When Julie Scolnik and her husband, Michael Brower, moved to Andover, they brought their love of music with them.
“We wanted to present world-class concerts in our new community,’’ said Scolnik, a professional flutist, who for 20 years freelanced as a soloist and chamber musician and played with orchestras, operas, and ballet companies.
“I had a network of musicians making it possible to bring great people to the community,’’ she said.
Scolnik and Brower, a physicist, founded Andover Chamber Music — now called Mistral — in 1997.
It is now celebrating its 20th season with Scolnik as artistic director.
“I wanted to play the music I love with the most remarkable musicians,’’ she said. “I found running my own series offered me an opportunity that playing in big orchestras did not.’’
In addition to creating the musical programs and hiring the musicians, Scolnik writes welcoming remarks and creates all posters and fliers for the concerts. And she plays flute with the group.
Mistral’s season, which runs from September through April, consists of five concerts, with each also performed in Brookline, where Scolnik and Brower now live.
“It turned out to be an all-consuming career,’’ she said. “It’s a labor of love, and a magnificent obsession, in a good way.
“We pride ourselves on unstuffy, accessible concerts,’’ Scolnik said. “We prefer to knock down barriers between the audience and artists. I want the concerts to be fun. We often do a question-and-answer period before the second half, and they are hilarious. People get to know the personalities of the musicians and are howling.
“Because we are playing in intimate venues, people are hearing music from three or four feet away. It changes the experience. It takes you away.’’
“In this technical age of iPads and iPhones,’’ she added, “a chance to come together with a friend or loved one and sit together in a small space and listen to music of this caliber is a throwback to another era.’’
A breast cancer survivor, Scolnik also has organized full-orchestra concerts in Boston and in France, where she and her husband have a home and spend summers, to raise money for cancer research.
Mistral’s next concert is “Young at Heart’’ presented at 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, at United Parish Churchin Brookline, and 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30, at Temple Emanuel in Andover. Narrators are former governor Michael Dukakis and his wife, Kitty.
Visit mistralmusic.org.
Wendy Killeen can be reached at wdkilleen@gmail.com
