Orlando Festival
Founder and Director Stefan Metz was honored during the 30th anniversary festival this summer, including a gala final concert which featured Metz playing Schubert’s great string quintet with the Casals Quartet. Metz had previously announced that he would be retiring as artistic director of the festival, and would be succeeded by Maarten Mostert. Mostert organized a moving tribute to Metz and his wife Isabelle Bensa at the final concert by providing the entire audience and festival musicians with a Dutch version of the famous “Adieu, Monsieur le Professeur”, which was then sung and played by the standing, capacity crowd as a collective encore to the Schubert Quintet. ECMTA Chairman Evan Rothstein attended the final weekend of the festival and presented Metz with a certificate expressing appreciation "for his inspired leadership, distinguished artistic career, and exemplary devotion to the teaching and the promotion of chamber music."