It was a nightmare scenario for any arts organization, big or small. A longtime grass-roots organization founded by music lovers, the Astoria Music Festival found itself the subject of unwanted headlines last year when a well-chronicled shake-up resulted in the departure of the executive director and resignation of the board of directors. The festival, co-founded by Keith Clark in 2003 with vocalist Ruth Dobson, is known for its ability to attract stellar classical talent and breadth of musical artistic vision.

Leena Riker, a member of the festival’s board of directors, recalls a couple from London who came specifically for a performance of “Wozzeck,” Alban Berg’s rarely performed 12-tone opera, a difficult piece for an ensemble from anywhere.

No little company would take on “Wozzeck.” “You have to be very brave,” she said. “We did it in collaboration with a group in San Francisco, the ensemble Opera Parallèle, they brought sets, huge pieces of stage sets, an incredible cast.”

The performance brought one couple from overseas. “They said, ‘We do not see this kind of opera in London, we’re going to come to Astoria,’” Riker said. “They were excited: ‘How can a small town like this do this?’ Because of the people who work on this festival. People are so dedicated.”

A festival performance with Clark leading the Omsk Symphony was transformative for Riker.

“I went to that first performance when the Russians were here in 2007,” she said. “I said, ‘My goodness, in this little town!’ I was stunned, I was so surprised. So I started talking to the people working with it, and the next year I volunteered.”

That year, Riker relocated to the North Coast, retiring as a longtime faculty member at Oregon Health and Science University as a biomedical scientist and researcher.

“I came here because of the Finns — I grew up in Finland —and the water, because I love to be close to the water,” Riker said, adding: “One of my big hobbies was whitewater canoeing. I actually went to a couple of world championships.”

Her interest in music was nurtured as a child — she actually attended the funeral of Finnish national composer Jean Sibelius in 1957 — on the violin and voice studies. “I sang as a soloist in a chorus,” she said. “Then I got too busy when I went to medical school.”

With then board President Yvonne Edwards, Riker put together an IRS application for the Astoria Music Festival’s tax-free status at her dining room table, a turning point for the organization. Riker said they were told it would take a year and a half before they could hope to get it. “We got it in three weeks,” she said.

Riker became board president in 2009.

“The big thing in a small town, particularly, is fundraising,” Riker said. “This festival needs about $300,000 to put it together because of all the musicians we bring in. Every year, the amount of money we brought in, went up, costs went up, it grew and grew, and the festival is longer.”

Riker, a Gearhart resident, served as festival board president through 2011, when she stepped down and left the board to pursue outside interests, among them a passion for fiber art.

Former Treasurer Diane Tiedeman became president in 2011. In 2015 a new festival board recruited Carol Shepherd from the Maritime Center to serve as executive director.

In July the festival’s board of directors resigned en masse, citing “unresolved differences with Clark about the organization’s direction and leadership structure.” Shepherd also resigned.

“I don’t want to make this about about her (Shepherd), but it just didn’t work out,” Riker said.

The next month, incoming board president Dwight Caswell, a freelance writer and owner of the Dwight Caswell Studio, headed a new board, Riker among them. Riker served as treasurer until early January and is now a member of the executive board.

“The only person who stayed on was the music/artistic director Keith Clark,” Riker said. “Keith is the glue that holds the festival together. He doesn’t want to talk about it, but he has never, ever over 14 years asked for a penny.”

The idea of bringing big-time music to small town America is a hallowed one in the Chautauqua tradition: personal enrichment through the arts, religion, recreation and education. Music is a key component, one that drew John Philip Sousa to the original Chautauqua movement and inspired opera, classical music and repertory performances around the country.

I grew up in Highland Park, Illinois, home of the world-renowned Ravinia Music Festival, and had the fortune to live in Katonah, New York, where Caramoor Music Festival hosted operas, recitals and world-class jazz. Having a music fest at your core is literally keeping a beating pulse. In our state, Portland, Eugene, Sunriver and Britt all boast classical music gatherings this summer.

Civic pride busts buttons when a virtuoso plays your city.

“We want to move forward, we want to continue this festival,” Riker said. “We’re going to try to get money and that’s always very tight. Granting agencies don’t like that kind of publicity, the idea that something is wrong with the festival. But when we reapplied for the Meyer Memorial Trust grant, they gave us more money. This year than they gave us last year, so they had confidence in us, which is a very big thing for us.”

The board hired Bereneice Jones to serve as managing director, a Ph.D. candidate who put studies on hold for six months to take on the task. “

“We’ve turned the corner,” Riker said. “We’re not as big this year as last year, because we wanted to make sure we don’t overdo it, we wanted to limit it so we don’t run into a big deficit again. What we had to do last fall, the new board, we started a huge fundraising campaign, because we had to close that deficit.”

“The music is so spectacular,” she said. “It gets better and better every year, the level of quality has risen, the number of famous pieces. Keith Clark is very brave in taking on new types of music.”

This is the only classical music festival on the North Coast, Riker said, with supporters from Newport to Cannon Beach. “When I commit to something, I do whatever I can to do it,” she added. “We did these incredible things because we were so dedicated. If you really have enough dedicated people you can do it but it takes a huge amount of effort. To me, it’s almost a miracle that a small town can do it.”