Renowned maestro returns to the Festival at Sandpoint

SANDPOINT — As has been the case for more than 25 years, the Festival at Sandpoint will close out its two-week run tonight with its annual Grand Finale concert, headlined by the Spokane Symphony Orchestra.

Since 1999, the symphony has been in the capable hands of maestro Gary Sheldon, whose list of accomplishments put him in rarefied air in the music world.

A graduate of the famed Julliard School, Sheldon later studied under legendary composer Leonard Bernstein and conducted for many of the leading soloists of our time, including Ella Fitzgerald, Itzhak Perlman and Wynton Marsalis.

Sheldon has conducted orchestras throughout the United States and Europe, is the principle guest conductor of the San Francisco Ballet, and currently serves as artistic director for the Lancaster Festival in Ohio. With his impressive resume, it is more than a minor coup for the Festival at Sandpoint to continually call him a regular, year after year.

Sheldon said he is drawn to the Festival because of the people involved, from fellow musicians to Festival workers to the community in general.

“It’s all about the people,” he said. “First of all, I get to perform with the fantastic musicians of the Spokane Symphony Orchestra. We have been working together, believe it or not, for some 25 years.”

Instead of offering up a strict diet of classical music, Sheldon said he is more than happy to delve into more current, pop music when he performs at the Festival.

“I hear from a lot of people who love hearing the orchestra play and could just sit back for an entire evening of orchestra concerts,” he said. “Of course that’s music to a conductor’s ear. At the same time, I’ve tried to introduce the concept that a symphony orchestra is a very flexible organization that can serve as a great back up band, if you will, to a Richard Stoltzman or a Mark O’Connor or other popular-oriented artists.”

Despite his popularity and busy schedule, Sheldon said coming to Sandpoint for the Festival is a tradition he hopes to continue for years to come.

“There are so many wonderful people up here, and I’ve been fortunate to develop relationships with all of them and I simply look forward to coming back and working and sharing the festival with them every year,” he said.

The Festival’s Grand Finale night begins at 7:30 p.m., but doors open at 4:30 p.m. for a “Taste of the Stars” wine tasting.