The Sounds Of Classical Music Return To Oskaloosa

Benjamin Burgdorf performs inside Smokey Row Coffee on Monday as part of the Oskaloosa Music Festival.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The week was to have started with the soothing sounds of classical music being performed on the square in Oskaloosa. Mother Nature has been making doing anything outdoors tricky, so the sounds moved inside of Smokey Row Coffee.

There, on the stage was Benjamin Burgdorf and his friends who help make the Oskaloosa Music Festival happen.

The Oskaloosa Music Festival is now in its 10th year, and the first week the performers are here is called “Mahaska Masterworks.” The concerts for the week culminated in a performance at the First Presbyterian Church on June 1st, 2019.

The week is all about enjoying music, “and enjoying music in a variety of contexts,” Burgdorf explains. “This first week is all about lets just enjoy making music together. Making it and listening to it as a community.”

Burgdorf graduated from Oskaloosa High School, allowing him to grow and enjoy music. The music festival “was an opportunity to come back to my home town.”

“First off, I just wanted to do a concert, back home playing chamber music,” Burgdorf remembers. “We did that first concert, and then Bob Auld with the Oskaloosa Symphony said how can we make this happen again?”

“Here we are ten years later. Full houses for concerts and a bunch of students participating in a camp and two weeks of activities.”

“It’s nice to come back home to, and do my part to contribute to that spark of inspiration for music.”

Burgdorf has a well-documented history playing professionally as the former Acting Principal Violist of the Des Moines Symphony.

Today, Burgdorf and his wife live in Boston studying for his masters in viola performance as well as arts administration studies.

“Doing the arts administration studies, I’m learning how to better run this festival so that we can continue to do the good work that we are doing,” says Burgdorf. “You know, this is the first ten years, with a little more arts admin information that I’m learning about, it will be exciting to see what the next ten years will have in store.”

“It’s really been embraced by the community. That’s what allows it to keep happening,” Burgdorf says after ten years. “I see, and everyone that participates in it, just how great it is and how those that get involved, enjoy it, learn from it, come together around it. It’s a really wonderful thing to look forward to each summer.”

Oskaloosa has a rich history in music, and for Burgdorf being a part of that legacy is something that he loves. “Being part of the history of a place and participating in that in what way that I can. The City Band is amazing. I look forward to doing a concert with them each year. I love participating with that history. In the schools, I had such great opportunities here. I just feel like another spoke in the wheel, just another element to help participate in that history and be a part of the effort of many generations. That personally is just really gratifying.”

Because Mother Nature played rough over the winter, the week of camp has been moved to July 29th through August 2nd. There are 22 students this year, and they will come from not only Oskaloosa, but Pella, Ottumwa, and more.