Siletz Bay Music Festival History
Against an incomparable backdrop of booming seas and rugged coastlines, along with the beauty of its beaches, lake and bays, audiences have enjoyed world-class music at sites in and around Lincoln City for an uninterrupted run – until 2020 — of 34 years. The magnificence of the setting and the enthusiasm of the audiences have combined to attract some of the world’s most talented musicians to a festival that now embraces a broad range of musical traditions including classical, jazz, big band, cabaret and hip-hop.
Most recently under the direction of Maestro Yaacov (Yaki) Bergman, the annual event, which over the years evolved into the Siletz Bay Music Festival, offers ten days of concerts which attract audiences from far and wide for an adventurous musical feast suited to every taste. Virtuoso soloists from all over the world and an orchestra comprised of professionals chosen for their ability to collaborate quickly and find the precise style for each piece of music, have made the Siletz Bay Music Festival one of the Northwest’s premiere musical events.
The Siletz Bay Music Festival traces its roots to the mid-1980’s and an informal series of salons held in the Cascade Head home of Sergiu Luca, a part-time Oregon Coast resident and professor of violin at Houston’s Rice University. Sergiu created the Cascade Head Music Festival in 1986 and served as its Artistic Director until 2008. Since that time the tradition of the coast’s music festival has been carried on under a succession of banners. Upon Professor Luca’s departure, Lee Freed of the Freed Gallery in Lincoln City took up the reins of the Cascade Head Festival. She sought a new music director who would not only carry on the tradition of Cascade Head but also expand its musical scope as well. Mrs. Freed recruited Maestro Bergman as Artistic Director and the expanded concept became a new music festival — SoundWaves. In 2011, Maestro Bergman and the board expanded it again, creating an independent entity organized as a 501(c)(3). They called it Siletz Bay Music Festival.
The festival grew in prominence and attracted support from local government, businesses and the people of Lincoln City. The board was determined to find a means of giving something more back to the community. The decrease in public school funding for the arts — and music, in particular – provided an incentive for them to reach deeper — to find a way to bring music and instruments to the students of Lincoln City: Siletz Bay Music Festival would facilitate music instruction and provide instruments to local high school students. Then executive Director Sue Parks-Hilden and board member Christine Tell wrote a grant to the prestigious Oregon Community Foundation and were awarded the much-coveted Studio to Schools grant – a $270,000, 5-year program to be administered by Siletz Bay Music Festival. To date, hundreds of students have benefited. With the completion of the grant in August of 2019, a new entity, Music Is Instrumental, was formed to carry on the work the grant initiated. MII continues to raise funds to provide instruments and music education to students in the Lincoln County system while Siletz Bay Music Festival continues to bring world class music and musicians into the lives of students, residents and visitors to the Oregon Coast.
This year marks a new chapter in the Siletz Bay Music Festival story. With the passing of founder and Artistic Director Bergman in 2023, the festival continues this year under the leadership of Interim Artistic Director Mei-Ting Sun and guest conductor Deanna Tham. Both are committed to upholding the vision of its founder, which is such a large part of its appeal.
From the intimate chamber music events that began in Professor Luca’s living room, the Siletz Bay Music Festival has grown to become a centerpiece of cultural life on the Central Oregon Coast bringing great chamber and orchestral music, jazz and added surprises each season to throngs of Lincoln City residents and the visitors who flock here.