Get out there and have fun

It's approximately six thousand miles from Mammoth Lakes to Vienna. But the Sierra Summer Festival brings the two locales together in a thirtieth anniversary celebration with a tribute to the Austrian capital and its musical tradition. In four evenings of vocal and instrumental performances, this year's Sierra Summer Festival highlights the great Viennese composers: Brahms, Mozart, Strauss, and Schubert.

Although a California ski town doesn't seem to have much in common with the storied city on the Danube, Sierra Summer Festival organizers have done their part to bring a big dose of high culture to the high country. For three decades, conductor Bogidar Avramov, director of the Beverly Hills Symphony, has assembled a world-class symphony orchestra that's grown from eighteen to fifty musicians.

Classical music isn't the only art form the festival supports; from the beginning, the Sierra Summer Festival's poster went way beyond advertising. Like a Hapsburg emperor, the festival has fostered local artists by choosing a different work by a different artist for its annual poster. For the past few years, the festival has made a contest out of it, calling for submissions and then hosting a public vote at Edisto Gallery.

The 2007 edition features a watercolor by Jeffery Scott that shows a view of Mammoth Mountain from the Lakes Basin. That's where this year's festival starts with a special event at Pokonobe Lodge on Lake Mary. Near the tract of Forest Service cabins once known as "symphony row," SSF organizers invite guests to share memories of the festival with Avramov and some of the loyal musicians who actually pay to play with the Eastern Sierra Symphony Orchestra every summer.

Food and drink at the Monday night event and at Saturday's gala on Mammoth Mountain will continue the Viennese theme.

Sachertorte, anyone?

Sierra Summer Festival Schedule

Monday, August 6: "Reflections of Thirty Years" dinner and reception at Pokonobe Lodge, Lake Mary

Tuesday, August 7: LEGACY vocal ensemble performs at St. Joseph's Catholic Church

Thursday, August 9: Chamber orchestra concert at St. Joseph's, featuring music for wind, brass and string ensembles

Friday: Eastern Sierra Symphony Orchestra performs a program called "A Night in Vienna" at Mammoth Mountain's Main Lodge

Saturday: Following dinner at Mountainside Grill, it's the symphony’s grand finale: the overture to Mozart’s "Don Giovanni," Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, and two of Strauss' classic Viennese waltzes.

Tickets, information and posters:sierrasummerfestival.org