21C’s summer preview: festival & artist highlights

This summer brings a host of festivals and performances at some of the world’s finest
cultural destinations, from the Great Lakes 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 still subject to change).

Festivals (listed alphabetically)

Aspen Music Festival and School
June 26–Aug 18, 2024
Aspen, CO

Aspen Music Festival and School (photo: Alex Irvin)

Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) celebrates its 75th anniversary season this
summer, with highlights including Daniil Trifonov’s first public appearance in recital with
Leonidas Kavakos; alumna soprano Renée Fleming premiering a song cycle by President
and CEO Alan Fletcher in the season’s opening orchestra concert; Music Director Robert
Spano conducting Bach’s B Minor Mass with Seraphic Fire as well as Act III from Wagner’s
Die Walküre with soloists Christine Goerke, Tamara Wilson, Greer Grimsley and more;
opera program productions of Hansel and Gretel, The Marriage of Figaro and a concert
production of Music for New Bodies, a new vocal cycle created by Matthew Aucoin and
Peter Sellars; Jane Glover conducting Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with soloists Joshua
Bell, Steven Isserlis and Jeremy Denk; and a recital from soprano Karen Slack and
pianist Kevin Miller titled “African Queens” featuring new music by Jasmine Barnes,
Damien Geter, Jessie Montgomery, Shawn Okpebholo, Dave Ragland, Carlos Simon,
and Joel Thompson.

Atlanta Opera’s 96-Hour Opera Project and Festival
June 15–17, 2024
Atlanta, GA

(Photos and graphic: courtesy of The Atlanta Opera)

The Atlanta Opera’s 96-Hour Opera Project and Festival is an incubator for
underrepresented creatives in the opera field. Presented at the Ray Charles Performing Arts
Center at Morehouse College over a long weekend, the 2024 Festival begins on Saturday
night with the world premiere of Forsyth County is Flooding (with the Joy of Lake
Lanier) by composer Marcus Norris and librettist Adamma Ebo, which won the
competition in 2022. Directing the production is Tinashe Kajese-Bolden, director of
Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre. The next day features a workshop reading of the 2023 winner,
Steele Roots by Selda Sahin and Dave Ragland. The festival culminates on Monday with
this year’s ten-minute opera competition, for which the pool of applicants was the largest
since the project began. After a public performance of the five works, The Atlanta Opera
awards the winning team, selected by a distinguished panel of judges, a $10,000 Antinori
Foundation Grand Prize and an Atlanta Opera commission for a new chamber opera to
be produced and performed in an upcoming season; all other participants are guaranteed a
$1,000 honorarium. This season, the ten-minute works will be focused on the
technology-driven topic “AI influence on creativity.” Composer/librettist teams for 2024
are: Timothy Amukele & Jarrod Lee; George Tsz-Kwan Lam & David Davila; Evan
Williams & Ashlee Haze; Kitty Brazelton & Vaibu Mohan; and Lauren McCall & Mo
Holmes.

Bard SummerScape
June 20–Aug 18, 2024
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

The Fisher Center at Bard (photo: Peter Aaron / Esto)

Now in its 21st season, Bard SummerScape returns to the Fisher Center at Bard College
for seven weeks of music, opera, theater, and dance in New York’s Hudson Valley. This
year’s Bard Music Festival offers two weekends of themed concerts and panel discussions
devoted to a reexamination of “Berlioz and His World,” featuring performances by the
American Symphony Orchestra (ASO) under Leon Botstein (Aug 9–18). In its first
American staging in almost five decades, Meyerbeer’s grand opera Le prophète receives a
new production from German director Christian Räth, again anchored by Botstein and the
ASO (July 26–Aug 4). SummerScape presents the world premieres of two new Fisher
Center commissions: Ulysses, a theatrical adaptation of Joyce’s novel by Elevator Repair
Service (June 20–July 14), and SCAT!, a new dance-driven jazz club spectacular by Jawole
Willa Jo Zollar and Craig Harris (June 28–30). Curated by Tony Award winner Caleb
Hammons, Bard’s perennially popular Spiegeltent completes the lineup with live music
and more (June 28–Aug 17).

