Southampton Strings Festival Educates Young Musicians, Performs For All

For decades the East End has been a mecca for artists. It’s almost impossible to name an American artist who hasn’t lived or worked here.

For the past 30 years, there has also been an eastward migration of musicians. New York remains the hub of the American musical world, but there are several artists and ensembles who have discovered the East End. Think, for instance, of the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Pianofest in the Hamptons, and the Perlman Music Program, to name the most glamorous. Note that the last two also have an educational format.

A more modest—but equally serious—event, the Southampton Strings Festival, will take place at the Southampton Cultural Center from August 8 to August 19. It, too, involves teaching as well as performing. The student performers range in age from 6 to 19 and have a wide range of skill.

The director of the festival is violinist Jessica Tortorice, a native of Southampton who now lives in Belgium and performs worldwide. She was enrolled in the Juilliard pre-college division for many years and is a graduate of the Royal College of Music in London. She received a master’s degree in performance from the Aaron Copland School of Music of Queens College.

The faculty at the festival will include the members of her string quartet, boho4. In addition to Ms. Tortorice on violin, they are Bartlomiej Ciaston, also on violin, Hélène Koerver, on viola, and Lieselot Watté, on cello. They are based in Belgium, though they play throughout Europe, and on the final week of the festival they will be joined by Bram Decroix, a bass player with the Flanders Symphony. The ensemble’s first violinist, Mr. Ciaston, has just been given a position with the Luxemburg Symphony.

The boho4 is a spin-off of the BOHO Players, a chamber orchestra that is very popular in Belgium.

“The BOHO Players are very attuned to what is currently happening in today’s culture,” Ms. Tortorice said in a recent interview. “They recently performed works by a Morrocan and a Syrian composer who were forced to flee their countries. In 2018 they will tour with the Pierre Anckaert jazz quartet. Mr. Anckaert, a pianist, is less well known in the U. S. but very popular in Europe.”

Ms. Tortorice is very committed to the Southampton Strings Festival for personal reasons. Her late father, Michael Tortorice, with the late Norman Pickering, designed the performance space at the Southampton Cultural Center. She said, “Even though I live in Europe, this is still home, and I want to give back to the community.” She has been directing the festival for the last eight years, but the addition of her quartet provides a new dimension—a larger and more polished faculty than she has had in the past.

Ms. Tortorice is enthusiastic about the festival experience. “Festivals such as this create lifelong friendships,” she said. “Students will meet at other festivals throughout the area, throughout the country, and throughout the world.”

Some of the performers may not want to be professional musicians. “It’s okay to play for the sheer fun of it.” Music has non-musical benefits. “It’s is a well-known fact,” she continued, “that music students excel at school in all subjects. Music triggers something in the mind that improves focus, disposition and mental agility. It helps to improve one’s social skills and it adds a new dimension of enjoyment.

“Music,” she said, “should be in everyone’s life.”

The young people enrolled in the festival will perform as an orchestra and as soloists. They will form smaller chamber groups, and partake in master classes. There will also be a class in improvisation, a skill that enables students to find their own musical voice. If the past is an indication of the future, they will acquire new skills and progress very rapidly.

The website of the festival describes the program and its goals thus: “At Southampton Strings Festival, we give students … the opportunity to intensively study classical repertoire and skills in a hands-on, fun, and creative way. Our goal is to broaden the scope of your children’s musical knowledge and appreciation. We at boho4 string quartet have a passion for inspiring students to learn and discover. Year after year, our students are amazed by how much they learn in such a short period of time—and more importantly, how much fun they have doing it.”

On Friday, August 12, the festival will hold a benefit concert at 7:30 p.m. at the cultural center in which the most advanced students will play with boho4. On Saturday, August 13, at 6:30 p.m. boho4 will perform in the Concerts in the Park Series at Agawam Park in Southampton Village, just across the street from the center. On Thursday, August 18, at 8 p.m., boho4 will give a performance at the Old Whalers’ Church in Sag Harbor.

For further information and to register a child or young adult for the 13th annual Southampton Strings Festival, go to southamptonstringsfestival.com or call the cultural center at 631-287-4377.