Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival has been bringing 'world-class' talent to Long Island for 41 years

New Zealand native Marya Martin sprang onto the international concert stage with a deep well of talent as a flutist. She had studied with two superstars of the flute world, Jean-Pierre Rampal in France and James Galway in Switzerland, earned a master’s degree in music from Yale University, and then — unprecedented for a flute soloist — quickly won top prizes from the Naumburg Competition, Young Concert Artists International and Concert Artists Guild, among a batch of others. Her career seemed to tap into a full array of musical abilities — recitalist, concerto artist with major orchestras and chamber-music collaborator.

But music festival producer? Martin, 68, and a longtime East End resident, said as a young performer she hadn’t considered taking leadership herself.

“I loved playing all those festivals,” said Martin, recalling the musical comradeship and audience intimacy she said she experienced, particularly at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest. “But I didn’t know anything about running a festival.”

A lot has changed in four decades.

The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, of which Martin is founder and artistic director, opened its 41st season this month. It has grown from one weekend of two concerts to 12 concerts in July and August, plus recently added fall and spring concert series. And while other organizations and festivals have come and gone, Bridgehampton has established itself as arguably Long Island’s longest-running Classical music festival, with a reputation for top-quality musicianship and programs that welcome and captivate even those who aren’t regular concertgoers.

“There are so many competing events during the summer in the Hamptons, but Marya’s Bridgehampton festival is the one and only world-class chamber music festival in our area,” said longtime board member Arlene Alda. “One can hear top-notch musicians playing gorgeous Classical chamber music in an intimate setting, the way chamber music should be heard, where every seat is a great seat.”

HEAVENLY ACOUSTICS

As Martin tells it, the idea for the festival started during a casual lunch conversation with Martin’s husband, businessman Ken Davidson, and a violinist friend and her husband.

“We all said, ‘There’s no [chamber] music out East,’ ” recalled Martin, referring to the Classical music genre in which up to nine players perform without a conductor. She knew that needed to change, and that she would be the one to do it. Davidson was onboard.

“We looked around the neighborhood and decided that Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church might be the place,” Martin said. The church, a 19th century Greek Revival-style building, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

“My husband said, ‘Bring your flute, and let’s go around and talk to the minister,’ ” she said. “Turned out, he knew all my recordings from Santa Fe! All I had to play was one note, the sound was so warm [in the sanctuary]. It was just right.”

They started simply, she said. Tickets were $10, and they sold them “from our front yard” in Water Mill, Martin remembered of the earliest days. “And we became a nonprofit right away.”

They formed a board of directors with strong local ties and equally strong devotion to building a great chamber music experience for the community. A grant later allowed the hiring of an executive director.

Martin said she called on her wide network of top professionals — pianists, violinists, cellists and other solo instrumentalists, principal players from the New York Philharmonic and other major orchestras, leading string quartets and other ensembles. She has juxtaposed familiar and unknown pieces and has tried to pair players unexpectedly, she said, such as Minnesota Orchestra concertmaster Erin Keefe, who will perform the violin this summer with her husband, Osmo Vänskä. The Minnesota Orchestra’s conductor laureate, he will swap his usual baton for the clarinet.

And heeding her husband’s advice to “make the musicians have fun and want to come back,” Martin has cooked and served festive post-performance at-home dinners, a tradition that continues.

It seems to have worked: From four musicians the first year, Martin said the roster has grown to 40, with many returning year after year.

‘FRIENDS, MUSIC, SUN AND FOOD’

Pianist Orion Weiss, who will perform July 27 at the festival’s annual benefit concert and then again on July 28, said the event is “one of my most treasured summer festivals; I’ve played there almost every year since 2005. It’s like a big family reunion every year — and that reunion includes the audience.

“I’ve built so many close friendships over the years,” he added. “Concerts are wonderful and rehearsals are wonderful, but they are even more wonderful coupled with swims in the ocean and meals with close friends. I’ve had many perfectly complete days . . . going to bed exhausted and happy from friends, music, sun and food.”

