Evening Concert at Cazadero Music Camp
Drove out for the evening concert at Cazadero Music Camp, which sits in a redwood grove on about 33 acres near the Russian River. The camp has been running since 1957, when Robert and Beth Lutt started it, and it now takes in over 1,400 young musicians a year — which you believe once you see how many folding chairs they fit under the amphitheater canopy.
The program started while there was still a little light in the trees and ran well past dark. The jazz band went first, saxophones and trombones packed in tight, and at one point half the players' hands shot up at once — some kind of acknowledgment after a solo, near as I could tell. Then the full concert band filled the whole stage, bassoons and flutes and a conductor working hard at the front, music clipped to the stands against whatever breeze came through.
The redwoods go straight up behind the stage and swallow the sound between pieces. A row of bassoons leaned against the empty chairs at the back, waiting their turn.
