The Geneva Music Festival (GMF) recently was awarded a $5,000 grant from the Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation through the arts and culture gift program. The grant will support the 2019 Geneva Music Festival season, “Women in Music: Key Players,” which runs from May 24-June 16. Much of the Festival’s programming this year will represent women’s contributions to music through featured composers or performers.
“This generous grant will help us present world-class music to a wide range of audiences throughout Ontario and Monroe Counties,” says GMF Director Geoffrey Herd. “We appreciate the support of community leaders and philanthropists like Max and Marian Farash who, through their foundation, continue to enrich people’s lives through the arts.”
The Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the civic and religious communities of its founders. Each year, half of the Foundation’s grants support Jewish life and the other half go to secular initiatives. According to the Foundation’s website, “Arts and culture play integral roles in the life of any healthy community. Those who make art, and those who curate our culture, add immeasurably to the depth and discernment with which we experience the world. These artistic and cultural contributions enhance the lives of individuals of every age, at every socioeconomic level, and across a broad array of specific interests.”
The 2019 Season of GMF will feature the festival debut of the Verona Quartet with a selection of music written by female composers. Concerts in Geneva and Skaneateles will celebrate the works of composer Clara Schumann and two of her primary influences, Bach and Brahms. “Women Across the Ages” will feature female composers spanning nearly 10 centuries, while Broadway star Syndee Winters and songwriter and actress Ann Hampton Callaway will pay tribute to groundbreaking women in jazz Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. Sounds of A&R will bring a unique jazz concert to Geneva’s historic Club 86, and cellist Clive Greensmith will return to the festival to present the Chamber Music Finale with new and returning artists alike. Ray Nagem will showcase organs of the churches of the region with works featuring women composers from a span of centuries. As has become tradition, there will be a Father’s Day bluegrass concert at the end of the season.
Tickets for adult admission to each concert and an after-concert reception are $25 (ages 18 and under are free). Six-concert passes and season tickets only are available until the first concert, in Geneva on May 30, and may be purchased online prior to or in person at that concert. All venues are wheelchair accessible and air conditioned. Dinner is available at Club 86 prior to Sounds of A&R on June 7 and reservations are available directly through Club 86.
A full schedule including concert details and locations, artist biographies and tickets are available on the festival’s website, www.genevamusicfestival.com.