A brief history of the Midsummer Mozart Festival

In 1973 Robert Hubbard was the principal oboist, Wendell Rider was principal horn, and George Cleve was the conductor and music director of what was then the San Jose Symphony. Robert Hubbard recalls:

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George, Wendell, myself and a few others were sitting in Original Joes in 1973 after a SJS Mozart concert, having a drink and enjoying the aftermath of a very satisfactory performance, and someone, probably Wendell, said, "Wouldn't it be great if we could play Mozart all the time?" Somebody commented that there was nothing scheduled during the summer months, and the notion of a summer Mozart festival was born.

Wendell and I researched cost and availability of various halls in the SJ vicinity, and we settled on Flint Center for 3 dates in July. We drove up to SF to consult with Jerry Spain (then the president of Local 6) about how to structure a "joint venture" contract with the orchestra in lieu of scale wages. George did the programming. Wendell convinced the players that it was worth doing even if it didn't pay well, and I worked out logistics of hall rental, program printing, poster design, printing and distribution, and a myriad other details.

We did 3 consecutive weeks at Flint. The first audience was about 300 people. Reviews were great. The second week we had about 800 people. Reviews were great. The third week we had 1400 people. Reviews stayed great. After the bills were paid, the orchestra got payed $6 each for the three weeks work, and we had a living, breathing festival that has managed to stagger on somehow for 50 years.

Neither Wendell nor I were ever paid for our Festival-related jobs (we took our orchestral "salaries"), and for at least the first 9 years, until I left the Festival, George donated his services as well.

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During the course of our half century, a great many illustrious soloists have appeared with the orchestra. Impossible to include them all, but among them:

Pianists: Rudolf Firkusny, Alicia de Laroccha, Radu Lupu, Peter Serkin, Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode, Jon Nakamatsu

Voice: Frederica von Stade, Lorraine Hunt, Chanticleer

Clarinetist: Richard Stolzman

Horn: Wendell Rider, Hermann Baumann

Among the orchestra members who have appeared as soloist:

Maria Tamburrino (flute), Roger Wiesmeyer (oboe), Robert Hubbard (oboe), Laura Griffith (oboe), Mark Brandenburg (clarinet), Rufus Olivier (bassoon), Daniel Kobialka (violin), Robin Hansen (violin)

George Cleve died in 2015. After that, according to Robin Hansen:

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The few board members wanted to retire, so I recruited new board members in 2016, and volunteered to take over the administration of the nonprofit. We did not perform in 2016, but resumed the festival in 2017 without a conductor, performing at Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma, where we had performed in the 80's and at Old First Church in SF where we perform every year for Noontime Concerts.

The Covid years were challenging, as they were for all performing organizations. We held our first Midwinter Beethoven Festival in late January and early February 2020 before we knew what was coming, so we did have a 2020 festival. In mid-June 2021, we learned that OSHA was allowing concerts to resume outdoors and we quickly organized our Summer Festival for late July, 2021. Paul Schrage  (who had become Music Director in 2018) had prepared Piano Concerto No. 11 which could be played without wind players, but we were able to play with the winds after all. We performed at the Mountain Winery for the first time, and returned to Buena Vista Winery. It was Mountain Winery's first post-pandemic concert on their calendar, and it sold out right away. 

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Everyone involved in the Midsummer Mozart Festival is so grateful to our audience, musicians, supporters and donors for encouraging the nonprofit music festival to continue. In the past five years, many cultural nonprofits have stopped operations, and we feel so fortunate to be able to continue our tradition of bringing the glorious music of Mozart to the greater Bay Area, staying true to our mission.