Strings that bind

Music and family have always gone together for Naomi Barnes. Her mother, a church organist, and father, founding member of the Butte Symphony and French horn player, started her on piano in first grade and violin shortly after. Of her three sisters, two played violin and one played cello. The idea of a family quartet prompted her to try a new instrument.

“They told me ‘you have to play viola so we can play in a string quartet,’” Barnes said. “So that’s how I ended up with viola.”

This week’s Festival Amadeus in Whitefish will again be a family affair for Barnes. Her two oldest daughters, Breanna and Brittany, will join her in the viola section of the orchestra for the second year, and her youngest, Bethany, will participate in the festival’s camp for young musicians.

“It’s fun when we walk in. People say ‘oh, the viola section has arrived,’” Breanna said.

Festival Amadeus began in 2008 and is Montana’s only week-long classical music festival in the summer. The concerts feature the Festival Amadeus Orchestra, smaller chamber orchestras and acclaimed soloists. Performances are held in Whitefish and Bigfork.

Barnes played viola in the Montana State University chamber orchestra for a few semesters, but stopped for a time while she attended optometry school. When she and husband Frank moved to Whitefish in 1988 and she began work at North Valley Eye Care, Barnes was quick to contact Glacier Symphony and Chorale about performing.

Likewise, Barnes’ daughters are finding their own paths. Breanna, 22, has performed in the Glacier Symphony since ninth grade and played in the symphony orchestra at Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash., while she studied biology. Brittany, 20, is majoring in statistics with a minor in music at MSU, where she also plays in the symphony. And Bethany, 13, is following close behind, playing in the orchestra at Whitefish Middle School.

Barnes said she wasn’t too surprised to see her daughters fall in love with music. The three girls were introduced to piano at age 4 and violin at age 5, then began learning viola upon starting orchestra in middle school. Having a home filled with music was just the Barnes’ way.

“It was just part of what we would do,” she said. “And I was very fortunate in that we had some very good teachers when they were young.”

Barnes credits Betty Lou Wambeke and Jenanne Solberg, both teachers at North Valley Music School, with playing important roles in the girls’ musical development.

The viola has also offered them opportunities they wouldn’t normally have. Through the All-State and All-Northwest orchestras, Breanna and Brittany met and performed with dozens of other musicians from Montana and four other states. Breanna toured the East Coast with Whitworth’s symphony, and Breanna recently returned from Ireland, where she played with the MSU symphony.

“Music has given us so much extra opportunity in our lives to meet people, play with different people,” Breanna said. “I don’t think I would have met one of my group of friends in college if I hadn’t played in orchestra.”

Naomi and Breanna will be performing today and Saturday, and Brittany will join them on Sunday for the festival’s concluding concert. When they aren’t performing, the Barnes are in the audience, enjoying the festival’s other performances. But as far as they’re concerned, sitting in the orchestra offers the best seats in the house.

“The violas are in the middle of the orchestra. It’s just like surround sound. I get to hear everything, and I love how it all comes together. You go home and play a viola part, it’s not very exciting. But when you get it all together, it’s just so cool to hear all the parts come together like a big chord,” Barnes said.

“It can really take you away. When I’m playing, I’m thinking of nothing else. If there’s stress or anything like that, it just goes away for a bit.”

Festival Amadeus continues through Sunday night. More information can be found at www.gscmusic.org.