21C Media Group’s 2025 Summer Highlights Preview
Top: Ravinia’s Pavilion (photo: courtesy of Ravinia); Top right: (photo: courtesy of The Atlanta Opera); Middle left: The Fisher Center at Bard (photo: Peter Aaron / Esto); Middle center: Aspen Music Festival and School (photo: Alex Irvin); Bottom left: Orchestra of St. Luke’s (photo: courtesy of OSL); Bottom center: Rosendal, Norway (photo: Liv Øvland); Bottom right: Caramoor’s Venetian Theater (photo courtesy of Caramoor)
This summer brings a host of festivals and performances at some of the world’s finest cultural destinations, from Mexico’s Caribbean coastline to the Norwegian fjords, and from the Austrian Alps to the Rocky Mountains. See below for upcoming summer highlights from 21C artists and organizations (all listings subject to change).
Festivals (listed alphabetically)
Aspen Music Festival and School
July 2–Aug 24, 2025
Aspen, CO
The theme of the 76th Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) is “Concerning the Spiritual in Art.” Highlights include the world premiere of Siddhartha, She – an immersive new music drama co-commissioned by AMFS from Christopher Theofanidisand Melissa Studdard – under the baton of Music Director Robert Spano; a fully staged production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, marking Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS Co-Artistic Director Renée Fleming’s directorial debut; an Opera Benefit headlined by mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard; the U.S. premiere of Thomas Adès’s The Origin of the Harp, an AMFS co-commission; world premieres of new AMFS co-commissions from Samuel Adams, Christopher Stark, and Max Vinetz; performances of recent AMFS co-commissions from Jasmine Barnes, Anna Clyne, Avner Dorman, Edgar Meyer, and Tyshawn Sorey; and a celebration of this year’s Boulez centennial with conductor David Robertson. In festival debuts, Davóne Tines gives a solo recital, Pierre-Laurent Aimardplays site-specific Messiaen, Patricia Kopatchinskaja duets with Sol Gabetta, Enrique Mazzola leads La bohème in concert, and Stéphane Denève conducts Richard Strauss. Lang Lang and Patti LuPone both give mainstage solo recitals; other returning favorites include conductors Vasily Petrenko and Xian Zhang, recitalists Conrad Tao and Alexander Malofeev, and orchestral soloists Yefim Bronfman, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Gil Shaham, and Alisa Weilerstein.
Atlanta Opera’s 96-Hour Opera Festival
June 17–22, 2025
Atlanta, GA
Now in its fourth season, The Atlanta Opera’s award-winning 96-Hour Opera Festivalcelebrates the artistry of creative talents and offers a path into the art of opera. Launched as the 96-Hour Opera Project, the festival expanded from the original composition competition to include developmental workshops and incubator performances of works by past competition winners. The competition remains the heart of the festival and invites composers and librettists to write ten-minute operas that are judged by industry leaders. The public showcase featuring the ten-minute operas takes place on June 21, presented again at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center on the campus of community partner Morehouse College. All selected participants will receive a $1,000 honorarium, and the Antinori Grand Prize will be awarded to the winning team – a $10,000 award as a part of a $25,000 Atlanta Opera commission for a one-act work to be produced and performed in an upcoming season. This season’s festival will also feature the premiere of Steele Roots by composer Dave Ragland and librettist Selda Sahin, winners of the 2023 competition. Their chamber opera is based on the life and legacy of Carrie Steele Logan, a formerly enslaved woman who founded a home for orphaned children in Atlanta in the aftermath of the Civil War. Now known as the Carrie Steele-Pitts Home, this haven continues to serve the region’s most vulnerable children to this day (June 20, 22).
