife of 40 years, Deborah, and his dear friend Allison were by his side.
Spring Benefit Musicale – Cocktails, Concert and Buffet Dinner for the Bar Harbor Music Festival
Thu Apr 25, 2024 – 6:00 PM – 9:30 PM
Kosciuscko Foundation, 10065
Christopher Johnson
Allison Kiger
Thursday, April 25
Spring Benefit Musicale
A Springtime Fusion of Classical Music and Jazz – Christopher Johnson, Allison Kiger, and friends. Music by George Gershwin and Claude Bolling.
Sunday, June 30
FREE Young Audience Concert on Great Cranberry Island. Sponsor Ned Swain and Devenish Wines. Stories, Poems, and Music. Willie was Different by Norman Rockwell and Seymour Barab, Sail Away by Langston Hughes and Ashley Bryan, Portraits of Langston by Valerie Coleman. Allison Kiger, flute, Eric Thomas, clarinet, Christina Spurling, piano.
Monday, July 8th at 7:30PM
FREE Isaac Bray with the Bar Harbor Town Band on the Village Green featuring Rossini’s most popular aria “Largo al factotum” from the Bar Harbor of Seville (and classic cartoons!)
Veronica O’Brien
Wednesday, July 10 at 7:30PM
Pianist Veronica O’Brien (Festival debut) Music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Gershwin, and Scriabin – at St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church.
Info and Purchase
Steven Crawford
Friday, July 12 at 4PM
Oceanview Tea Concert – Kelly Hill, mezzo-soprano and Steven Crawford, piano at the Bar Harbor Historical Society. With donated tea and pastries.
Info and Purchase
Omar Najmi
Tuesday, July 16 at 7:30PM
Bar Harbor Festival Opera Theatre: Sondheim Tribute Revue – Celine Mogielnicki, soprano, Kelly Hill, mezzo-soprano, Omar Namji, tenor, Isaac Bray, baritone with Steven Crawford, piano at the College of the Atlantic.
Steven Crawford
Friday, July 19 at 6PM
Pre-concert reception with Steven Crawford, Former conductor, Metropolitan Opera
Friday, July 19 at 7:30PM
Best of Beloved Italian Opera, music by Rossini, Verdi, Puccini, and more – Steven Crawford pianist and former Met Opera conductor leads a program showcasing the exciting and talented young singers of the Bar Harbor Music Festival at the Neighborhood House, Northeast Harbor.
Info and Purchase
Wolverine Jazz band
Sunday, July 20 at 10:30am
FREE Young Audience Concert at Jesup Library. Sarah Joyce Cooper, soprano and Christina Spurling. Spirituals and more.
Sunday, July 20 at 12 noon
FREE Young Audience Concert on Great Cranberry Island – Dance and sing along with Bob Barta, banjo and John Clark, clarinet and saxophone of the Wolverine Jazz Band.
Wolverine Jazz band
Sunday, July 21 at 7:30PM
Wolverine Jazz Band at the Criterion Theatre in Bar Harbor
Info and Purchase
Wednesday, July 24 at 7:30PM
Janey ‘n’ Friends
Janey Choi, violin with Amadi Azikiwe, viola, Melissa Westgate, cello, and Vadim Serebryany, piano. Beethoven’s “Archduke Trio” and chamber music by Dvorak and Hailstork. St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church.
Info and Purchase
Thursday, July 25 at 1PM
Celebration of Life for Francis Fortier (1937-2024) at Kebo Valley Golf Course.
RSVP to info@barharbormusicfestival.org
Nimbus
Friday, July 26 at 7:30PM
Chamber Orchestra with Nimbus Dance conducted by American Prize Winner and former Monteux School faculty David Alexander Rahbee. This remarkable collaboration between the Bar Harbor Music Festival and the Acadia Dance Festival features Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, conducted by David Alexander Rahbee with Candace Chien, piano, and the acclaimed Nimbus Dance in Samuel Pott’s choreographic interpretation at the Criterion Theatre in Bar Harbor.
Info and Purchase
Sarah Joyce Cooper
Monday, July 29 at 6PM
“After Hours” Event with the BH Chamber of Commerce including complimentary concert tickets for Chamber attendees.
Monday, July 29++*
Sarah Joyce Cooper soprano with chamber orchestra, David Alexander Rahbee conductor – music by Haydn, Grieg and spirituals by Jessie Montgomery and more, plus Mozart Symphony no. 37 and Antony and Cleopatra suite by Kurt Atterburg at the Criterion Theatre in Bar Harbor.
Info and Purchase
Tuesday, July 30++*
FREE Young Audience Concert at Great Cranberry Island, sponsored by Ned Swain and Devenish Wines. “Riches to Rags” Music for flute, violin, and cello by Scott Joplin, FJ Haydn and French-African court composer Joseph Boulogne.
Eric Wyrick
Wednesday July 31*
Eric Wyrick
Violin recital with Candace Chien, piano. Music by Beethoven, Grieg, Debussy, Coleridge-Taylor, and Fritz Kreisler. St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church.
Info and Purchase
Skip La Plante
Saturday, August 3 at 7:30PM
The “Margaret Mills New Composers Concert
at the College of the Atlantic – full day seminar by Maine composers and concert “Folk elements to the fore – Bartok and his Legacy” Eric Thomas, clarinet, Nicholas Pappone, violin, Candace Chien, piano, with world premieres by Diana M. Rodriguez and Skip La Plante.
Info and Purchase
Christopher Johnson
Wednesday August 7 at 7:30PM
Christopher Johnson
Piano recital “Celebrating a Feast of Chopin and the 100th Anniversary of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue” St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church.
Info and Purchase
Saturday, September 21 at 5PM
Millbrook Benefit
Maestro Jeffrey Ellenberger conducts the Festival String Orchestra in music of Mozart, Bach, Mendelssohn, Doppler, and Elgar.
Christopher Johnson
Allison Kiger
Sunday, October 13 at 7:30PM
Allison Kiger, flute and Christopher Johnson, piano.
Indigenous Peoples’ Weekend in Bar Harbor – Storm and Sea – Undine Sonata by Reinecke, Beethoven Pastorale Symphony Storm and Joy movements, plus works by Debussy and Takemitsu. St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church.
Info and Purchase
2024 Season On Sale
“…one of New England’s great music festivals”
— Nan Lincoln, The Bar Harbor Times
Our Promise to the Arts
Acclaimed by Phi Beta Baton as “…one of the nation’s proving grounds for gifted young artists,” the Bar Harbor Music Festival, founded by violinist Francis Fortier in 1967, has gained national recognition for its unique and pioneering work.
The Festival has made a major contribution to the music world by advancing the careers of over 2,300 aspiring instrumentalists, singers, and composers. Coupled with our “Arts and Tourism” initiatives, it has provided a vital cultural and economic service for the community and visitors from all over the world.
The Festival’s outreach programs, such as the admission-free outdoor concerts in Acadia National Park, artist-in-residence programs in American schools, colleges, and universities, as well as its Young Audience Concerts have won new audiences for classical music and fostered music education.
Its annual Summer Festival and Touring Program have reached out to audiences totaling over one million, as music lovers gravitate to this musical gem in the spectacular setting of Bar Harbor, Maine.
