By Allison Hersh
For Coastal Senior

SAVANNAH

As the new executive and artistic director of the Savannah Music Festival, Rob Gibson has spent much of the past six months planning a world-class lineup of musical talent ranging from The Blind Boys of Alabama to Italian classical pianist Roberto Plano.

"I had to figure out, in 60 days, a new vision for this festival," he says. "This is not a job. It's a crusade."

If Gibson has his way, the Savannah Music Festival - a 10-day event formerly known as Savannah Onstage - will be the biggest annual event in Savannah, drawing record crowds, filling area hotels and asserting the city's cultural identity on the world stage.

"If we're doing our job right," he says, "five years from now we'll be bigger than St. Patrick's Day."

Gibson, founding director of the illustrious Jazz at Lincoln Center program and an accomplished music producer, believes the Savannah Music Festival has the potential to fill a unique niche by offering an eclectic, international mix of musical styles, anchored by strong Southern roots.

"We're in the South," says this Atlanta native. "This where jazz was born, this is where gospel was born, this is where the blues was born. There are people doing good jazz festivals, doing good blues festivals and doing good classical festivals. But I don't see anyone putting together opera and jazz and blues and classical the way we are."

Danny Filson, a Savannah Music Festival board member and executive director of Trustees Theater, believes the festival has a bright future ahead.

"What we are seeing with the Savannah Music Festival is a focus and an energy and a drive that builds on the success of Savannah Onstage while letting go of some of its less successful elements," he says. "This really provides the festival with a rebirth and the ability to reach a new plateau."

If ticket sales are any indication, the response to the new musical lineup has been staggering. One month before the festival's opening night performance, more than $75,000 in tickets has been sold, far exceeding any previous record by Savannah Onstage. Music aficionados from California, New York, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida have been buying tickets by phone, fax and on the Savannah Music Festival Web site, keeping the festival office buzzing almost around the clock.

More than 600 tickets were sold to the opening-night performance of George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" at the Johnny Mercer Theater on Feb. 28. Many of the free children's events are already full. The American Traditions Finals, one of the festival highlights, which features vocalists from across the country in competition, has nearly sold out.

Gibson hopes to sell $250,000 worth of tickets to the 2003 festival, dwarfing the previous record of $115,000 and helping to bring the event out of the red and into the black.

"I inherited an organization with a $100,000 deficit," he explains. "And our aim is to eliminate that deficit and to move on to greener pastures in the coming years."

The Savannah Area Convention and Visitors Bureau recently spent $60,000 to promote the festival in the Atlanta area, through a targeted series of radio and print commercials designed to attract people to the Coastal Empire for the unique musical celebration.

"We share the vision that the Savannah Music Festival will become a nationally-recognized festival in the future," says Tony Schopp, president of the Savannah Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, "and we will do everything we can to promote it."

Georgia Public Radio will be recording many of the live concerts at this year's festival, for broadcast on its 15-station network throughout the year.

The Savannah Symphony's recent financial troubles - which include a debt of $1.2 million and the cancellation of its February concerts - will not affect the quality or the direction of the festival, Gibson says. Whether the Savannah Symphony performs live or the festival hires contract musicians, he continued, all events will proceed as planned.

"I say that the show will go on."

Although Savannah Onstage enjoyed a 13-year run in the Coastal Empire, Gibson believes that the Savannah Music Festival is starting out with a clean slate. "This is a new festival with a new vision," he says. "So as far as I'm concerned, we're starting something new."


2003 FESTIVAL OVERVIEW

The Savannah Music Festival kicked off Feb. 28 with an opening night performance of "Porgy and Bess," which will be presented live at the Johnny Mercer Theatre. The Morgan State University Choir will join forces with renowned soloists Kevin Short and Kishna Davis.

This year the festival features several thematic series designed to appeal to a wide range of musical tastes. The "Bach Forever" series includes the composer's "Mass in b minor," performed live by the internationally acclaimed Swiss vocal group Ensemble Corund in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist; the "Cello Suites" performed by Jiri Barta and Christ Church; and the "Goldberg Variations," performed by International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition winner Martin Stadtfelt at Wesley Monumental United Methodist Church.

