About The Mendocino Music Festival

The Mendocino Music Festival was established in 1986 as the dream of local musicians Walter Green, Allan Pollack, Susan Waterfall and other music lovers to present fine music with a mix of professional and local musicians. It was their desire, and still is, to create an opportunity for classical music education on the Mendocino Coast.

July 1987 – With the cooperation of the community and California State Parks, the first festival was presented in a smaller version of our current tent on the Mendocino Headlands State Park next to the Ford House Museum and Visitor Center. The tent seated 400 people and the orchestra consisted of 56 musicians. Four orchestra and four chamber concerts were presented. The current tent seats more than 840.
July 1989 – A fully staged opera was added.
July 1992 – A Young Musicians Scholarship Program began, a program that continues today with a name change to the Emerging Artists Program.
July 1996 – The Piano Series was added and presents master pianists in an intimate daytime lecture/recital format.
July 2005 – The Village Chamber Concerts began and feature local musicians in daytime concerts at various venues in Mendocino and Fort Bragg.

Each year we put up a 16,000 square foot tent and build a performance hall literally “from the ground up” overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We established a year-round presence in the town of Mendocino with our office in the Old Bank Building on the corner of Main and Kasten streets. Concerts, dinner parties, and events throughout the year build on that presence.

Our national and international reputation as a respected music festival has helped increase Mendocino’s cultural identity. Mendocino is not only a vacation destination but an arts destination as well. We work to build strong economic ties with the business community and individual donors. We’ve developed a large volunteer network of more than 200 people that help out at the festival and at our year round events.

Mendocino Music Festival is a member of the Arts Council of Mendocino County, the Mendocino Arts Showcase, the Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce, and Mendocino Coast Performing Arts Production Alliance where we share storage space, set pieces, props, and costumes with other local performing arts organizations.


Ticket Sales Begin May 11, 2009

	ALLAN POLLACK Artistic Director and Conductor Festival Co-Founder Maestro Allan Pollack has guided the Mendocino Music Festival as Artistic Director and Conductor since the first note was played in 1987. Over the years, memorable performances have taken shape under his baton including Verdi Requiem, Brahms Requiem, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. In addition to leading The Festival Orchestra in the classics, Mr. Pollack has conducted many fully staged operas. With a Ph.D. in composition from UC Berkeley, Maestro Pollack composed a variety of pieces especially for our Music Festival: The Spiral Dance for chorus and orchestra; Two Movements in Time for orchestra; From the Song of Songs for soprano and orchestra; A Summer Evening at the Boonville Fair for orchestra; Albion Song; Jazz Concerto for Saxophone; a Vibraphone Concerto; and a String Quartet. As a jazz musician, he leads the fabulous Festival Big Band in music from the 30s and 40s and sometimes takes a solo on saxophone. Festival responsibilities aside Mr. Pollack is also Music Director and Conductor for Symphony of the Redwoods here on the Mendocino Coast and the Camellia Symphony Orchestra in Sacramento.

	SUSAN WATERFALL, pianist Director of the Piano Series Festival Co-Founder Pianist, Susan Waterfall, creates yearly multi-media, narrated settings for chamber music for the music festival. These have included: Voyage a Paris (2001); Argentina: Gauchos and Tangos (2002); Bartok’s Women (2003); Tales of A Parisian Salon: Winnaretta Singer, Princesse de Polignac (2004); Young Brahms (2005); Scandalous Music! Satie, Ravel, Debussy, and Stravinsky (2006); Leos Janacek, A Solitary Genius (2007); and Degenerate Music! Kurt Weill, Schoenberg, and Hanns Eisler in Weimar Berlin (2008). Ms. Waterfall studied piano with Ivan Moravec and Karl Ulrich Schnabel and musicology with Roland Jackson and Glenn Watkins. In the 1970s Susan lived, studied, and performed South Indian Classical Music with the legendary Dhanammal family in Madras (Chennai) India. Her understanding of music in culture was greatly enriched by this experience. Ms. Waterfall has presented numerous lecture recitals on Olivier Messiaen’s monumental piano cycle Vingt Regards sur L’Enfant Jesus. She is the wife of the Mendocino Music Festival’s Artistic Director & Conductor, Allan Pollack. Their son is acclaimed jazz pianist Julian Waterfall Pollack.


2007 - 2008 Board of Directors

President:	Barbara Faulkner
Vice President:	Roger Schwartz
Secretary:	Susan Weaver
Treasurer:	Jim Havlena
Board Members:	Jerry Greenberg Gretchen Imlay Mike Issel Shirley Issel Marcia Lotter Allan Pollack Arlene Reiss Guenter Riegler Sandy Riegler Susan Waterfall


The Mendocino Music Festival was established in 1986 as the dream of local musicians Walter Green, Allan Pollack, Susan Waterfall and other music lovers to present fine music with a mix of professional and local musicians. It was their desire, and still is, to create an opportunity for classical music education on the Mendocino Coast. July 1987 – With the cooperation of the community and California State Parks, the first festival was presented in a smaller version of our current tent on the Mendocino Headlands State Park next to the Ford House Museum and Visitor Center. The tent seated 400 people and the orchestra consisted of 56 musicians. Four orchestra and four chamber concerts were presented. The current tent seats more than 840. July 1989 – A fully staged opera was added. July 1992 – A Young Musicians Scholarship Program began, a program that continues today with a name change to the Emerging Artists Program. July 1996 – The Piano Series was added and presents master pianists in an intimate daytime lecture/recital format. July 2005 – The Village Chamber Concerts began and feature local musicians in daytime concerts at various venues in Mendocino and Fort Bragg. Each year we put up a 16,000 square foot tent and build a performance hall literally “from the ground up” overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We established a year-round presence in the town of Mendocino with our office in the Old Bank Building on the corner of Main and Kasten streets. Concerts, dinner parties, and events throughout the year build on that presence. Our national and international reputation as a respected music festival has helped increase Mendocino’s cultural identity. Mendocino is not only a vacation destination but an arts destination as well. We work to build strong economic ties with the business community and individual donors. We’ve developed a large volunteer network of more than 200 people that help out at the festival and at our year round events. Mendocino Music Festival is a member of the Arts Council of Mendocino County, the Mendocino Arts Showcase, the Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce, and Mendocino Coast Performing Arts Production Alliance where we share storage space, set pieces, props, and costumes with other local performing arts organizations.


email: music@mendocinomusic.com
Phone: 707-937-2044 Box Office: 707-937-4041 Fax: 707-937-1045

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