The Bowdoin International Music Festival is one of the world’s premier music institutes. Founded in 1964, the Festival engages exceptional students and enthusiastic audiences through world-class education and performances. Each summer, 250 students from more than 20 countries and nearly every state attend the Festival to study with distinguished faculty and guest artists. Community members attend memorable guest artist and faculty performances as well as 175 free events including student performances, composer lectures, masterclasses, community concerts, and family events. The Festival is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Bowdoin International Music Festival faculty Derek Bermel and Andreia Pinto Correia are two essential advocates and leaders for the Composer’s Concert at the Museum. While collaboration with the Bowdoin Museum of Art began in 2015, this project did not officially begin until 2018 and now has had over 100 participants, bringing excellent performers at the start of their careers into a new experience. The program aims to engage students with the arts and for them to be challenged to write music using visual art as a point of departure. It brings to the composers’ different ways of thinking about the intersectionality of arts, and is also a way for the community to engage with both the festival and the museum, bringing new audiences to music and visual arts. In the future, Andreia envisions a project that will focus on local artists in the Brunswick area, as well as engaging audiences with specific talks and lectures by the museum about the selected works of art. Derek envisions collaboration with the festival and museum to commission works that incorporate both visual and oral aspects. He would also love to bring the audience in on the process to see how the students work and how they make their creativity a reality.
