Glacier Symphony and Conrad Mansion to Partner for Soiree Inspired by Hit Show ‘Bridgerton’

On the final night of July, Kalispell’s historic Conrad Mansion will host what the Glacier Symphony is calling “a scintillating affair” aimed at transporting guests to the Regency era, or something close to it, for a Bridgerton-inspired soiree benefit event featuring costumes, dancing, high tea catered by The Salty Calf, cocktails, croquet, a garden performance of string quartet music adapted from the show’s soundtrack, and special self-guided “candlelit” tours of the mansion.

For both the Conrad Mansion and the Glacier Symphony, the event is an opportunity to give people a chance to experience the offerings of two community institutions in a new and fun way that echoes the way in which the show “Bridgerton” seeks to bring audiences to the past by way of the present. Attendees are encouraged to dress up in period-appropriate finery, and a costume contest.

The Netflix romantic drama series is focused on the matchmaking intrigue of the Regency Era in England, which is understood to take place between roughly 1800 and 1837. But one of the signature flourishes of “Bridgerton” is its usage of instrumental covers of pop hits, as played by string quartets, sometimes accompanied by pianos or other instrumentation.

For Ali Schultz Levesque, a violinist and concertmaster for the Glacier Symphony who will be playing in the string quartet at the soiree, the challenge in performing these arrangements of contemporary pop hits is to make the music feel familiar despite the difference in how the sound is produced.

“It needs to come alive as the piece was written, so people need to be able to recognize it without the words. That’s our challenge bringing it to life,” Schultz Levesque said.

Additionally, the quartet will be threading music throughout the evening that might not be inspired by the “Bridgerton” soundtrack, but that would have been performed during the Regency era, like works from the composers Mozart, Joseph Haydn and Chevalier de Saint-Georges.

Something like Madonna’s “Material Girl,” which is among the pieces that will be performed by the quartet, is surprisingly easy to translate to the quartet format, according to Schultz Levesque.

“She used a lot of synthesized sounds when she was performing, and her synthesized sounds were meant to emulate an orchestra,” Schultz Levesque said of Madonna and her hit song. “It’s very, very recognizable.”

The rearranged cover pieces that will be played by the quartet include Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams,” Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy,” Ariana Grande’s “Thank You, Next” and Maroon 5’s “Girls Like You,” among others.

“Classical music is so woven into everything in the show. The soundtrack is so popular,” said Paulina Crum, the Glacier Symphony’s marketing and public relations manager.

She added that the event presents an “awesome opportunity” for the symphony to connect with people who love to experience classical music in traditional ways, and who love to experience it in more modern ways.

Crum said that when the idea was circulating in its early stages, the symphony’s operations and development manager Jamie Quinn suggested the Conrad Mansion as the perfect venue.

That’s who the Conrad Mansion’s executive director Brit Clark first heard from about the collaboration. For Clark, who is in charge of the nonprofit museum housed inside the mansion, a night of music is especially fitting given the Conrad family’s affinity for musical performance. Alicia Stanford Conrad, or Lettie, as she’s known among the museum’s staff, was the wife of Charles Conrad, a businessman who made his money through the freight and trade industry, founded Kalispell, and commissioned the mansion’s construction.

As Clark explained, Lettie was a pianist, and music is what brought her to Montana. She grew up in a family of musicians, with her father as a professional floutist and her mother a pianist, who traveled and performed. For their 10th wedding anniversary, Charles even gifted Lettie a piano, which remains at the mansion today.

Further proof of the love for music the Conrad’s held can be found in a special architectural feature in the home’s interior, known as a musician’s arch. Carved into the grand staircase, the musician’s arch was the vision of architect Kirkland Cutter. Some of his other notable designs include the Lake McDonald Lodge in Glacier National Park and the Davenport Hotel in Spokane. The arch was meant to be an acoustically perfect playing space to house a string quartet performing while festivities occurred below. There was some thought to incorporating the arch into the Bridgerton soiree, but the decision was ultimately made to host the performance in the mansion’s garden, with the quartet performing from under a gazebo.

Clark noted that while the Conrad Mansion was constructed in 1895, the Conrad’s also decorated their home with furniture pieces from the Regency period, and the Revolutionary War era, despite both historical periods having preceded their home’s completion by decades. That’s something Clark said was fashionable at the time, and akin to if someone in a contemporary home had a historical artifact or antique on display. Although the Conrad Mansion was electrified from the start, Clark said the mansion will be lit for tours by electric candles meant to evoke the ambience of an earlier era.

The July 31 event is sponsored by both Parkside Credit Union and Bias Brewing. Tickets are $125, with $100 of the ticket price set aside as a split, tax-deductible donation to the Glacier Symphony and the Conrad Mansion. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., with the event going until 9 p.m. For more information, including to buy tickets, go to https://glaciersymphony.org.

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