8 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JULY 17-23, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com 831 Earlier this year, the Carmel Bach Festival team posted a photograph on social media, asking if anyone recognized a little girl featured in the picture—an adorable toddler staring at brass musicians playing just a few feet from her. To their astonishment, they got a response. Gesa Gustafson was able to identify herself, even though she had never seen the photograph before. But the memory of that day as a 2-and-a-halfyear-old and those musicians in the summer of 1975 stayed with her long after she grew up and moved to Alaska. “I saw the picture and it looked really familiar,” she says. “I was like ‘Oh, my gosh, whose kid is that? I know this kid.’ And then I realized, ‘Oh, my gosh, that’s me.’” There is nothing random about this amazing story. Gustafson was not only aware, as a child, of attending the Carmel Bach Festival and singing in the festival’s children’s choir, but has been following it on social media for years and has returned to see the festival with her own daughters. Katie O’Connell, the local history librarian at Carmel Public Library, says the festival gave the library boxes full of archival materials that span the event’s nine decades, searching for photos to be used for marketing. “They’re not just documentary photographs, but they’re also quite lovely, visually speaking,” O’Connell says. “And one of the ones they picked was that image of the little girl in front of tower brass,” referring to the brass performance that has kicked off each festival since 1936. Gustafson was born and lived in Carmel until her graduation from Carmel High School. Her parents were immigrants from Germany who moved to Alaska; her father was a commercial salmon fisherman. When they discovered Carmel, they decided to move there. It was a musical, German-speaking household and in the summer, when her father was fishing in Alaska, Gustafson and her mother—who used to play the organ in her father’s church (he was a Lutheran pastor) in Hamburg, Germany—were all about the Carmel Bach Festival. “I remember standing in this courtyard,” she says about the archival photo taken in front of the Sunset Center in Carmel. “This was a free concert that took place outside and I remember watching the musicians. My mother was probably in the outskirts [of the photo].” Gustafson doesn’t remember much from singing in the children’s choir (between ages 8 to 12), except that it was a big deal. “My parents didn’t listen to contemporary music,” she says. “It was all classical music. So, being part of the Bach Festival was a great honor, and it was a natural progression for me and my childhood because I was surrounded by all of this incredible music.” Her fondest memory of the festival were candlelit concerts in the Carmel Mission Basilica. Gustafson started commercial fishing with her father when she was 13. After she graduated from high school, she moved to Kodiak, Alaska where she fished for salmon—one of the very few fisherwomen in the 1990s. These days, she makes her own jewelry that she sells at farmers markets—she took her first jewelry art class in Carmel High School. Both her parents passed away in Carmel, her mother in a tragic accident in 1992, her father much later, in 2007, in his home in Carmel. While taking care of him in his last years, Gustafson and her young daughters had a chance to spend some time in Carmel. During that time, she took her “little girls” to the concert at the Mission. “The candles were there, in little paper bags,” she reminisces. “It was magical, as when I was a little kid. It’s a magical venue; the atmosphere is just incredible.” It’s been 50 years since the picture of a little girl in awe of the music was taken, but Gustafson’s love for Bach, Mozart and other composers is alive. “The music that I listened to as a child still is some of my favorite music,” she says. Carmel Bach Festival runs through July 26. Various venues on the Monterey Peninsula. $25-$189; some concerts are free to attend. 624-1521, bachfestival.org. Lost and Found The Carmel Bach Festival searched for a little girl from a 1975 photo. She responded. By Agata Popęda “Whose kid is that? Then I realized, that’s me.” TALES FROM THE AREA CODE BACH FESTIVAL COLLECTION, HENRY MEADE WILLIAMS LOCAL HISTORY DEPARTMENT, CARMEL PUBLIC LIBRARY. Gesa Gustafson as a toddler is mesmerized by the tower brass performing during the 1975 Carmel Bach Festival. Gustafson never knew this photo was taken of her until 50 years later, when the festival posted it on social media. DRIVE CUSTOMERS TO YOUR BUSINESS during Car Week BEST OF MONTEREY BAY® HOME & LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE Haven PUBLICATION DATE: August 14, 2025 AD DEADLINE: July 21, 2025 Published by Best of Monterey Bay® Haven home & LifestyLe magazine AwArd winning design • Home ConCierge CrAft olive oil • rAre wHiskey interior remodeling 2024-2025 free cover_HAVEN_24.indd 1 8/1/24 4:20 PM FOR MORE INFO: 831-394-5656 sales@montereycountynow.com
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