Bard SummerScape
June 28–Aug 17, 2025
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Now in its 22nd season, Bard SummerScape returns to the Fisher Center at Bard College for seven weeks of live music, opera, and dance in New York’s Hudson Valley. The 35th Bard Music Festival offers two weekends of themed concerts and panel discussions devoted to a reexamination of “Martinů and His World,” featuring performances by the American Symphony Orchestra (ASO) under Leon Botstein (Aug 8–17). Alongside music by Martinů’s predecessors, peers, and musical heirs, the music festival presents a broad sampling of the original, prolific, yet sadly underrated Czech composer’s own work, including a semi-staged, festival-ending performance of his opera Julietta. SummerScape also presents the first fully staged American production of Dalibor, a rarely heard opera by Martinů’s compatriot Smetana, again anchored by Botstein and the ASO, and directed – like SummerScape 2023’s Henri VIII – by Jean-Romain Vesperini (July 25–Aug 3). Other 2025 highlights include the world premiere of Pastoral, a new Fisher Center at Bard commission from choreographer-in-residence Pam Tanowitz, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, and painter Sarah Crowner (June 27–29). To complete the lineup, Bard’s perennially popular Spiegeltentreturns throughout the festival for live music and more.
Caramoor
June 21–Aug 3, 2025
Katonah, NY
In the welcoming environs of its idyllic Westchester grounds and gardens, Caramoorcelebrates 80 years as a haven for musical and artistic discovery this summer. The 2025 summer season features two early operas: Telemann’s Pimpinone paired with his dramatic cantata Ino from Boston Early Music Festival; and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea from Cappella Mediterranea, marking the ensemble’s New York debut and only U.S appearance this season. Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL) opens the season with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony led by “electrifying” (Los Angeles Times) conductor Rafael Payare making his Caramoor debut; subsequent performances, with Anna Rakitina and Teddy Abrams on the podium, feature soloists Stella Chen and Garrick Ohlsson. Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma team up to perform the latest iteration of their “Beethoven for Three” project; Daniil Trifonov, Timo Andres, and George Li give solo piano recitals; new music includes the Grammy-winning team of Sō Percussion and composer and vocalist Caroline Shaw, as well as a free performance of Terry Riley’s seminal In C produced by Bang on a Can; and The Knights return, featuring mandolinist Chris Thile. Chamber performances includes the Takács and Escher Quartets, the latter with pianist Alessio Bax; a solo recital from violinist Claire Bourg accompanied by Jinhee Park in the Rosen House Music Room; a performance by the Terra String Quartet, this season’s Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence; and the return of Bay Area vocal ensemble Chanticleer with their ecology-themed program, “Music of a Silent World.” The all-day Jazz Festival – presented in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center – features a headlining performance by Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. The all-day American Roots Music Festival, presented in collaboration with City Winery, is complemented by two major American Roots artists performing later in the summer: Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway and Lyle Lovett and His Large Band. Added to this is a free Juneteenth celebration with The Legendary Ingramettes; a dance performance from tap and live music company Music From The Sole; a celebration of Broadway Pride hosted by Seth Rudetsky; Music and Meditation in the Garden performances from viola duo Tallā Rouge, the duo of flutist Alex Sopp and violinist Austin Wulliman, and a solo performance by cellist Gabriel Cabezas; Concerts on the Lawn from Endea Owens and The Cookout, Ranky Tanky, La Excelencia, and The Garifuna Collective; the annual Pops, Patriots, and Fireworks concert with guest vocalist Mimi Hilaire; and more.
OSL Bach Festival
June 3-24, 2025
New York, NY
The annual OSL Bach Festival in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall juxtaposes the Baroque master with three other composers: Vivaldi (June 3), French Baroque violinist and composer Jean-Marie Leclair (June 10), and Mozart (June 17), with featured guest artists conductor Lionel Meunier, countertenor Reginald Mobley, soprano Gemma Nha, violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte, and pianist Angela Hewitt. The fourth and final performance of the festival will feature the Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL) performing all six of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos (June 24).
