Eric and Tanya’s musical and personal lives converged in 2000 in San Francisco when Tanya moved back to the U.S. after 14 years in Amsterdam. She was inspired by her teacher there, Anner Bijlsma, and by all the innovative things that were happening in early music. Eric was interested in learning about the fortepiano, and they started performing and recording the Beethoven Sonatas on historical instruments. They purchased two beautiful historical pianos and began producing house concerts in the Bay Area. They launched an Apprenticeship program at their home in Berkeley – mentoring, coaching, and producing emerging Bay Area musicians interested in chamber music on historic instruments. One day in 2013 Eric came up with the idea to start a festival.

When they met with their good friend, Philharmonia Baroque Board member Martin Cohn, at his home in Sonoma, for his advice, it was a beautiful fall day in the Valley of the Moon, and they enthusiastically accepted his suggestion to have the festival in Sonoma. Tom Angstadt, a friend of Martin’s on the Board of the Hanna Boys Center, suggested the beautiful new auditorium there would be perfect for chamber music. Martin agreed to be President of the Board, and with much help from friends and supporters in the Sonoma Valley and beyond, the Valley of the Moon Music Festival was born.

The Valley of the Moon Music Festival specializes in Classical and Romantic chamber music performed on historical instruments, and provides emerging artists with a beautiful and inspiring place to study period performance with a world-class faculty. From its inception Valley of the Moon Music Festival, in the spirit of intergenerational collaboration, has engaged very talented young musicians in the Cremona Apprenticeship Program. Apprentices have returned as Laureates and, more recently, as faculty members, building an ever-evolving Festival community.

Tanya and Eric know, only too well, the many pitfalls that lie ahead for young musicians, and they believe that the rigid discipline and perfectionism so rampant in the Classical music culture are not the way to make great music. At its best, music represents and expresses human vulnerability, and vulnerability is easier to express in a collaborative environment that supports experimentation. The framework that the Festival provides – a focus on chamber music in a lovely setting with a dedication to the collaborative process – is an opportunity for connection between our deepest selves: musicians with fellow musicians, mentors with students, and performers with audiences. That’s why we like to say its #musicwithguts!