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The Bar Harbo Music Fetival
enters its 53rd eason under the direction f Francis Fotier
feature by Kate Shaffer
phot s by David Rodriguez, courtesy of the Bar Harb r Music Festival
On a summer night in the early 1960s, a group of young musicians from New York City on a short leave from their responsibili-
ties at Kneisel Hall, escaped Blue Hill for a few beers and a little nightlife in Bar Harbor. One of those kids, a violinist named Francis
Fortier, was entranced by the popular vacation spot’s energy and beauty, but puzzled by the lack of live music. When he asked a local
shop owner where he and his friends could go to listen to music, the shop owner told them that live music disappeared with the fire that
burned much of the town in 1947. Fortier returned to Blue Hill that night with a glimmer of a plan, which would, in just a few short
years, birth an internationally acclaimed music festival, and a lifelong mission. A view of the gallery
For the next several years, Fortier, a student at The Juilliard School at the time, spent his summers conducting a “feasibility study.”
He organized small music festivals up and down the coast of Maine, in an attempt to prove that bringing “beautiful music to beautiful
places” was not only possible, but had long-term potential. Finally, in the summer of 1967, his vision manifested a permanent home
with the founding of the Bar Harbor Music Festival.
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