Ravinia Festival
June 6–Aug 31, 2025
Highland Park, IL
The Ravinia Festival’s 2025 summer lineup offers more than 100 concerts and 40 artist debuts. At its heart is the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO)’s annual six-week residency, comprising three weeks with chief conductor Marin Alsop and three with Louis Langrée, Peter Oundjian, David Robertson, and other guests. CSO highlights include Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony with Janai Brugger and Sasha Cooke, the world premiere of a new commission from Malek Jandali, and recent works by Reena Esmail, Carlos Simon, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and Joan Tower. Orchestral soloists include pianists Lang Lang, Garrick Ohlsson, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet; violinists Ray Chen and Himari; cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason; and Tony Award winners Sutton Foster and Kelli O’Hara, who headline the CSO’s gala performance. Established in 2022 to champion women in classical music, this summer’s Breaking Barriers festival celebrates Women Leaders in Food and Music, pairing musical works with culinary dishes by guest celebrity chefs. Other festival highlights include recitals by guitarist Plínio Fernandes, pianists Angela Hewitt and Tony Siqi Yun, and the Isidore and Juilliard String Quartets; performances by the Apollo’s Fire andVOCES8 ensembles; and a semi-staged concert performance of Handel’s Alcina that marks the Haymarket Opera Company’s festival debut.
(See separate entry for CSO’s Ravinia highlights below.)
Rosendal Chamber Music Festival (final season)
Aug 6–10, 2025
Norway
This summer marks the final edition of the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival. Founded in 2016 by pianist and Artistic Director Leif Ove Andsnes, the festival is held in an idyllic Norwegian village, reached by boat from Bergen airport, and set against a breathtaking backdrop of mountains, fjord, and sea. For its final season, Rosendal celebrates its roots in Norway’s Hardanger region, the inspiration for many artists. These include Grieg, represented by his String Quartet, Holberg Suite, and songs; Geirr Tveitt, represented by songs and his only surviving piano sonata; and festival composer Knut Vaage, whose featured works include three world premieres. As well as exploring the influence of Mendelssohn and Schumann on Grieg, the 2025 festival also pays homage to Ravel, now celebrating his 150th anniversary, and to Shostakovich, who died 50 years ago this year. Andsnes will be joined by guest artists including the Opus13 String Quartet, violinist Johan Dalene, violist Timothy Ridout, cellist Julia Hagen, flutist Cecilie Løken, clarinetist Björn Nyman, recorder player Caroline E. Dahl, lutenist Jadran Duncumb, gamba player André Lislevand, soprano Mari Eriksmoen, countertenor Daniel Sæther, tenor Eirik Grøtvedt, actor Ragnhild Gudbrandsen, harpsichordist / organist Christian Kjos, and pianists Yulianna Avdeeva, James Baillieu, and Knut Christian Jansson.
In 2026, Baroniet Rosendal will launch a new summer concert series, with Andsnes as its artistic advisor.
Notable summer performances (listed alphabetically by artist)
* Abbreviations for New York City concert venues follow below preview
Teddy Abrams
June 25–July 1: This summer, Grammy winner and 2022 Musical America Conductor of the Year Teddy Abrams begins his incumbency as the Aspen Institute’s Harman/Eisner 2025–26 Artist in Residence by participating in the Aspen Ideas Festival. Abrams will offer his artistic vision to various policy programs, events, leadership activities, and more in Aspen, New York, Washington D.C., and elsewhere. Each year, an artist or cultural leader is selected as a Harman/Eisner Artist in Residence for a year-long exploration of their artistry and to lend their perspective in addressing major social and civic issues. Drawing upon the Institute’s long-established convening power and association with ideas, values and leadership, Artists in Residence engage in discussions rooted in the arts as thought leaders. [June 25–July 1: Aspen, CO]
July 23: Abrams also performs in July at North Carolina’s Brevard Music Center Summer Institute and Festival, joined by longtime friend and collaborator Yuja Wang for both Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto and Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand. Also on the program, Abrams conducts the Brevard Music Center Orchestra in Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and the March and Scherzo from Prokofiev’s opera The Love for Three Oranges. [Brevard, NC]
Pierre-Laurent Aimard
