Spring for Music Festival shifts to the Kennedy Center and gets a new name and a slightly new concept

The Spring for Music Festival, which brought many orchestras - including the Oregon Symphony - to Carnegie Hall, ran out of money. But, fortunately, the festival concept is being resurrected and re-structured by Deborah Rutter and the folks at the Kennedy Center. It's called Shift: A Festival of American Orchestras. According to Musical America, the festival, which is scheduled to get underway in the Spring of 2017, is funded by $900,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, $700,000 of which is matching funds. Shift will place its emphasis on the artistic excellence of the orchestra and its relationship to the community.

For more information about Shift: A Festival of American Orchestras, read this account in The Washington Post or refer to this one in The New York Times. Of course, you can also take a look at the festival announcement from the Kennedy Center.

So this presents another chance for the Oregon Symphony to hit the big time and make another huge, positive impression like it did at Carnegie in 2011.