Melissa Reardon is the artistic director of the Portland Chamber Music Festival (Aug. 8-17). She is also the violist of the Borromeo String Quartet, an artist-in-residence at Bard College and Conservatory and a founding member and executive director of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra. Reardon, who lives in New York, outlined what a perfect day would look like both by herself and during the festival.
This is my sixth year as artistic director of the Portland Chamber Music Festival, and one of the best things about my role is getting to explore Portland, especially during the summer when I’m here for two solid weeks with my husband (cellist Raman Ramakrishnan), our 11-year-old son and dozens of some of the world’s most extraordinary musicians who we are honored to call friends and colleagues.
In my fantasy perfect solo day, I’d start off with a run at the Eastern Prom and then grab a decaf oat milk cappuccino and either a plain croissant at Belleville or the biscuit breakfast sandwich at Tandem.
Then I’d walk to the Portland Museum of Art and spend an hour there before heading to the Old Port. I’d wander around, window shopping and stopping in at the boutique Zane and Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shop before digging into a brown butter lobster roll at Eventide. I’d head over to Root Wild to pick up an assortment of kombuchas and stop next door at Onggi to pick up some chili crisp sauce.
Then I’d attend an PCMF concert (in my fantasy, I get to actually sit in the audience and just enjoy these amazing musicians) before heading over to Izakaya Minato for dinner. Finally, I’d walk back to the Western Prom to catch the sunset.
Here’s what a typical perfect day looks like during the festival:
Clarinetist Todd Palmer, who’s been coming to PCMF for over 20 years, goes for a swim at the Y and then makes a beeline for Material Objects. When he gets to the hall, he shows off his stylish and budget-friendly new wardrobe, then we have our annual “Baked Goods Smackdown” where we get tasty treats from a bunch of bakeries like Belleville, Zu Bakery, Ugly Duckling, Norimoto Bakery and Standard Baking Co. We make a big scoring grid on the whiteboard and everybody votes for their favorite. (We are stunned that Belleville was not among the latest group of James Beard Award winners – their croissant has literally made our players weep with delight.)
After morning rehearsals, we sit down to a spread of lobster rolls (usually from Eventide, but we’ve been expanding our horizons at Bite Into Maine and Highroller), supplemented by local goodies someone picked up at the Portland Farmers’ Market in Deering Oaks, and then head back into rehearsals for the afternoon. If it’s not a concert night, the whole group might head over to the Lobster Shack at Two Lights, or we might divvy up and explore the incredible restaurant scene here. I know Leeward is on the list right now and Papi, and we’ve had some great meals at Scales. My husband’s birthday falls during the festival, and since he’s a big pizza fan, we do an Otto‘s pizza party on the Eastern Prom (he’s partial to their eggplant ricotta basil).
If it is a concert night, we have a light supper of prepared items from Whole Foods beforehand, burn off a bunch of calories by playing our hearts out for a sold-out crowd, mingle over cookies at the reception, and then we head over to Paper Tiger. There aren’t that many places that do late-night dining that can accommodate a big group (we often don’t arrive till 10:30 p.m.), and we really love the vibe there. We always get tons of their Szechuan cold noodles for the table, and there may be cocktails involved. And for dessert, what could be more perfect than the Maine blueberry gelato from Gorgeous Gelato right across the street?
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