Want to discover more about Mozart\u2019s music and genius?<\/p>\n
Genius doesn\u2019t grow on trees. Neither does prodigy.<\/p>\n
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the most prolific and profoundly influential composers who ever lived \u2014 he would have had his 260th birthday in January \u2014 was both genius and prodigy. By the age of 5, he was playing keyboard and violin like a master and performing before the crowned heads of Europe, thanks to his father, a promoter par excellence.<\/p>\n
The talents of Mozart\u2019s sister, Nannerl, were also prodigious and like Wolfgang, she composed as well. She traveled with her father and brother for a time, but it was unseemly for a girl to perform in public when she showed signs of becoming a woman, so Nannerl was retired very early. That was lucky for us, because Wolfgang wrote frequently to her from the road, and those letters were preserved.<\/p>\n In his second year as music director of San Diego\u2019s Mainly Mozart Festival (June 2-18, subtitled \u201cAn Exploration of Prodigy\u201d), Michael Francis explores the prodigy of Mozart by assaying his early works in the Festival Orchestra Series. It\u2019s the first year of a six-year exploration.<\/p>\n This year, the festival presents Mozart\u2019s early opera \u201cBastien und Bastien\u201d (June 4), written when he was 12 and Sylvia Milo\u2019s \u201cThe Other Mozart,\u201d a one-woman play about Nannerl (June 12).<\/p>\n \u201cProdigy is that thing you can\u2019t just do through hard work,\u201d Francis said. \u201cIt is that divine spark, that extra gift that was just born.\u201d<\/p>\n As further exploration of prodigy, Francis and executive producer\/co-founder Nancy Laturno Bojanic present living examples with the Festival Orchestra: Umi Garrett, now 15, plays Beethoven\u2019s Piano Concerto No. 2 (June 4), and 12-year-old Gavin George plays Mozart\u2019s Piano Concerto No. 5 (June 18).<\/p>\n In addition, singer, songwriter, and showman Ethan Bortnick, now 15, presents his PBS-TV show, \u201cThe Power of Music,\u201d at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 17 at the Balboa Theatre.<\/p>\n Raised in a non-musical family, Bortnick insisted at the tender age of 3 that he be given piano lessons. When his parents hesitated, he got out his toy piano and played classical and pop tunes he\u2019d heard on the radio. They relented and the rest is history.<\/p>\n The Festival Orchestra Series includes performances by violinist William Preucil and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott (June 8), pianist Adam Neiman (June 11), and violinist James Ehnes (June 15). The repertoire is mainly Mozart but works by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Haydn, Schubert and Saint-Saens are also programmed.<\/p>\n Festival Orchestra Series concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. and are preceded at 6:30 by informative, free-to-ticketholders \u201cOverture\u201d mini-concerts and\/or lectures. At 10:30 a.m. on concert days June 4, 8, 15 and 18, and at 7 p.m. Friday, June 10, the public may also attend a free, open rehearsal at the Balboa Theatre.<\/p>\n Another freebie<\/strong><\/p>\n At 3:30 p.m., on Sunday, June 13, at Balboa Park\u2019s Spreckels Organ Pavilion, the Mainly Mozart Festival presents a free concert; San Diego Makes Music, with Maestro Michael Francis conducting\u00a0the Festival Orchestra and amateur musicians. Want to play\u00a0along? Visit the Mainly Mozart\u00a0website (mainlymozart.org), download the sheet music, grab your instrument and come to the concert.<\/p>\n Additionally, Mainly Mozart offers three Festival Chamber Players concerts: first a concert by the Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra; and The Other Mozart, both at the Historic Balboa Theatre; and Mozart & the Mind: An Exploration of Prodigy, with lectures and music centered around the music-brain conversation and how music plays a role in early development, hosted by the Westgate Hotel.<\/p>\n The festival runs through June 18. The five venues hosting the music include: EvoNexus Incubator, 101 W. Broadway, Downtown; Historic Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown; Spreckels Organ Pavilion, Balboa Park; St. Paul\u2019s Cathedral, 2728 Sixth Ave., Bankers Hill; and the Westgate Hotel, 1055 Second Ave., Downtown. To review the festival brochure, visit tinyurl.com\/jag3z2v<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Ethan-Bortnick1webtop\"](\"https:\/\/sandiegodowntownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Ethan-Bortnick1webtop.jpg\")
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