Profile: Barbara Bershon
Arts councilor boosts Southern Md. arts community, her adopted home

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Prior to the move, Bershon had been an adjunct psychology professor at American University in Washington for eight years. She has a doctorate in education from the University of Maryland. After she relocated to Southern Maryland, she became an adjunct in the Psychology Department at St. Mary's College, a state public-honors college with approximately 2,000 students.

She also became chair of the St. Mary's College of Maryland Arts Alliance in 1998. The alliance – a funding organization for faculty, student awards and guest artists – promotes arts events on campus and directs outreach into the community. It was a way for Bershon to become engaged in the local art community and do something to advance it.

One of the major events that the alliance works with is the River Concert Series – live musical concerts that run from mid-June through July on Friday nights. In 2003, the executive director position for the series was open. Bershon recalls people saying, "Why don't you do it?"– and so, she did.

The series, which began in 1999, typically draws between 3,000 and 5,000 people each week. These outdoor concerts feature the Chesapeake Orchestra – a company of professional musicians from the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore regions, and faculty and student musicians at St. Mary's College, guided by Jeffrey Silberschlag, music director. Guest artists are high-quality professional performers who represent a wide range of musical genres – classical to jazz to bluegrass and blues.

Series becomes self-sufficient
"We can only have so many people at the concerts,"says Bershon, "but we are getting people coming from farther away."Her greatest accomplishment as director of the series has been her success with related fundraising, she says.

Since she became director, she adds, the program has evolved into self-sufficiency. A number of defense contractors in the area have signed on as sponsors. These companies – Booze Allen Hamilton, Eagan McAllister, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Sikorsky and others – have relocated workers from metropolitan areas who enjoy attending these first-rate concerts, she says.

She's also proud of the backing for the series that comes from individuals and small businesses in the community, whose contributions often reflect even more significant participation compared to the resources of the large companies. All of this support, she says, keeps the concerts free.

This year, the season opens with a two-day celebration, June 19-20, in honor of the 375th anniversary of Maryland's founding. One of the weekend's highlights will be the premier of the newly commissioned "In Terra Mary Land."The schedule also includes musical selections from the 17th to 21st centuries, fireworks and the arrival of tall ships.

One of the spin-offs from the concert series has been a joint effort by St. Mary's and the Italian town of Alba to promote linked classical music festivals, starting in 2004. American and Italian artists perform at each of the locations. Two years ago, St. Mary's and Alba received joint recognition – the "Governor's Award for Global Marketing" from the Maryland Tourism Council.

Model music festival
"We're becoming the ‘Spoleto of Maryland,'"Bershon says. Spoleto is the name of an Italian town where an annual arts festival began in 1958. An American counterpart in Charleston, S.C., – Spoleto Festival USA – was established in 1977.

Bershon also compares the River Concert Series with its affiliated music seminars over the summer to another prominent gathering – the Aspen (Col.) Music Festival and School. "That's our model,"she says. Aspen, according to its web site, is a nine-week summer festival of more than 350 events that draws 750 student musicians from around the world. (David Zinman, former conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, is Aspen's music director.)

The success of the River Concert Series ties in to two of Bershon's special interests at the State Arts Council – increasing access to the arts throughout the state and providing a way for major musical artists to perform in venues outside of the metropolitan areas.

She was appointed last May by the governor to a three-year term as a councilor. The Arts Council has a 17-member panel that governs its affairs and works with the organization's professional staff.