Log on, if you have a moment, to www.sequenza21.com, a contemporary music-news site, and check out their list of 12 “Summer Festivals 2000: Where to Hear Modern Music.” No points for guessing which major Northwest city is nowhere to be found. There are, however, a few bright spots among Seattle’s summer offerings: The University of Washington is taking a step in the right direction by bringing in John Zorn and the Kronos Quartet; the Northwest Mahler Festival is including a local composers’ night in their lineup of informal orchestral readings; the dedication of the Benaroya Hall organ resulted in a few commissions for new organ pieces we’ll hear in July; and Icicle Creek has a fine composer-in-residence in Maria Newman. For the rest, however, it’s 19th-century business as usual—the live composer has been all but banished from our region until next fall. For the Seattle Chamber Music Festival (or the Olympic Music Festival, or Beethoven in Bellingham, or Marrowstone) to feature a guest composer equivalent in status to the top-notch performers they attract seems like a far-off dream. Bring in a big (or semi-big) name for a week, ask her for a lecture or two, reward him with a concert of his works, maybe including a commissioned world premiere—is it too much to ask?—G.B.Seattle Symphony—They don’t take much summer vacation. Still to come in the 1999-2000 season are Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15 (6/1-4); a Stravinsky double-bill (6/8-9); and their season finale, Mahler’s epic Third Symphony (6/15-18). The last major stage in the completion of Benaroya Hall is the installation of the Watjen Concert Organ, celebrated with three SSO concerts (7/1, 7/6-7) and a solo recital from organist Guy Bovet (7/2). Adam Stern conducts a post-Independence Day pops concert at Lake Meridian Park in Kent (7/8, free). The Man with the Golden Flute, James Galway, conducts the band and plays concertos by Mozart and Cimarosa (7/13-15). Then after a short break, Garrison Keillor flies in from Lake Wobegon for an evening of stories and music (9/6-7), followed closely by the official 2000-01 opening night with Pinchas and Arianna Zukerman (9/16). Benaroya Hall, Third and Union, 215-4747 or www.seattlesymphony.org. Prices range $10-$67.Northwest Mahler Festival—Community-orchestra players band together several times each summer for just-for-the-heck-of-it read-throughs of some of the labor-intensive late romantic symphonic works, conducted by local maestros. The lineup of guest conductors and repertory: Christophe Chagnard and Bruckner’s Seventh (6/13); R. Joseph Scott and Mahler’s Fourth (6/19); Alexei Girsh and Shostakovich’s 15th (6/26); and Jonathan Shames with Strauss’ Alpine Symphony (6/28). The festival’s sixth season also includes a new-music night, cosponsored by the Washington Composers Forum, with Gerhard Samuel conducting recent scores by local composers (6/21). All sessions will be held at Holy Rosary Church, 4139 42nd SW, West Seattle. To sign up call 667-6567. The NWMF winds up with a public concert—not just a grand finale, but the grandest finale of them all, Mahler’s Eighth, the “Symphony of a Thousand,” not heard in the area since 1982. Geoffrey Simon conducts. UW campus, Meany Hall. 7/16.Olympic Music Festival—Music in a barn on the Olympic Peninsula: Pull up a hay bale or spread a blanket on the lawn. The New Zealand String Quartet kicks it off with an intriguingly heavy program: Shostakovich’s searing Eighth Quartet and Beethoven’s arcane Quartet in C-Sharp minor (6/24-25). Pianist Paul Hersh plays an all-Beethoven program (7/1-2), and there are two Mozart weekends featuring quintets: the grand C Major (7/8-9) and its melancholy sister in G minor (8/26-27). Shostakovich, Debussy, Prokofiev, and Faur頰op up for a “20th-Century Weekend” (7/29-30), and the finale is a multipiano extravaganza complete with the William