Classical Tahoe | July 9-Aug. 17 | UNR Lake Tahoe
Gambler’s Run | July 14-16 | Crystal Bay Club
The lake. The mountains. The music. It’s all there at Classical Tahoe, an unparalleled celebration of music on the idyllic campus of University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe in Incline Village, Nev.
This year’s festival features a selection of stunning international artists including German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser who grew up in a musical family. His mother is renowned Canadian soprano Edith Wiens, his father, Kai, played cello with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and his brother, Benjamin, is a distinguished pianist.
“My earliest musical memory was before I was born,” says Moser. “My mom was performing with me eight months pregnant.”
“I find that an audience is just as important to a musical performance as the performer themselves. There is some energy there that is more than the sum of its parts. When an audience is willing to go with that collectively, it can be very powerful.”
–Johannes Moser
As a young child, Moser joined Wiens on tour where he was exposed to the world of classical music. After a brief and tortuous stint on violin, he turned to cello and never looked back.
“I loved those low frequencies,” he says, “and the versality of it is just wonderful.”
Moser now lives in Vienna, Austria, where he strolls by the many apartments in which his favorite composer, Beethoven, once lived and worked.
Read the Tahoe Music, Events & Festival for a complete summer lineup
“Apparently, he was a terrible tenant,” says Moser. “I guess that’s the price you pay for genius. He brings into his music both the joy and the struggle of human experience.”
Moser performs at the Classical Tahoe Ricardi Pavilion on July 21 as part of a night of moving music entitled, “A Hero’s Journey.” The sequence, inspired by a universal human myth created by American writer Joseph Campbell, will begin with rising Serbian conductor Daniela Candillari leading the Classical Tahoe Orchestra through Beethoven’s “Overture to Fidelio,” the opening piece from his only opera.
Then comes Moser’s interpretation of Edwin Elgar’s “Cello Concerto in E Minor.”
“It’s about a fallen hero because Elgar wrote it in 1919 after World War One,” says Moser. “Old Europe was laying in ruins. He was not only writing a beautiful concerto, but also describing the loss of his world. You start from the moment of despair and try to branch out and bloom from that.”
The song cycle ends with Brahms’ searchingly triumphant “Symphony No. 2 in D Major.” When Moser takes the stage with his Andrea Guarneri cello built in 1694, he is there for one primary goal: to communicate with his audience.
“I find that an audience is just as important to a musical performance as the performer themselves,” he says. “There is some energy there that is more than the sum of its parts. When an audience is willing to go with that collectively, it can be very powerful.”
Classical Tahoe begins its 2023 season with the Brubeck Jazz Summit from July 9 to 14. Season highlights include superstar violinist Tessa Lark, who arrives on July 28 for a special event called “Made in America.” Swiss pianist Gilles Vonsattel performs Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini” on July 29. German conductor Ruth Reinhardt takes over on Aug. 4 with “In the Air” starring clarinetist Daniel Gilbert and juggler Frank Olivier and on Aug. 5 with “Drumroll, Please, starring harpist Emmanuel Ceysson. | classicaltahoe.org
Eclectic lineup at Gambler’s Run
The inaugural Gambler’s Run Music Festival comes to the Crown Room and a special outdoor stage at Crystal Bay Club in Crystal Bay, Nev., from July 14 to 16. Led by three nights of Maryland party band Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, this stacked lineup showcases an assorted Tahoe blend of jam, funk, EDM, reggae and bluegrass.
For Americana, you’ve got Shovels & Rope; Dustbowl Revival; Hot Buttered Rum; The Waydown Wanderers; Goodnight Texas; Moontricks and The Lil Smokies.
Looking for jam bands? Some of the hardest-hitting, under-the-radar groups such as The Higgs, The Magic Beans and Dogs in a Pile will be there. SunSquabi and Paper Idol deliver high-energy EDM. And then there’s the jazzy explorations of Moon Hooch. Local bands Pipe Down, Jenni & Jesse Dunn and Six Mile Station also perform.
But it doesn’t stop there. You can’t sleep on Big Sam’s Funky Nation, Con Brio or the Hawaiian sounds of Kanekoa. Newgrass pioneers Yonder Mountain String Band, Tauk and Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown play the late-night parties. This festival’s got a little something for everyone. | devildogshows.com
