Sounds Of Savannah: Concerts From An Eclectic Music Festival
Musical gumbo: The Savannah Music Festival mixes a broad variety of musicians and genres each year. Frank Stewart/Savannah Music Festival hide caption
The city of Savannah, Ga. conjures up images of the sleepy Old South — sultry summer nights and Spanish moss dripping like lace from the live oak trees. But a few months before summer hits Savannah each year, you'll find little that's sleepy at all, as the entire city comes alive in music.
Late in March, the Savannah Music Festival unpacks an extraordinarily broad range of musicians, spreading them over a two-week period in 15 different venues throughout the city's historic district.
The 9-year-old festival prides itself on variety, offering a virtual melting pot of musicians to suite almost everyone's taste: jazz practitioners Marcus Roberts, Dianne Reeves and Bill Charlap; world music masters Salif Keita and Ballaké Sissoko; bluegrass greats Chris Thile and Doyle Lawson; indie rockers the Avett Brothers; bluesman James Cotton; roots rockers Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore; and a trove of classical artists like Simone Dinnerstein, The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Stile Antico and the Emerson String Quartet.
And those were just a few of the musicians who showed up this year.
The festival also gets a kick out of dividing concerts between seemingly odd bedfellows. You show up for a Bill Frisell show and you also get Malian ngoni superstar Bassekou Kouyate's family band. And the Brazilian guitar duo Sergio and Odair Assad get paired with Romani fiddle virtuoso Roby Lakatos from Hungary.
This year, festival officials were kind enough to let us share a few of the top classical concerts from the 2011 festival. Click on the links below to hear the complete concerts and read more about the artists.
Sounds Of Savannah: Concerts From An Eclectic Music Festival
Nikolai Lugansky's Power And Repose
/Frank StewartHear the outstanding Russian pianist play Chopin and rarely heard Rachmaninov.
Hear The Concert July 13, 2011Stile Antico Asks: A Different Kind Of Love?
/Frank StewartThe choral group delves into the mystery at the heart of the Song of Songs: Is this earthly passion or sublime transcendence?
Hear The Concert July 13, 2011Kristian Bezuidenhout Uncovers Mozart's Character
/Frank StewartPlaying on the fortepiano--the kind of instrument on which Mozart himself would have played--this lively artist explores rarely heard elements of the composer's genius.
Hear The Concert July 13, 2011Ebene Quartet: The Art Of The French String Quartet
Frank StewartHear the versatile group play Ravel, Debussy and Faure.
Hear The Concert July 13, 2011Simone Dinnerstein Communes With Bach
Frank StewartHear the thoughtful pianist play Bach in a variety of guises.
Hear The Concert July 13, 2011