ROUND TOP, Texas — For 50 years, Round Top Festival Institute has brought classical music to Fayette County, nearly halfway between Austin and Houston.
The past 50 years have presented their own challenges, but none quite like the pandemic arriving in 2020.
"The past year-and-a-half, it has been an extraordinarily unusual challenge," James Dick, founder of the Festival Institute, said. "We have coped so well and I've been proud of the audiences that come and all the young artists who come from all over the world. Even last summer, we made our festival more concise, but it still happened and we still had people come. This coming summer of 2022, since we're beginning our second 50 years, we thought we've got to do it. So we're opening the whole thing up."
To accommodate health recommendations and rules, Dick shortened the catalog of performances, recommended masks, socially distanced seating and insisted vaccines to the audience.
"On the other hand, I don't want to overdo and frighten people or keep people away if they really still want to come," Dick said.
When Dick founded the Institute in 1970, with a focus on music education, the Festival Hill property was only 6 acres. Now, Festival Hill encompasses 210 acres, with one of the original La Grange chapels, a 1,000-seat Concert Hall and living spaces for 150 students taking part in the Summer Music Festival from all over the world.
PHOTOS: Round Top Festival Institute
"When the students arrive, we raise flags from each state and country they are from," Dick said. "They really loving seeing that and feeling that connection."
Because of the pandemic-forced changes, frequent members of the audience could not attend as much as they wanted, if at all.
"The arts have taken a particular hit because they can't – performances have not been possible," Jamie Moreau said. "I would just say tremendous accolades to the folks that have made Festival Institute possible from the beginning."
Moreau attends a performance at the Festival Institute every year with her family. For the first time since the pandemic began, she and her family plan to see the Houston Chamber Ringers Handbell Concert and the annual Nutcracker performance.
"We are primarily educational," Dick said. "Education can be incredibly exciting. And I think we are here. I know that from the results we get from our alumni who are now all over. They're on six continents, teaching and performing and giving back, which is, I think, something that maybe they learn better here than they may at conservatory and university."
Round Top Festival Institute has mostly reopened to the public again, with a few caveats: masks are still recommended, if not required, for certain performances, along with socially distanced seating. Festival Hill will next host its Theatre Forum this coming weekend, followed by the Handbell Concert next week and Nutcracker performance in December.
PEOPLE ARE ALSO READING: