A MEANINGFUL LEGACY of community building through music…

Against an incomparable backdrop of booming seas and rugged coastlines, along with the beauty of its beaches, lakes, and bays, audiences have enjoyed world-class music at sites in and around Lincoln City for an uninterrupted run – until 2020 -- of 39 years. This magnificent setting combines with enthusiastic audiences to attract some of the world’s most talented musicians to a festival that has embraced a broad range of musical traditions including classical, jazz, big band, cabaret, and hip-hop.

Currently under the direction of Artistic Director Mei-Ting Sun, the annual event, which over the years evolved into the Siletz Bay Music Festival, offers ten days of concerts that bring audiences from far and wide for an adventurous musical feast suited to every taste. Virtuoso soloists from all over the world and an orchestra comprised of professionals chosen for their ability to collaborate quickly and find the precise style for each piece of music, have made Siletz Bay Music Festival one of the Northwest’s premier musical events. 

Siletz Bay Music Festival traces its roots to the mid-1980’s and an informal series of salons held in the Cascade Head home of Sergiu Luca, a part-time Oregon Coast resident and professor of violin at Houston’s Rice University. Luca created the Cascade Head Music Festival in 1986 and served as its Artistic Director until 2008. Upon Professor Luca’s departure, Lee Freed of the Freed Gallery in Lincoln City took up the reins of the festival, seeking a new music director who would not only carry on the tradition of Cascade Head but also expand its musical scope. Mrs. Freed recruited Maestro Yaki Bergman as Artistic Director, and the expanded concept became the SoundWaves festival. In 2011, Maestro Bergman and the board expanded it again, creating an independent entity organized as a 501(c)(3) called Siletz Bay Music Festival.

The festival grew in prominence and attracted support from local government, businesses, and the people of Lincoln City. The board was determined to find a means of giving something more back to the community.  The decrease in public school funding for the arts -- and music, in particular – provided an incentive for them to reach deeper -- to find a way to bring music and instruments to the students of Lincoln City: Siletz Bay Music Festival would facilitate music instruction and provide instruments to local high school students.  Then Executive Director Sue Parks-Hilden and board member Christine Tell wrote a grant to the prestigious Oregon Community Foundation and were awarded the much-coveted Studio to Schools grant – a $270,000, 5-year program to be administered by Siletz Bay Music Festival.  To date, hundreds of students have benefited. With the completion of the grant in August 2019, a new entity, Music Is Instrumental, was formed to carry on the work the grant initiated. MII continues to raise funds to provide instruments and music education to students in the Lincoln County system while Siletz Bay Music Festival continues to bring world-class music and musicians into the lives of students, residents, and visitors to the Oregon Coast.

With the passing of founder and Artistic Director Bergman in 2023, the festival continues under the leadership of Artistic Director Mei-Ting Sun and this year’s guest conductor Johann Stuckenbruck. Both are committed to upholding the vision of Maestro Bergman, which is such a large part of the festival’s appeal.

From the intimate chamber music events that began in Professor Luca’s living room, Siletz Bay Music Festival has grown to become a centerpiece of cultural life on the Central Oregon Coast, bringing great chamber and orchestral music, jazz and added surprises each season to throngs of Lincoln City residents and the visitors who flock here.