by Carlene Phillips ·
Friday, June 19, 2026
Kindergartner Liyana Durrani tries out a violin with encouragement from violinist Anne McKee. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Students at Hildreth Elementary School looked wide-eyed on June 9 as professional violinist Anne McKee told them that in a couple of weeks, young musicians from all around the world would be coming to their small town for the weeklong Fivesparks Music Festival June 21 to 27. And they watched intently as she played her violin right up close to them.
This is the ninth year for the chamber music festival, and Fivesparks continues to support international graduate and undergraduate students each year and to expand the festival’s reach into the community. For the second year, McKee, in her role as festival assistant, visited one class of each grade at HES to tell the students about the festival, play a few sample songs for them, introduce different string instruments, and let students try them out.
McKee traveled to Harvard from the Augusta, Maine, area, where she currently gives private lessons to 30 students, ranging from 4-year-olds to retirees, and plays in some orchestras in Maine. In a conversation during a break from HES, she said she herself started lessons when she was 4, playing on the smallest-sized violin, an example of which she brought on Tuesday. McKee said she liked hearing how excited some students were to talk about the music lessons they are taking outside of school, and she loved watching the kids’ facial expressions as they tried out the instruments. One fifth-grader said of his experience: “I never knew I liked classical music!”
McKee and HES music teacher Mark Hecox played a song together, he on the ukelele, she on the violin, that tied in with a dance that particular class was learning. She said going forward they plan to make a point of selecting more music that connects with other activities the students are already doing. McKee said she’d like to expand on the pre-festival visit with the students, perhaps with other musicians going into the school.
The festival is such a special event, she said, that she hopes her visit encourages the kids to go to some of the events during festival week. Six groups of musicians will be practicing and attending master classes in different venues in town, and community members are welcome at many of them. Visitors can learn a lot about the process of making music together, and it helps the student musicians to be playing for an audience and receiving feedback.
McKee became involved with the festival two years ago when she attended as a participant, playing in a quartet with three other students from Boston Conservatory where she was getting a master’s degree. She said she learned a lot in the workshops and loved the idea of staying with a host family in Harvard and getting to know the community. Professional violinist and educator Judy Eissenberg, who founded the festival, then asked McKee to become involved with the planning of the 2025 event.
As festival assistant, in addition to visiting HES, McKee acts as a liaison among the community, the faculty, and the musicians and helps with the daily flow of events. This year she wants to set up an organized way for the participants to volunteer with setup and cleanup of meals provided at the Harvard Unitarian Universalist Church Fellowship Building. She sees that as one way they can give back for the hospitality of the community. She brainstorms with Fivesparks board members Mark Mikitarian and Willie Wickman for ideas on how to make the festival even better than it already is. This year cellist and music professor Rhonda Rider is holding a cello seminar for eight cellists, and McKee said she is interested to see how that works with other aspects of the festival. Someday, Mckee said, she would love to start a music festival in Maine, and her role with Fivesparks is providing invaluable ideas for that future project.
Also as a participant again this year, playing the viola in a trio, McKee said, “I can keep learning as I assist.” She said she met the cellist, Ricardo Sardiñas, when they played in the quartet together two years ago, and she reached out to him to join her this year. Yuseok Seol, whom she has not met, is from Korea and has a career in collaborative piano. McKee explained that each musician practices their own part, and they spend festival week putting the entire piece together, practicing, and receiving coaching. Along with Eissenberg, the two other original coaches—concert pianist Judith Gordon and Rider—will be working with the students. The culmination of all their efforts will be the Saturday, June 27, concert in the Unitarian Church.
McKee hopes to see some of the HES students she met—and others—during the week and at the final event.
A complete schedule of public events during the week is at fivesparks.org.