NewStandard: 7/9/98

 Second festival in Marion will be launched tonight

 Is this how Tanglewood get started? 

 Tonight in Marion, the second annual Buzzards Bay Musicfest kicks off four days of top-shelf classical entertainment. 

 The affair may never rival western Massachusetts' summer-long spectacular, but local music fans are once again in for a treat on the shores of Sippican Harbor. 

 Some 20, nationally prominent musicians are coming from all points to the Fireman Performing Arts Center at Tabor Academy to take part in chamber and orchestral concerts under the direction of Maestro Russell Patterson of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. 

 Admission to all events is free! 

 The Musicfest presents orchestral performances tonight at 8 and Sunday at 2 p.m., and chamber music concerts Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. 

 Hosted by the Marion Art Center, the Musicfest is modeled after the popular Sunflower Music Festival in Topeka, Kans., of which Mr. Patterson is principal conductor. 

 Sunflower's musicians hail from symphonies and operas coast to coast. Two years ago several of the East Coast players came to Mr. Patterson. "They asked me: 'Couldn't we have a festival closer to home?'" 

 Since Mr. Patterson was already planning to retire permanently this September to a home he owns in Centerville on Cape Cod, he took the request seriously. 

 Told about the Tabor concert hall, he approached the school and the Marion Art Center about hosting a festival. Both said yes.

 Meanwhile, money for the affair was raised from folks here as well as in the Kansas City area. Many there were already summering on the Cape or the SouthCoast. 

 The backers have committed to sustain the festival financially for four years. After that, the event will have to be self-supporting. 

 Trudy Kingery, president of the Marion Art Center, says the center intends to keep admission to the festival free. "There are a lot of people who couldn't otherwise afford to come and bring their children." 

 She stresses that the Musicfest is not just for Marion folk, but for people throughout the area. "It's a perfect opportunity to get people exposed to beautiful music, to classical music." 

 For the musicians -- who come from orchestras in California, New York, Pittsburgh, Detroit, New Hampshire and beyond -- the Buzzards Bay Musicfest "is sort of a busman's holiday. They like the atmosphere," Mr. Patterson says. 

 No one is paid. Only the musicians' expenses are reimbursed. 

 For Mr. Patterson, who was general artistic director of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City for 40 years, the Musicfest "is great fun. ... I get to program what I want." 

 In retirement from the Lyric Opera post, Mr. Patterson has assumed the title of that company's conductor laureate and artistic advisor. 

 He rates the level of talent at the Buzzards Bay Musicfest as very high, arguing that if the chamber orchestra that comes together this week practiced year-round, they'd be one of the best in the world. 

 How long will Mr. Patterson lead the Musicfest in Marion?

 "I see it as a permanent arrangement," he says. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm conducting at a level that's the best of my life." 

 Last year's first Musicfest attracted crowds far exceeding expectations. "Most people said that if we got 200 people to a concert, we'd be lucky. We got twice that amount," Mr. Patterson says. 

 "We had 550 people on opening night," Ms. Kingery recalls. "One of the musicians was shocked. He told me that with first-year festivals, there are sometimes more musicians than people in the audience." 

The Marion Art Center will field some 50 volunteers to handle such duties as ushering patrons and transporting musicians. 

 Last year the musicians stayed in Tabor Academy dorm rooms. This year, the players will be guests at 19 Marion homes, Ms. Kingery says. "Some people will be taking the musicians sailing and golfing." 

 The festival, three-days-long last summer, expanded to four this year. Ms. Kingery doesn't expect the affair to grow bigger again any time soon. 

 "We haven't talked about expanding it," she says. But there is discussion of possibly adding opera or opportunities for young people to take classes with the musicians. 

 Admission to the Buzzards Bay Musicfest is free.