July 30; Aug 2 & 4: Grammy-winning French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard makes his Aspen Music Festival debut with a three-program residency. After a solo recital of Boulez, Schoenberg, Messiaen, and Debussy (July 30), he joins the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble for a performance of Messiaen’s Couleurs de la Cité Céleste(Aug 2), before completing his residency with one of his signature site-specific open-air performances of Catalogue d’oiseaux, Messiaen’s monumental piano collection depicting the birds of Europe (Aug 4). As a former student of Yvonne Loriod, the French composer’s wife, Aimard is “a peerless interpreter of Messiaen’s music” (Boston Globe), whose previous accounts of the Catalogue have been variously hailed as “a landmark statement” (The New York Times), “one of the exceptional recitals of the summer” (Chicago Tribune), and one of the “top ten musical events of the year” (The Guardian). [Aspen, CO]
Sergei Babayan
July 19, 22, & 25: Venerated as a “pianist’s pianist” whose interpretations combine “quiet beauty and emotional fire” (The Times of London), Sergei Babayan performs three programs at Switzerland’s Verbier Festival. First, he explores the evolution of lieder, folksong, and the elusive art of melody in his solo program, “Songs.” This thoughtfully curated recital combines solo works with piano transcriptions of songs, by composers from Schubert, Schumann, and Rachmaninoff to Harold Arlen, Charles Trenet, and Armenian folk hero Komitas (July 19). Babayan then joins his former student and frequent piano partner, Daniil Trifonov, for performances of Bartók’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion with Klaus Mäkelä and the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra(July 22) before completing his residency with an account of Brahms’s First Piano Quartet with Janine Jansen, Daniel Blendulf, and Timothy Ridout (July 25). [Verbier, Switzerland]
Joshua Bell
July 5–12: Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell, whose most recent release on the Sony Masterworks label comprised Mendelssohn Piano Trios performed with cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Jeremy Denk, rejoins his trio partners along with violinist Irène Duval and violist Blythe Teh Engstroem at the Rockport Chamber Music Festivalfor the “Fauré Project.” Two concerts over two days commemorate the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death with performances of his most celebrated chamber works, from violin sonatas to piano quintets. Following the Rockport performances, the entire two-day program with the same personnel will be reprised at New York’s 92Y. [July 5, 6: Rockport, MA; July 9, 12: 92Y/NYC]
July 17: Bell leads the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields – which he has helmed since succeeding the orchestra’s founding Music Director, Sir Neville Marriner, in 2011 – at Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival for a program of Bach, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Piazzolla, with guest violinist Tomo Keller joining Bell on Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in D minor. [Kiel, Germany]
Aug 8: Bell joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra and conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada at Tanglewood for a performance of Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole. [Lenox, MA]
Julia Bullock
June 26: As part of the Run AMOC* Festival at Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City, Grammy-winning American classical singer Julia Bullock performs the New York premiere of Harawi, Olivier Messiaen’s deeply affecting, hour-long song cycle for voice and piano, realized by the American Modern Opera Company in new physical and dramatic dimensions. The performance also features pianist Conor Hanick, with choreography by Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber and direction by Zack Winokur. Moving from duet to quartet with the addition of dancers, this production breaks open Messiaen’s cycle, connects movement to music, and grapples with the intensity of love and loss. [ATH/NYC]
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
July 11: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) opens its 89th Ravinia season under the leadership of Ravinia’s chief conductor, Marin Alsop. Chopin Competition winner Bruce Liu makes his CSO and Ravinia debuts as the piano soloist in Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, bookended by Alsop’s accounts of Carlos Simon’s Amen! and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, of which her interpretation has been called “viscerally thrilling” (Financial Times). [Highland Park, IL]
