Ian Scarfe

Ian Scarfe enjoys a wide ranging career as an advocate for music and the arts. He is the founder and director of the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, founded in 2011, and balances his regional work in Northern California with an international career as a concert pianist, speaker, and tour manager. He holds degrees in musical performance from Willamette University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has done years of postgraduate work at both institutions.

As a performer he is equally comfortable as a soloist, recital partner, or in the mix of small or large ensembles. He consistently appears in more than 100 concerts per year, which take him across the United States and Europe. He collaborates regularly with a cast of dozens of professional string players, woodwind players, singers, and orchestras. He is a founding member of several ensembles, including Nonsemble Six, the Vinifera Trio, and the Zurich Beethoven Trio.

Though he enjoys fantastic musical technique and command at the piano, he is perhaps better known for his thoughtful, humorous, and charismatic stage presence. Scarfe treats every one of his hundreds of concerts as a way to engage with the audience, whether they be in a fourth grade classroom, a warehouse of partying millenials in San Francisco, or a senior community where residents always look forward to Tuesday afternoon concerts. His presentation from the stage ranges from sharing the history of the music being performed, giving specific listening guides about great masterpieces of music, and inviting his audience "behind the scenes" with anecdotes and snapshots of how professional musicians manage the challenges of the works being performed. He has also supported colleagues in the creation of other organizations, including the Hogtown Chamber Music Festival in Gainesville, Florida, Festival Viana in Portugal, and Festival Rolland in Bourgogne, France. He has served as faculty and guest artist at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in Alaska, the Astoria Music Festival in Oregon, and the Telluride Chamber Music Festival in Colorado.

He has enjoyed teaching residencies as guest faculty, lecturer, and performer at Stanford, UCSC, UCSF, Willamette, Monmouth, Western Illinois, UMass Amherst, and the SF Conservatory of Music. He makes regular appearances at Bay Area adult education programs and retirement communities. He has been the host for concerts at orchestra halls, jazz clubs, and private homes, and has been the narrator for several children's concerts, including “Peter and the Wolf'', “Babar the Elephant'', and Rudyard Kipling's “Just So Stories”. A major part of Scarfe's career has revolved around his commitment to bringing music and the arts to rural communities across North State California, mainly through his work with the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival. Founded in 2011 with Trinity County resident, farmer, and musician Ellen McGehee, this festival originated as a program to offer musical residencies to professional musicians in the scenic Trinity Alps region of California. Scarfe quickly developed this into one of the most prolific presenters of concerts, masterclasses, and educational programs in the state, boasting over 500 such events in dozens of rural North-State communities, with an international roster of over 80 professional musicians. They have performed music, storytelling, and educational programs for over 5,000 students across the region. All but a handful of their concerts, since the very beginning, have been ticket-free, with a suggested-donation-admission ensuring that everyone in the communities were welcome.

With a mission to serve rural communities by offering easy access to world class music programming, Scarfe has established a network and fan base throughout not just Trinity County, but also neighboring Shasta, Humboldt, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Butte Counties. With a dedication to giving visiting musicians an "adventure experience" during their time at the festival, Scarfe has led them on expeditions into many parts of the wilderness backcountry of this region, and spent time along the major scenic waterways of the Trinity, Klamath, and Sacramento Rivers. If you asked him about his wide-ranging career, he would probably tell you that, as he sees it, one of his main roles in life is to bring people together to make things happen. He uses his wide network of people across the world to make things happen anywhere he finds himself - whether it be bringing prize-winning musicians from Denmark and Switzerland to film violin duets in the Redwoods, or finding a place at a fondue dinner high in the Swiss Alps with a quartet of friends.

As would anyone who has spent much time in this region, Scarfe has experienced the escalating wildfire risks. He has lived through hazardous air quality during active wildfires, has cancelled concerts, evacuated towns, re-routed tours during summer wildfire seasons, and has seen friends, colleagues, neighbors, and entire communities suffer life-altering times of destruction.

He believes in the vision of harnessing the power of music and arts programming to bring communities together, and leveraging that/ for community building and educational purposes. He sees a future where these gatherings can help spread information about the care and management of wild lands, the mitigation of risks from wildfire, and the long-term appreciation of the incredible resource that is California wilderness.