The Inception of a Music Festival
As the orchestra gathers on stage at the Lake George Music Festival, Alexander Lombard ’07 & ’09 can finally sit back and relax as the music starts to flow throughout the hall.
After a year of planning, the SUNY Potsdam alumnus’ hard work has paid off. Top musicians, selected from world-class orchestras around the country, have joined forces for a two-week event in the Adirondacks.
“It was an idea that really started at Crane,” Lombard said. “As a student, you're exposed to that summer music festival scene. I went to Aspen, Tanglewood, and Bowdoin, and I took my experiences, all the networking and connections from the festivals, and combined them with all the things I learned and the people I met at Crane, to form the Lake George Music Festival.”
The festival has continued to evolve over the past decade and a half, and now welcomes around 5,000 audience members every year. Lombard and his creative team of 12 people work throughout the year to make the festival a reality—connecting with well-known artists in orchestras ranging from the Boston Symphony to the New York Philharmonic. Then, they hold auditions for students from music programs around the country including Crane, Julliard and Curtis for their residency program.
“The Lake George Music Festival is super competitive. I wish we had more space. We audition 300 to 400 students for maybe 35 spaces, it’s very selective, especially for composers and wind players,” he said.
Right now, Lombard is busy planning for the June 2025 festival, where they will hold nightly chamber music concerts, and two full orchestra performances between June 8 to 19. “There’s a mix between these high-level professionals and the students. At this point we’ve had over 1000 alumni, from every major conservatory and every American orchestra,” he said.
Lombard launched the annual festival in 2011 with cofounder Roger Kalia, a fellow Crane alumnus, after they both started attending music festivals around the country. And then when Lombard attended the Bowdoin Music Festival, he met Barbora Kolářová, a world-class violinist from the Czech Republic who now serves as the artistic director for the Lake George Music Festival.
“I went to these music festivals to play piano. You pay tuition to go to these places and you think it’s an extension of learning, but that’s not really why you go. I didn’t know at the time, but you go to these festivals to network, and you’re going to meet colleagues that shape your entire career."
The Roots of Music Business
For Lombard, it all started at Crane. When he was 14 or 15 years old, he attended Crane Youth Music, a dynamic summer music program for middle and high school students to hone their craft. Still a teenager, he had the opportunity to work with Paul Wyse, a Crane professor of piano performance at the time, who encouraged him to attend SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music after high school.
“I had taken lessons in my hometown, and then I got to study with someone like Paul Wyse from Crane, a big institution, and I learned so much in those two weeks. CYM was very impactful. That’s a great program for driving students to Crane,” he said.
Lombard enrolled at the College as a piano performance major, and went on to receive both his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in music performance, as well as winning the concerto competition during his at SUNY Potsdam. “Being able to play with an orchestra and seeing how that unfolded was probably the highlight. It was 100 percent the best time of my life. I met so many great people and I learned so much,” he said.
Although heavily focused on mastering his piano performance skills in college, Lombard was also intrigued by the music business side of things, and discovered a natural ability to connect with other talented artists.
“I started taking all these music business classes, every class that I could fit into my schedule. It was very valuable to me. One was about artist relations and artist contracts—skills I still use today,” he said.
Outside of the classroom, his first hands-on experience with the music business scene was working at Madstop Records, SUNY Potsdam’s independent record label. When his classmates were seeking a professional recording for an audition at one of the summer music festivals, Lombard would work with them in the studio to provide them with high-quality audio recordings.
“I had a lot of great memories. I learned how to record performances and speak to artists from the booth. That was a great experience,” he said.
Lombard also recorded his own music at Madstop as he started applying to one music festival after another. From Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, to the Aspen Music Festival, he became intrigued by the behind-the-scenes organizational efforts necessary to prepare for major concerts and festivals.
“Aspen was amazing. I just love the way they take over that town in the summer. You have skiing in the winter, but in the summer, they transform into this arts destination. They have hundreds and hundreds of elite classical musicians, the best of the best, and these students, all living and working together. I was able to see that community and the benefit that everyone got, and I wanted to bring that same flavor to Lake George,” Lombard said.
Giving Back to Crane
On track to become a concert pianist, Lombard shifted gears throughout his time at Crane while attending these music festivals—opportunities that solidified his career path as an entrepreneur.
“I found my calling on the music business side of things, rallying people to the stage, versus trying to be the one on stage. That’s what I was talented at. I think you should focus on your strengths. I identified my strength as being an administrator, a gatherer of like-minded people,” Lombard said.
Fast forward to 2025, and Lombard is ramping up for his 15th consecutive festival in Lake George. As he thinks back to his time at Crane, he’s focused on helping the next generation of students interested in a similar career path.
He returned to SUNY Potsdam in the fall of 2024 to speak with students in the music business program about his journey, while also discussing a unique opportunity for them to enroll in his arts administration internship program at the Lake George Music Festival. The two-week paid internship allows students to see the day-to-day operations of a now well-established music festival, located on the beautiful shores of Lake George.
“We want to establish a pipeline from The Crane School of Music to the Lake George Music Festival for our arts administration internship program, especially for Crane music business students. It’s not just a job in the shadows, it’s a very important public-facing internship that works directly with me and the other founders,” Lombard said. “There’s an impressive Music Business program here at Crane and it would be great to have their insight and voice.”
Article and Portraits by Jason Hunter