July 20: The CSO and Alsop juxtapose Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony with the world premiere performance of a new Ravinia commission from Syrian-American composer Malek Jandali. They complete their program with two Spanish-influenced violin showpieces – Kreisler’s La Gitana and Waxman’s Carmen Fantasy – both featuring violin prodigy Himari. [Highland Park, IL]
Aug 17: To conclude its six-week Ravinia residency, the CSO joins forces with Grammy-winning conductor David Robertson. British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, one of classical music’s brightest young stars, makes his CSO debut in Saint-Saëns’s First Cello Concerto, complemented by Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Something for the Dark and two works inspired by Spanish dance: Chabrier’s España, Rhapsody for Orchestra, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s beloved Capriccio espagnol. [Highland Park, IL]
Dallas Symphony Orchestra
June 28–July 4: As an upbeat to its 125th anniversary season in 2025–26, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) returns for its 24th Bravo! Vail season with five programs showcasing the orchestra’s depth, versatility, and outstanding music-making. Highlights include the Bravo! Vail debut of renowned conductor Peter Oundjian, who leads pianist and festival Artistic Director Anne-Marie McDermott in Amy Beach’s Piano Concerto along with Elgar’s Enigma Variations (June 28); and the Colorado premieres of Kris Bowers’s For a Younger Self, featuring violinist Charles Yang, and a new work by Sophia Jani, co-commissioned by Bravo! Vail as part of its Symphonic Commissioning Project. Conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto, the two premieres share the program with Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony (July 1). The orchestra will also bring back Bravo! Vail’s popular movie night, providing the live soundtrack to a screening of The Princess Bride led by conductor Constantine Kitsopoulos, and Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik will close the residency with both an 80s-themed pops program and the DSO’s beloved patriotic concert on the Fourth of July. [June 28, 29; July 1, 2, 4: Vail, CO]
Alan Gilbert
June 19 & 20: Now concluding his sixth season as Chief Conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Grammy winning American conductor Alan Gilbert leads the ensemble in two programs at the Istanbul Music Festival. They perform Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony and Brahms’s Violin Concerto, featuring Frank Peter Zimmermann (June 19), followed by Brahms’s First Symphony and Chopin’s First Piano Concerto, with Rafał Blechacz as soloist (June 20). [Istanbul, Turkey]
July 30; Aug 2 & 5: Gilbert returns to the States for a weeklong residency at La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, of which he is a firm audience favorite. After playing violin in star-studded chamber performances of Mendelssohn’s Octet (July 30), Nielsen’s String Quintet (Aug 2), and Mozart’s G-minor Piano Quartet (Aug 2), Gilbert conducts a chamber arrangement of Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs, featuring peerless soprano Renée Fleming (Aug 5). His many previous collaborations with the singer include conducting on her Grammy-winning Decca release Poèmes. [La Jolla, CA]
Daniel Hope
June 21 & 22: Daniel Hope, the violinist whose “thriving solo career [is] built on inventive programming and a probing interpretive style” (The New York Times), makes two appearances at the second edition of Mexico’s Festival Paax GNP. With Artistic Director Alondra de la Parra and The Impossible Orchestra, the international ensemble she founded to support Mexican women and children, he reprises his “soulful, musically complex and vivid” (Seen and Heard International) interpretation of Britten’s Violin Concerto (June 21). The following night, Hope joins a string ensemble for Vivaldi Recomposed, Max Richter’s 21st-century reimagining of The Four Seasons, of which the violinist’s 2012 recording topped the charts in 22 countries (June 22). [Riviera Maya, Mexico].
July 15–18: At Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Hope reunites with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra for three performances of his “DANCE!” program (July 15–17). Tracing the history of dance from the Renaissance and Baroque to klezmer, tango, and swing, their double album of the same name was hailed as an “infectious musical survey of seven centuries of music” (WRTI, Philadelphia) and scaled bestseller lists worldwide, topping the German classical chart and reaching number two in Canada. Hope also joins accordionist Martynas Levickis for a duo recital of Shostakovich, Bartók, Kreisler, and others (July 18). [July 15: Lübeck, Germany; July 16: Brunsbüttel, Germany; July 17: Eltville am Rhein, Germany; July 18: Rheingau, Germany]
Paavo Järvi
