Tonight marks the first night of the Teton Valley Chamber Music Festival. This being only the second year since the festival’s inception, it has come to be a celebration of music and musicians as well as mentorship and community. Lauren Feldman, who created the festival and works as its general director, is excited about the musical guests performing and showing the audience what the youth program has been working on.
Feldman co-founded the festival with a friend of hers who she attended school with. Feldman had already been thinking about starting a young artist program since this was something she was passionate about. Eventually, the pair decided to start a festival and add in the young artist performances as well. The festival was originally only a three-day event, but the experience was so rewarding that they expanded the festival this year for the whole week.
“(My co-partner) and I by chance moved to the area at the exact same time in the summer of 2020,” Feldman said. “I had this idea and I’d met the Monarch Trio out of ISU and Pocatello through some friends. I called her up and I said, ‘Do you want to start a chamber music festival with me that has a young artists component to it?’ And she said, “Absolutely.’”
Feldman’s passion for creating a nurturing environment for young musicians drives her. She fell in love with music at a young age herself. She played piano and performed in musicals which made her fall in love with performance overall. She took voice lessons since she was 16, and after a lot of schooling and practice, she got into the Lyric Opera Chicago program and sang for 20 years. She wanted to give other young artists the same opportunities as she had and decided to start her youth program
“I had performed at a high level for 20 years. I wanted to give students a safe place to perform because that’s one of the hardest things that you will find as you start your performing career or your teaching career or anything that requires mastery of this level. You need a safe place to put your art out there,” Feldman said.
The festival aims to bring the rich tradition of classical music into the Teton Valley. It offers a diverse arrangement of performances. It will range from the talented youth choir and young artists to professionally trained and seasoned opera singers who’ll perform duets, trios and arias. Each night features a new musician. Feldman will also perform some of her favorite Mozart pieces along with some other beautiful arrangements throughout the week.
“All of the concerts are special to me because all of the people are special to me. We’ve put together an amazing team,” Feldman said. “We try to keep it varied so that there’s something for everybody and we’ll keep continuing to have a variety.”
Tickets for general admission are $15 or $10 for students, but Friday night the performance is free to all who want to attend. The concerts will be held at Teton High School in Driggs and start at 7 p.m. If you would like to donate to their cause or purchase tickets, their website istetonvalleycmf.com.