A popular summertime feature in the area will soon move to Winona Lake.

Dr. Patrick Kavanaugh, conductor of the MasterWorks Festival, said Friday that the entire MasterWorks organization make to Winona Lake its new permanent home.

"We really like it there," Kavanaugh said, "and we hope you like us as much."

He said the plan is to move in May or June, and they will start with "about a dozen people," adding more people each year, including the MasterWorks board of directors.

"We're starting kind of a musicians' colony," he said.

For the past two summers, the MasterWorks Festival has taken place for approximately one month at Grace College in Winona Lake. These summer "camps" have been characterized by free concerts, operas and theater, and have been popular and well-attended by people in this area. The summer festival includes music classes that attract music students, age 14 to 26, from all over the world.

Kavanaugh said the free concerts will continue because it is specified in the MasterWorks bylaws that they give concerts for free.

The MasterWorks Festival is an outgrowth of the Christian Performing Artists' Fellowship, which Kavanaugh and his wife, Barbara, a professional cellist, started with two other couples. MasterWorks began in 1997 as a course designed to prepare young people for music careers and to help shape their spirituality by including daily Christian devotions and Bible studies.

Kavanaugh will be in Winona Lake next week to finalize more details of the move.

On the Net: www.MasterWorksFestival.org [[In-content Ad]]