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She’s back! Linda Mack Berven explains it all

Linda Mack Berven will give the first of her popular preconcert lectures for Music in the Mountains on Sunday. She’ll also preview the final two concerts on Aug. 1 and 3. These standing-room-only events are free and take place one hour before the evening program in the Center of Southwest Studies.

If you go

WHAT: Music in the Mountains preconcert Lectures by Linda Mack Berven.

WHEN: July 27, Aug. 1 and 3, one hour before concert.

WHERE: Lyceum, Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive.

TICKETS: Free.

MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.musicinthemountains.com or call 385-6820.

Because Mack Berven and her husband, Wynn, are in the process of moving to Palm Springs, California, it wasn’t certain she would be on the roster for 2025. Rumors have swirled about their impending move.

“Yes, it’s true,” she said. “The reason we’re moving is Wynn’s breathing at this altitude. In California, he has more energy and feels so much better. I’ll be around a bit after the festival, and I’ve been invited back for next summer.”

For decades, Mack Berven has been a key figure in the cultural life of Durango. She has been professor of music and director of choral studies at Fort Lewis College, director of the Durango Choral Society, innovator in the chamber music world, and she’s appeared off and on in musical theater productions, most recently a Shakespeare evening of song and scenes at the Durango Arts Center.

Linda Mack Berven dialogues with a rubber chicken at a preconcert lecture for Music in the Mountains. (Courtesy of Judith Reynolds)

Thirteen years ago, Mack Berven joined the festival team to present preconcert talks. From the beginning, the goal was to make orchestra concerts more accessible to the public.

“I’ve used the same format more or less, since, and it seems to be effective,” she said. “I start with something about the composer, usually a little bio. Then I discuss the circumstances surrounding the composition. And I conclude with musical tidbits to watch or listen for.”

Mack Berven makes it sound easy, but she spends months, beginning in midwinter, listening to and thinking about each musical offering. She reads biographies and researches each work. Then she develops a creative story line.

“Most people are visual learners, and that’s why I dress up and bring props to illustrate a point,” she said. “It’s amazing what people remember. People come up to me after a concert or later at City Market and say because of that costume or that prop, I really noticed something in the concert.

“It’s fun, and, of course, it’s a challenge,” she said. “I start with what I think people need to know about the composer, the music itself and some specific details. I want to make all that memorable.”

Expect to see Mack Berven arrive in costume then layer down for each composer.

In 2025, she will delve into the lives of four famous composers: Brahms, Mozart, Schuman and Tchaikovsky, plus some you may not have heard of: Caroline Shaw, Alfred Schnittke and Valentin Silvestrov.

Because the festival often introduces new music at the beginning of concerts, Mack Berven will illuminate Shaw’s “Entr’acte” on Sunday, before the Mozart Flute Concerto featuring Demmare McGill and concluding with Shostakovich’s Symphony No.5. On Aug. 1, she will discuss Alfred Schnittke’s Suite in the Old Style, Op. 80, before Schumann’s Konzerstück for Four Horns, and Brahms’ Symphony No. 4. You’ll learn about Silvestrov’s “Hymn” before the Tchaikovsky extravaganza featuring violinist and new artistic director Vadim Gluzman in the famous violin concerto and ending with the massive Symphony No. 5.

For her final 2025 lecture, Mack Berven has planned some surprises, she said. Not to give anything away, but you might see a costume and a flag from Ukraine.

Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.