Treble in paradise
The Siletz Bay Music Festival makes the Oregon Coast a music destination
Photo by Bob Gibson/Blue Water Photography
By Eliot Sekuler
For the TODAY
Mei-Ting Sun, artistic director of the Siletz Bay Music Festival, spoke from his home in London, where he serves as Professor of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music. He described this summer’s program — the festival’s 14th season — with the kind of barely contained excitement usually reserved for someone about to reunite with an old friend. Which, as it happens, is precisely the case.
"Koji was my absolute best friend at Juilliard," Sun said, referring to Utah-based virtuoso pianist Koji Attwood, among this year's featured artists, one of several making their festival debut. "I've only seen him once since then,” he added, explaining that geography and two busy schedules have presented barriers until this moment.
The reconnection feels like a metaphor for the festival itself — relationships stretched across distance and time, then gathered together each August for extraordinary performances on the Central Oregon Coast.
Sun first took the festival’s helm as artistic director in 2024, succeeding his late mentor, renowned conductor and festival founder Yaki Bergman. Since then, he has built upon Bergman’s legacy by strengthening the festival’s core assets: virtuoso chamber performers, a first-rate orchestra and adventurous programming, including a compelling annual jazz performance.
The 2026 season, running from Thursday, Aug. 13 through Sunday, Aug. 23, is the festival’s most ambitious yet. Twelve concerts, 60 world-class artists, five venues across Lincoln City and Newport and a unifying thread that Sun calls "a whole baby theme."
The festival opens with a solo program titled “Dreams of Childhood: The Musical Reflections of a New Father” and the free family concert on August 22 features Poulenc's “Babar the Little Elephant.” The program is clearly influenced by the experience of new fatherhood, as Sun and fellow festival pianist Michelle Chow are new parents.
This year's roster of musicians includes notable new faces. Violist Youming Chen is from Chicago, where he has performed with the Chicago Symphony since 2016 and earned wide acclaim for his work with international chamber ensembles. From Switzerland comes violinist Muriel Oberhofer, an emerging star praised for the warmth and expressiveness she brings to both chamber music and solo engagements with symphony orchestras. And Sun’s old friend Koji Attwood, a professor at the University of Utah and frequent performer at New York's Lincoln Center, has been called "a pianist of rare gifts, both as a solo artist and as a collaborator."
Notable among the headline stories of this season is the festival debut of Julie Boulianne, the French-Canadian mezzo-soprano arriving fresh from appearances at Europe's most prestigious opera theaters. She will appear in chamber concerts featuring song cycles by Chausson and Brahms, at the festival’s beloved “Musical Tapas” concert and in the climactic orchestral program, where she'll perform Wagner's “Wesendonck Lieder,” a set of five songs rarely attempted without a singer of exceptional power and presence.
Finding new repertoire for the festival and matching program ideas with the particular strengths of his players always presents a challenge for the artistic director.
Throughout the past 14 seasons, Sun estimates the festival has performed well more than 160 hours of chamber music: "seven or eight concerts a year, each running 75 to 90 minutes,” he said.
Clearly, they’ve covered a lot of musical territory. But with a nearly limitless body of music to draw upon, Sun rarely feels the pressure to repeat, and growing familiarity with his core ensemble has given him confidence to reach for more demanding repertoire. This year, he is banking upon his musicians’ collaborative experience and skill to perform Mendelssohn's celebrated “Octet,” a piece that is rarely mounted outside conservatory settings because of its rehearsal demands.
Sun praised new executive director Daniel Pack for bringing fresh energy and organizational muscle to the festival: "full of solutions and ideas," he said, and he credited returning conductor Johann Stuckenbruck with shaping roughly three-quarters of the orchestral program choices.
Looking further ahead, Sun is already planning for 2027, a milestone Beethoven year marking the 200th anniversary of the composer's death. He is eyeing Beethoven’s iconic fifth symphony and considering the prospect of bringing several top students from the Royal Academy of Music to perform alongside the festival orchestra.
For now, though, the focus is on this musically adventurous season.
On the 60 abundantly talented musicians who arrive on the Oregon coast, year after year, from points far and wide.
On a mezzo-soprano fresh from the great stages of Europe.
On masterpieces by Mendelssohn and Wagner along with contemporary work by Native American composer Jerod Impichchaahaaha’ Tate and Israeli composer Shulamit Ran.
On the orchestra’s performances of Aaron Copland’s inspiring “Lincoln Portrait” and Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 8”
On a tribute to Miles Davis and John Coltrane, honoring the centennials of their births.
It’s all happening here on the Central Oregon Coast.
The Siletz Bay Music Festival will feature concerts at five venues in Lincoln City and Newport. For tickets and full program information, go to SiletzBayMusic.org.