That’s the chord Martin has aimed to strike. Some musicians have quick appearances, such as violinist Paul Huang, who this year was only featured on the festival’s opening program. (Huang has also launched an international chamber music festival in his native Taiwan.) But others take advantage of the attractions of the East End, including one longtimer, an avid sailor who, according to Martin, usually stays aboard his craft tied up in Sag Harbor, hopping off for a quick shower and change to concert attire. Board members have at times hosted musicians, forging friendships. “Marya has a real knack for putting together groups that click, people that align musically and personally, so the performances can really take flight,” said Weiss.

Alda, the longtime board member (whose husband, actor Alan Alda, has written and narrated programs in past years), agreed. “Marya informally introduces the concerts with tidbits of information about the music and musicians,” she said. “It’s all very personal, yet professional and totally enjoyable.”

IN TUNE WITH THE AUDIENCE

Martin, who often greets departing concertgoers on the church steps, said she tries to stay in tune with her audience and respond to what they want. Of the decision to expand beyond their summer programming, she said, “People said they were starved for music in the fall — although we don’t add concerts unless we know we can fill them up. Our board is generous but does not allow us to be in any way stupid.”

When pandemic restrictions were in place, she said, the festival offered two performances of the same program, splitting the audience so they could spread out, and eliminated intermissions. The no-intermission format has carried over because, turns out, people like being able to enjoy an evening of music and still have time for a leisurely dinner or visit with friends.

Some festival features, though, have not changed. “I love encouraging young musicians,” said Martin, who teaches at Manhattan School of Music, “and commissioning [new works].”

The autumn 2024 programs will feature Martin’s protégé Brandon Patrick George, a Manhattan School of Music master’s graduate, Grammy-winning flutist with the quintet Imani Winds and a faculty member of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. George has actually chosen the repertory.

“It’s a lot of fun for me,” he said of performing with and continuing to learn from his former teacher. “Marya has done so much for chamber music in America, particularly through support of young artists and her commissions.”

The festival’s first commission, in 1988, went to the late Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ned Rorem. This year two world premieres are scheduled: Sebastian Currier’s “Ongoingness” (harp and string quartet) on Sunday; and Oceanside native Michael Stephen Brown’s “The Lotos-Eaters” (flute, cello, piano and percussion) on Aug. 1.

ADVICE FOR LISTENERS

The festival has had a quarter-century relationship with another Pulitzer Prize winner, composer Paul Moravec. A University Professor at Adelphi University in Garden City who has completed four commissions for the festival, he said, “For me working with Marya and these amazing musicians has been a composer’s dream.”

For attendees hearing a new work for the first time, he had advice: “I suggest being receptive to the energy of the work. Try following the whole shape and arc of the piece . . . There will usually be something compelling, perhaps even beautiful. Then on repeated hearings . . . [you] will find more to hold onto . . . and the work will reveal more pleasures.”

Video of the performances can be found at bit.ly/4f1smVr. “I want the music world to know about these pieces and to play them,” Martin said.

Attracting new listeners is vital to keep the festival fresh, said Martin. In an effort to grow its devoted core audience, she said they plan to play several East End venues: a program on the theme of exploring color at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill on Aug. 5; the annual Wm. Brian Little concert (honoring a beloved late board member) at Channing Sculpture Garden in Bridgehampton on Aug. 9, with jazz by the guitarist Stephane Wrembel trading back and forth with Bach; and an inaugural appearance in the reconstructed barn/gallery at the Madoo Conservancy in Sagaponack on Aug. 7. That performance sold out quickly, but look for a return in the near future.

Madoo director Alejandro Saralegui said of the collaboration, “The program aimed to increase audience for BCMF, and we expect it to bring new audience members to Madoo.”

The festival, he added, is “crucial to the East End summer arts scene . . . a chance to hear world-class music in our backyard.”

Moravec concurred. “I’m biased because of my long and gratifying association with BCMF, but it has established itself as an indispensable part of our cultural life not just on Long Island, but nationally. Not only does Marya always get world-class performers, but she and the BCMF team have created such a wonderful vibe. Not to mention the natural beauty and elegance of this part of the world!”

Said Weiss, “If you’ve ever enjoyed a painting, check out chamber music and it will paint pictures for you like you’ve never dreamed of. If you’ve ever enjoyed a poem, check out chamber music; music is poetry in sound . . . It’s like an ensemble drama (or sometimes comedy!) — a play with a small cast [and] no words, but a language everybody understands, intimate yet unbelievably powerful.”