Staying flexible as a faculty member at the Sarasota Music Festival

Timothy Lees stresses flexibility to the students he works with as a faculty member of the Sarasota Music Festival: Musical, personal and physical.

He demonstrates such flexibility as he moves from master class to coaching session to faculty rehearsal during the week he spends in Sarasota away from his year-round job as concertmaster for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Like the 60 college and conservatory-aged students at the festival, he hustles between the nearby Hyatt Regency and Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center and between classroom and rehearsal hall, his J.B. Vuillaume violin, c. 1845, over his shoulder.

In a violin master class Tuesday afternoon, he devoted some of the session with about a dozen violinists (and avid chamber music audience members) to good playing posture and even a stretching session in which everyone got on their feet to do arm, finger, shoulder and neck stretches.

Earlier, he'd advised Maeve Feinberg, a student at the New England Conservatory, that she should stand with her shoulders back a bit and her head aligned with her spine.

'Even when you get more intense, try not to crouch over,' he said.

Next under Lees' gentle but intense scrutiny was Nash Ryder, a student at the Cleveland Institute of Music, a lanky young man whose narrow frame posed a particular challenge to Lees' exhortations to keep his shoulders level and his head more in line with his spine. Everyone in the room adjusted their own posture as Lees worked on Ryder.

Wednesday morning, Lees' emphasis shifted from physicality to musical color as he worked with Lior Willinger, piano, Han Shi, violin, Jacob Shack, viola, and Justin Park, cello, on the third movement of Brahms' Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25. The foursome had performed the first movement of the composition at the first student recital of the festival; the third movement is on the program for the Friday afternoon recital.

At this point in the festival, the students know one another well enough for Lees to drill into the smallest details of their performance, including color, tempo, energy and synchronization. Nodding encouragement and giving a double thumbs-up, he said, 'Great, you guys are ready...the grace note at the end should line up, ideally!'

It's that chamber-music interaction among younger musicians and their more experienced and older faculty that has brought Lees back to the festival for 10 years.

'The heart of this festival is the chamber music and the coaching,' he said. 'It's very invigorating.'

Monday afternoon, he was rehearsing with festival director Robert Levin, piano, and Timothy Eddy, cello, on Beethoven's Piano Trio No. 6 in E-flat Major, Op. 70, Nop. 2, which will be performed at Friday night's festival concert.

The chance to play with Levin and Eddy is something Lees looks forward to, and most years they find a piece that will work for the trio.

'We know each other fairly well, so it's comfortable,' Lees said.

The three interact like old friends, with Levin showing off an historic photo of Paul Hindemith, Art Gottschalk and Yehudi Menuhin from decades ago before they begin working in earnest on the piece.

After a number of stops, starts, redos and fixes, with laughter interspersed, Levin gives his verdict: 'The piece is a miracle, a miracle.'

Lees serves as faculty at other chamber music festivals during the summers, including ones in Maine and Indiana, but the Sarasota festival is 'a special place, a really special place.'

INTERESTED? The Sarasota Music Festival continues with concerts and lectures today through Saturday at Holley Hall and the Sarasota Opera House. Tickets information at 953-3434; http://ift.tt/1bYM3WP.

INTERESTED?The Sarasota Music Festival continues with concerts and lectures Thursday through Saturday at Holley Hall and the Sarasota Opera House. Tickets information at 953-3434; http://ift.tt/1bYM3WP.

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