**The Siletz Music Festival includes performances by 60 artists, with many world-class musicians featured for the first time.** (Photo by Bob Gibson/Blue Water Photography)

This year’s Siletz Music Festival is the most ambitious yet, featuring 60 artists and 12 concerts from Thursday, Aug. 13 through Sunday, Aug. 23 in Lincoln City and Newport.

This is the festival’s 14th season, and it includes a number of world class artists making their festival debut.

They include Utah-based virtuoso pianist Koji Attwood, a University of Utah professor and frequent performer at New York’s Lincoln Center. Attwood has been called “a pianist of rare gifts, both as a solo artist and as a collaborator.”

He studied music with the festival’s artistic director, Mei-Ting Sun, piano professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

“Koji was my absolute best friend at Juilliard,” Sun said in a phone interview from London, where he lives.

Sun became the festival’s artistic director in 2024 after advising the festival founder, renowed conductor Yaki Bergman, for years about the programming. Since then, he has built upon Bergman’s legacy by strengthening the festival’s core assets: virtuoso chamber performers, a first-rate orchestra and adventurous programming, including a compelling annual jazz performance.

He has also attracted new talent to Siletz. Besides Attwood, this year’s festival includes violist Youming Chen from Chicago. He has played with the Chicago Symphony since 2016, earning wide acclaim for his work with international chamber ensembles.

Violinist Muriel Oberhofer, an emerging star from Switzerland, is also performing this year for the first time. Critics praise the warmth and expressiveness she brings to both chamber music and solo engagements with symphony orchestras.

And Julie Boulianne, the French-Canadian mezzo-soprano, is arriving fresh from appearances at Europe’s most prestigious opera theaters. She will appear in chamber concerts featuring songs by Chausson and Brahms, at the festival’s beloved “Musical Tapas” concert and in the orchestral program, where she’ll perform Wagner’s “Wesendonck Lieder,” a set of five songs rarely attempted without a singer of exceptional power and presence.

Returning conductor Johann Stuckenbruck largely shaped the orchestral program, and new Executive Director Daniel Pack also played a key role in organizing this year’s festival, Sun said.

The festival opens with a program titled “Dreams of Childhood: The Musical Reflections of a New Father.” Sun and festival pianist Michelle Chow are new parents. The parental theme will also run through the free family concert on Saturday, Aug. 22, featuring Poulenc’s “Babar the Little Elephant.”

Other highlights of the festival include Mendelssohn’s celebrated “Octet,” a piece that is rarely performed outside conservatory settings because of its rehearsal demands.

The festival also includes contemporary work by Native American composer Jerod Impichchaahaaha’ Tate, music by Israeli composer Shulamit Ran and performances of Aaron Copland’s inspiring “Lincoln Portrait” along with Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 8.”

And there will be a tribute to Miles David and John Coltrane, honoring the centennials of their births.

The concerts will take place at five venues in Lincoln City and Newport. For tickets and program information, go to SiletzBayMusic.org.

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