Tell overture (9/9-10). Tickets: Box 45776, Seattle 98145-0776, 527-8839 or www.musicfest.net. $12-$24. Weekends 6/24-9/10.Seattle Chamber Music Festival—Sixteen concerts of chamber-music favorites. What looks good? Grieg’s Piano Sonata and a quartet by Erwin Schulhoff (7/12, 7/15); Schoenberg’s Six Little Pieces (7/14); Paul Schoenfeld’s whirlwind Caf頍usic (7/17); a sextet by jazz composer Dick Hyman (7/19); Beethoven’s Quartet in C-Sharp minor (7/21); Lutoslawski’s Partita and Mendelssohn’s Octet (7/26). (No world premieres? Tsk-tsk.) Musicians include Sarah Carter, Mark Kaplan, Alex Klein, Maria Larionoff, Barry Lieberman, Anton Nel, Jon Kimura Parker, Carmen Pelton, Cynthia Phelps, Craig Sheppard, and Bion Tsang. Lakeside School, 14050 First NE, 283-8808 or www.scmf.org. $15-$32. Mon, Wed, Fri 7/3-28.Icicle Creek Chamber Music Festival—Two jazz and eight classical concerts just outside Leavenworth in the Cascade foothills. The Turtle Island String Quartet plays the first weekend (7/1-2) and the David Grisman Quintet closes the Festival (8/12). In residence are the Kairos Quartet, composer Maria Newman, and, new this summer, the Icicle Creek Chamber Institute Orchestra. They’ll play a new work by Newman with violinist Carrie Rehkopf. The four classical weekends (Sat nights and Sun afternoons) are geographically organized, with music from Vienna 7/8-9, America (including Dvorak’s “American” Quartet, which I think is cheating) 7/15-16, France 7/22-23, and Spain and Latin America 7/29-30. Leavenworth, 877-265-6026 or www.icicle.org. $14-$20.University of Washington Summer Arts Festival—In addition to the dance, cinema, theater, visual art, and lectures, there’ll be some provocative new music (don’t let the prosaic name fool you) in this festival’s inaugural season. The headliners, playing Meany Hall, are John Zorn, master of chaotic, edgy, is-it-jazz-or-isn’t-it improvisation, with his ensemble Masada (7/21); and, celebrating a quarter-century of adventurous chamber music, the Kronos Quartet (7/22). In the more intimate Brechemin Auditorium: the Open Way Quartet (7/18), wind ensemble Soni Ventorum (7/19), jazz pianist Marc Seales (7/20), and violin/viola team Duo Patterson with soprano Carmen Pelton and pianist Craig Sheppard (7/21-22). UW campus, Meany Hall, 543-4880. $5-$28.Beethoven in Bellingham—Since 1993, chamber and orchestral music (the American Sinfonietta’s the orchestra-in-residence), and some big classical names. The opening weekend guest is pianist Alicia de Larrocha, who’ll play concertos by Beethoven (7/28) and Mozart (7/29). Chamber offerings include pianist Gustavo Romero (7/30), the Pacifica Quartet (8/2-3), a Brahms evening (8/8), and guitarist Pepe Romero (8/9-10). Two special events are a performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Mendelssohn’s ravishing incidental music (8/4-5) and Haydn’s magnum opus The Creation (8/11-12). Western Washington University campus, Bellingham, 360-676-5997 or www.bellinghamfestival.org. $10-$23.Seattle Opera—Is it Ring time again already? They’re previewing the first two installments this summer, a practice run for the complete cycle in the summer of 2001. Das Rheingold (three performances) runs 8/4-18 and Die Walkre (seven performances) 8/5-25. Stephen Wadsworth directs the new production, Armin Jordan conducts, and as Brnnhilde, SO’s got the spectacular Jane Eaglen. Seattle Center, Opera House, 389-7676 or www.seattleopera.org. $44-$107.Marrowstone Music Festival—The summer home of the Seattle Youth Symphony brings kids and guest faculty together for a busy lineup of concerts, sponsored by Centrum. The two youth orchestras, led by Jonathan Shames and Huw Edwards, play on Sundays at 2 (8/8, 15, 22); faculty chamber music concerts are Thu at 8 (8/5, 8/12, 8/19) and Sat at 2 (8/7, 8/14, 8/21). Fort Worden State Park, Port Townsend, 362-2300 or www.syso.org.