July 15–25: Opus Klassik 2019 Conductor of the Year Paavo Järvi returns to his Estonian roots this summer to celebrate his compatriot and close family friend Arvo Pärt on his 90th birthday. The 2025 Pärnu Music Festival – of which Järvi is founder and Artistic Director – pays tribute to Pärt as it celebrates its own 15th year in the town known as Estonia’s “summer capital.” Highlights of this year’s festival include Järvi conducting the Estonian Festival Orchestra in four concerts (July 19, 20, 24, 25), all featuring works by Pärt. These include Silhouette – dedicated to and premiered by Järvi and the Orchestre de Paris in 2015 at the opening concert of the Paris Philharmonie – and Credo, the 1968 premiere of which – under the baton of Järvi’s father, Neeme Järvi – marked a turning point in the composer’s career. Neeme Järvi also opens this summer’s festival, leading the Järvi Academy Youth Orchestra in a special pre-festival concert at Tallinn’s Arvo Pärt Centre featuring Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten (July 16), while Järvi’s younger brother, Kristjan, and his ensemble Nordic Pulse present Pärt Mirrored, a specially curated program that interweaves the music of Pärt with new works and improvisations (July 18). The festival also continues its tradition of championing other Estonian music and musicians by featuring Kalev Kuljus as soloist in the Estonian premiere of Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Oboe Concerto, co-commissioned by the festival (July 19); presenting newly commissioned works by Elis Hallik (July 20) and Alisson Kruusmaa (July 25); and featuring violinists Hans Christian Aavik and Triin Ruubel as soloists for Pärt’s Tabula Rasa (July 20). [July 15: Tallinn, Estonia; July 16–25: Pärnu, Estonia]
Louisville Orchestra
July 8–13: This summer, the Louisville Orchestra (LO) and Music Director Teddy Abrams– winners of a Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for their collaboration with pianist Yuja Wang on her album The American Project – continue the 2025 edition of “In Harmony – The Commonwealth Tour of the Louisville Orchestra.” The groundbreaking community engagement initiative – just the latest ambitious undertaking contributing to Abrams’s reputation as a “Maestro of the People” who “has embedded himself in his community, breaking the mold of modern conductors” (The New York Times) – has seen remarkable success since it began in November 2022, reaching more than 34,000 Kentuckians across 43 counties through more than 154 events. The July leg of the tour will be an Americana-themed celebration of the outstanding talent within the orchestra, with several featured soloists drawn from its ranks. The orchestra will also debut its new mobile stage. This transformative performance venue, also made possible by the tour funding from the Kentucky State Legislature, will open up new ways for the LO to reach communities through small ensemble engagement work in locations from parks to parking lots. [July 8: Glasgow, KY; July 9: Elizabethtown, KY; July 10: Muhlenberg, KY; July 13: Bardstown, KY]
Anthony Parnther
July 10 &11: “A conductor for the future” with “a flourishing career” (The New York Times), Anthony Parnther returns to Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival for a program of Brahms’s Second Symphony and two choral works: Bruckner’s Psalm 150, and Bonds’s Credo, for which he and the Grant Park Festival Orchestra and Chorus will be joined by vocal soloists Janai Brugger and Sankara Harouna. Composed during the civil rights movement, Bonds’s seven-movement cantata takes its text from W.E.B. Du Bois’s essay of the same name, proclaiming his philosophy of racial equality. [Chicago, IL]
Rafael Payare
July 22 & 23: Always “electrifying in front of an orchestra” (Los Angeles Times), Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare leads back-to-back programs with the New York Philharmonic at Colorado’s Bravo! Vail festival. After juxtaposing Still’s Darker Americawith Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony and Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto, featuring Yekwon Sunwoo (July 22), Payare draws the orchestra’s festival residency to a close with an all-Ravel program to mark the composer’s 150th anniversary. Seong-Jin Cho is the piano soloist in Ravel’s G-major Piano Concerto and the Colorado Symphony Chorus joins Payare and the orchestra for the complete version of the composer’s choreographic symphony, Daphnis et Chloé (July 23). [Vail, CO]
