Starting June 28 and continuing on until August 2, the Kent Blossom Music Festival has followed suit with other events and made changes to their programming. 

The Kent Blossom Music Festival started in 1968, it is a partnership between Kent State University and the Cleveland Orchestra. The festival submerges music students into a 5-week, overnight training program. 

 Every summer, the festival invites students through a submission process. The audition tapes are of them playing a classical instrument and a classical piece of music. The program is a five week long intensive training program, pushing students to their highest potential. 

The students receive coaching and lessons from the top musicians from all over the world, including Cleveland Orchestra members and Kent State faculty. Throughout the program the students would have concerts at different locations. Including local libraries, nursing homes and Blossom Music Center.

On average they have about 150 applicants and about 40 to 45 students are accepted to participate in the program. The program is overnight.

Usually they accept an average of 43 students starting from ages 17 to about 22 years old. “We are offering this opportunity for students to work on their art and craft, and to further their skills,” says Director of the Blossom Music Festival, Ricardo Sepúlveda. 

“Those coaching starts with international faculty, guest artists and members from the Cleveland Orchestra. The Cleveland Orchestra is one of the top orchestras in the world, and we are fortunate to have this relationship with them. It is unique and one of a kind,” said Sepúlveda. 

On any normal year, the Kent Blossom Music Festival would be having their advanced professional music training. Every Wednesday through this 5 week program, the students would have concerts. At the end of the program, each student would have a solo performance, and then they would perform side-by-side to the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center. 

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the festival was forced to adapt and switch to online like many other things have this year. 

With approval from the artists, there will be a series of broadcasted past concerts that were originally filmed during past festivals. Throughout the rebroadcasts of the concerts, there will be testimonials from students and comments from the artists that are performing. 

All of these will be broadcasted every Wednesday until August 2 starting at 7:30 p.m. 

“We are using this as an opportunity, because everyone is hurting, everyone is going through financial hardships, if they feel so inclined, they can go ahead and make a donation for the program,” Sepúlveda said.   

You can watch this virtual music festival through Kent’s website, at www.kent.edu/blossom or way through the Kent State School of Music page.  

To find out more information about the Kent Blossom Music Festival, follow their social media pages.

Twitter: @kentblossommus

Instagram: @kentblossommusic

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/KentBlossomMusic/

Contact Jessica Urig at [email protected].