"Jazz Meets the Philharmonic" presents revered jazz pianist Marcus Roberts performing "Yamekraw," James P. Johnson's historic musical composition that premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1928. Inspired by a slave settlement located on Yamacraw Bluff, in what is now downtown Savannah, the composition will make its Georgia debut at the 2003 Savannah Music Festival.

Roberts will be joined on stage by the "the dean of jazz piano" Hank Jones - who has performed with Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra - in a series of duets and original works for jazz trio with live symphonic accompaniment.

"This is a New York-style concert that is taking place in Savannah," says Gibson. "This is an awesome event."

The "Art of Solo Piano" will present three classical concerts at the Telfair Museum of Art, showcasing some of the world's rising classical pianists.

"Confessin' the Blues" offers an old-fashioned blues review, featuring some of the greatest blues musicians of our time including Cootie Stark, Essie Mae Brooks, Drink Small and Cool John Ferguson.

"Organ Stops" will present six free midday organ performances in some of Savannah's most historic churches.

The 10th Annual VeriSign American Traditions Competition will feature dozens of vocalists from around the country competing for more than $32,000 in prizes.

This one-of-a-kind competition focuses on America's rich musical heritage, celebrating 19th- and 20th-century American songs. With six internationally acclaimed judges determining the winner, the competition promises to heat up throughout the week.

A new addition to this year's festival will be "The Night Shift," a self-styled "juke joint," located at the Savannah College of Art and Design's Orleans Hall. It will provide the opportunity to experience a range of jazz, blues and zydeco in an intimate, alternative late-night performance space. Highlights of this ambitious lineup include jazz sensation Cyrus Chestnut, Savannah favorite Kristina Beaty, jazz pianist extraordinaire Marcus Roberts and zydeco sweetheart Rosie Ledet.

A range of free educational events - including youth concerts, concert talks and jazz films - will take place throughout the festival.

The festival finale, "Soul of the South," headlined by the Blind Boys of Alabama, will be a free outdoor concert in Forsyth Park that unites artists from across the Southeast to perform traditional Southern music including blues, jazz, gospel and zydeco.


THE FIVE-YEAR PLAN

The Savannah Music Festival has a new name and a new vision, but promoting, advertising and showcasing the festival on the international stage will take several years.

"We aim to grow the festival over time and to make it a world-class festival that brings people from all over the world to Savannah," says Gibson, who serves as executive and artistic director. "And that will happen in the next five years."

The Spoleto Festival in Charleston has long prided itself on debuting new commissioned works by top composers each year. Gibson hopes to commission artists to create original compositions for the Savannah Music Festival and plans to expand the international range of the festival.

He has already started investigating a range of musicians from Bulgaria, Brazil, Haiti, India and Africa for the 2004 Savannah Music Festival. "You can't change things in one year," he admits. "It's going to take five years to really create a world-class festival that draws people from the international community."

Changing the festival's name and logo are both part of attracting a broader audience.

Gibson believes that the name Savannah Onstage evoked theater, rather than music. And, he explains, the phrase "music festival" can be easily translated into more than 20 languages.

The festival's new logo combines a musical note, an abstracted "S" and a sail that invokes Savannah's maritime history. An oversized color brochure and an interactive Web site have helped promote the festival to music fans throughout Savannah and around the world.

Although people will be attending this event from across the country, Savannah's support of the festival will be critical to its future success. "You can't have a successful festival without local support," says festival board member Danny Filson, "But you also can't have a successful festival without regional support as well."

Another key to the festival's future success is its collaboration with local organizations, institutions and resources. This year the festival has been working closely with the Savannah College of Art and Design, the Telfair Museum of Art and the Savannah Symphony to form partnerships that benefit everyone involved.

During the festival, Savannah College of Art and Design students will present site-specific installations and performance art pieces in festival venues, while photography students will have the opportunity to document the event. The SCAD Singers will even perform live on stage with the Morgan State Choir.

"It's one thing to get a community excited about a festival," says Filson, "but it's another thing to get the community involved with the festival."

In future years, Gibson plans to expand the festival's collaboration to include a broader range of Savannah organizations, including the Beach Institute and local nightclubs.

In the meantime, he wants Savannah residents and visitors to experience a new festival with a fresh vision.

"I want people in Savannah to come out and hear what we're doing," says Gibson. "This is music that will make you feel good. And people are hungry for that."