July 27; Aug 3: Payare gives his first performances at the helm of NYO2, Carnegie Hall’s summer orchestral program for talented teenagers from underrepresented communities. First on Carnegie Hall’s main stage (July 25) and then at Scotland’s Edinburgh International Festival, where the orchestra makes its European debut (Aug 3), Payare opens his program with Perú Negro, an homage to Afro-Peruvian music by Latin Grammy-nominated Peruvian composer Jimmy López. Joined by the conductor’s wife, MacArthur fellow Alisa Weilerstein, Payare and NYO2 follow this with Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto, before concluding their program with Prokofiev’s triumphant Fifth Symphony, a work the composer considered a “symphony on the greatness of the human soul.” [July 27: CH/NYC; Aug 3: Edinburgh, UK]
Sep 9: Payare reunites with Weilerstein at Los Angeles’s Hollywood Bowl, where they collaborate with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a performance of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor. On the same program, Payare conducts the LA Phil-commissioned world premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s Concerto for Orchestra, showcasing the virtuosity of the entire ensemble. [Los Angeles]
Nicholas Phan
Aug 15–17: Grammy Award-winning tenor Nicholas Phan returns for the third consecutive season to the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, Massachusetts. Following a “Meet the Makers” event at the Linde Center for Music and Learning (Aug 15), the tenor gives a two-part presentation of his innovative BACH 52 web series (Aug 16, 17), which explores the question “Is the music of Bach for everyone?” Tenor arias from J.S. Bach’s church cantatas will be paired with interviews with various guests and audience members probing this question and examining the relevance of Bach’s music to today’s increasingly secular and diverse society. [Lenox, MA]
San Diego Symphony
June 27: The San Diego Symphony (SDS) and Music Director Rafael Payare give an Opening Night concert to kick off their fifth summer at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, the orchestra’s stunning open-air venue on the bay. Juno-nominated trumpeter Paul Merkelo joins them for the San Diego premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s Trumpet Concerto, heard alongside Ginastera’s Four Dances from Estancia, Dukas’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and Debussy’s La mer, with which SDS and Payare draw their waterfront concert to a fitting close. [San Diego, CA]
Aug 17: The SDS and guest conductor Anthony Parnther join vocalist Cynthia Erivo for an evening of favorite showtunes at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. A Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award winner, as well as an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and SAG nominee, Erivo is a stalwart of the West End and Broadway stage. She received Golden Globe, SAG, Critics’ Choice, NAACP, BAFTA, and Academy Award nominations for her recent starring role as Elphaba in Universal’s record-breaking film adaptation of the hit musical Wicked. [San Diego, CA]
Inbal Segev
July 9 & 16: Cellist Inbal Segev, long known as a driving force in the creation of new cello repertoire for the 21st century, serves as artist-in-residence at Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival, joined by the Grant Park Orchestra. She opens her week-long residency with a performance of Mark Adamo’s Last Year under the baton of Nicole Paiement (July 9). Adamo composed the work in 2021, when the devastating hurricane that inflicted severe damage on Houston that year coincided with a close listen to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The composer responded with a single concerto in four movements, asking himself how the innocence and optimism of Vivaldi’s works might have changed had Vivaldi lived through the current climate crisis. Segev closes her residency with Anna Clyne’s DANCE! – written for her – led by conductor Courtney Lewis(July 16). [Chicago, IL]
Daniil Trifonov
June 27; July 23 & 31: Grammy and Gramophone “Artist of the Year” Award-winning pianist Daniil Trifonov returns to New York’s Caramoor, Switzerland’s Verbier Festival, and Austria’s Salzburg Festival for solo recitals of Chopin waltzes and two pieces byTchaikovsky: the C-sharp minor Sonata and Concert Suite from The Sleeping Beauty, in Mikhail Pletnev’s arrangement. The pianist completes his program with Barber’s sole Piano Sonata at Caramoor and Verbier, and with Ginastera’s Second Piano Sonata in Salzburg. It was a similar program that prompted the Philadelphia Inquirer to marvel: “Trifonov’s sensitive and imaginative playing was at its peak. … Mesmerizing.” [June 27: Katonah, NY; July 23: Verbier, Switzerland; July 31: Salzburg, Austria]
July 5: Trifonov reunites with Andris Nelsons for a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. The concerto is one of those heard on Destination Rachmaninov, the Deutsche Grammophon series that earned the pianist two Grammy nominations and BBC Music’s “Concerto Recording of the Year.” [Lenox, MA]
July 22: Trifonov’s Verbier recital represents his second appearance at the Swiss festival this summer. He also joins his former teacher and frequent piano partner, Sergei Babayan, for a performance of Bartók’s Concerto for two Pianos and Percussion with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra led by Klaus Mäkelä. As The New York Times writes of Trifonov’s Babayan partnership: “The firepower they achieved together is rare among piano duos.” [Verbier, Switzerland]
Alisa Weilerstein
May 26–31: MacArthur award-winning cellist Alisa Weilerstein begins her summer at South Carolina’s Spoleto Festival USA, performing for the first time all six parts of her acclaimed multisensory solo cello project, “FRAGMENTS,” including the world premieres of parts 5 and 6. FRAGMENTS weaves together the 36 movements of Bach’s solo cello suites with 27 new commissions to make six unique programs, each an hour long, for solo cello. Tracing a powerful and wholly original emotional arc, each program embraces a wide variety of compositional voices, the composers being diverse with respect to age, race, gender, geography, compositional approach, musical style and stage of career. All six programs are performed without pauses, applause or program details in a multisensory production by director Elkhanah Pulitzer and artistic producer and advisor Hanako Yamaguchi, with responsive lighting and architectural elements by Seth Reiser and original costumes by Molly Irelan. Previewing Weilerstein’s performance of FRAGMENTS 1 in Carnegie Hall, The New York Times observed: “It is hard to think of many soloists of a similar stature who would dare to bring anything like it to the stage.” [May 26, 28, 29, 31: Charleston, SC]
June 21: Weilerstein has enjoyed a long collaborative relationship with composer and conductor Matthias Pintscher, who wrote his cello concerto un despertar for her in 2017. Pintscher will be on the podium for Weilerstein’s performance at Bravo! Vail this summer, when she joins rising-star violinist Blake Pouliot and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe for Brahms’s Double Concerto. [Vail, CO]
June 27: At the UK’s Aldeburgh Festival, Weilerstein performs solo cello works by Bachand Kodály, interspersed with works by two of the FRAGMENTS composers, Joan Towerand Daniel Kidane. [Suffolk, UK]
July 5: Joining the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of Tomáš Netopil – her collaborators for this past February’s world premiere of Richard Blackford’s
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra “The Recovery of Paradise” – Weilerstein plays Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto No. 1 at Germany’s Kissinger Sommer Internationales Musikfestival. [Bad Kissingen, Germany]
July 15; Aug 8–13: Weilerstein returns to Quebec’s Lanaudière Festival for a recital of Beethoven with her longtime friend and frequent collaborator, Inon Barnatan, before reuniting with him in August for chamber music performances at California’s La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, where the pianist serves as Music Director. Repertoire includes Dvořák’s Piano Quintet, Arensky’s String Quartet, and Brahms’s Sonata No. 1 in E minor, as recorded on their Pentatone album of Brahms Cello Sonatas released last fall. [July 15: Joliette, QC; Aug 8, 10, 13: La Jolla, CA]
July 27; Aug 3: In summer of 2022, Weilerstein performed the Elgar concerto with Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the United States (NYO-USA). This summer, the cellist joins NYO2 – the companion program for younger musicians, especially those from communities underrepresented in classical music – along with her husband, conductor Rafael Payare, for performances of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 at Carnegie Hall and the Edinburgh International Festival, where the orchestra makes its European debut. [July 27: CH/NYC; Aug 3: Edinburgh, UK]
Aug 17: Later in August, Weilerstein returns to the Aspen Music Festival – where she gave FRAGMENTS performances last summer – to play Lutosławski’s Cello Concerto led by Ludovic Morlot. [Aspen, CO]
Sep 9: Weilerstein reunites with her husband, conductor Rafael Payare, for a performance of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor with the Los Angeles Philharmonicat the Hollywood Bowl. Calling it the ultimate concerto, Weilerstein comments: “It has all the structuring and epic sweep of a symphony. It goes from ecstasy to tragedy to pathos. And every time out, there’s something new to discover.” [Los Angeles]
Abbreviations for New York City concert venues are as follows:
ATH = Alice Tully Hall
CH = Carnegie Hall
92Y = 92nd Street Y