Caramoor
June 9–Aug 16, 2024
Katonah, NY

Caramoor’s Venetian Theater (photo: Gabe Palacio)

Set in grounds boasting beautiful gardens and new sound art installations, the multi-genre
Caramoor festival kicks off with a gala performance by Wynton Marsalis with his Jazz at
Lincoln Center Orchestra. Two large-scale movement-centered events are featured: a
new street-dance infused production of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen from Les Arts
Florissants led by William Christie and choreographed by Mourad Merzouki; and the
Caramoor debut of the Mark Morris Dance Group. The Knights and Aaron Diehl give
their first complete live performance of Mary Lou Williams’s Zodiac Suite following their
recent lauded recording; two concerts with Orchestra of St. Luke’s feature guitarist Miloš
and pianist Jeremy Denk; and Cleveland period ensemble Apollo’s Fire performs a
program of Vivaldi and Handel led by Jeannette Sorrell. The Sphinx Virtuosi present
music by a vital group of contemporary Black and Latinx composers, much of it written for
them; “Our Song, Our Story: The New Generation of Black Voices,” led by music director
Damien Sneed, honors the legacies of Marian Anderson and Jessye Norman; and the free
world premiere of Douglas J. Cuomo’s community project THE JUMP UP! features
Sandbox Percussion and collaborating local percussionists. The Concerts on the Lawn
series features Grammy winners Roomful of Teeth and Time For Three, Cuban cuatro
sensation Kiki Valera, and Zimbabwean Afro-fusion band Mokoomba; chamber
performances include the Calidore String Quartet and harpist Bridget Kibbey, the Abeo
Quartet, and Owls, plus solo recitals from violinist Kevin Zhu and pianists Richard Goode,
Joyce Yang and Clayton Stephenson. The annual Jazz Festival features the already storied
young pianist and bandleader Matthew Whitaker, and the American Roots Music
Festival is headlined by Grammy winner Madison Cunningham. Roots events later in the
summer showcase the Lost Bayou Ramblers and Rhiannon Giddens; Broadway star
Sutton Foster gives a solo performance; and much more.

OSL Bach Festival
Orchestra of St. Luke’s annual festival
June 4-25, 2024
New York, NY

Top: Augustin Hadelich (photo: Suxiao Yang); bottom left: Joélle Harvey (photo: Arielle Doneson); bottom right: Kristian Bezuidenhout (photo: Marco Borggreve)

The annual OSL Bach Festival in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall begins with conductor Jeannette
Sorrell making her Orchestra of St. Luke’s debut joined by soprano Joélle Harvey.
Principal Conductor Bernard Labadie leads guest soloist Augustin Hadelich in the second
program, centering on Bach’s transcriptions of his own works for other instruments. The
festival concludes with “Bach and Sons,” featuring music of J. S. Bach and his sons Johann
Christian and Carl Philipp Emanuel. Kristian Bezuidenhout makes his OSL debut as
both conductor and soloist in the program.

Ravinia Festival
Chicago Symphony Orchestra residency
July 12–Aug 18, 2024
Highland Park, IL

Marin Alsop at Ravinia Festival (photo: Patrick Gibson)

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) will be in residence for six weeks at the Ravinia Festival, its summer home. Ravinia Chief Conductor Marin Alsop leads six programs with
the orchestra, including an all-American opening-night concert marking the 100th
anniversary of Rhapsody in Blue (July 12) and an evening dedicated to Mahler’s
monumental Ninth Symphony (July 20), as well as programs as part of the third annual
“Breaking Barriers” festival, which this year celebrates women leaders in music and space
(July 26 & 27). Gustavo Dudamel leads the National Children’s Symphony of Venezuela
in its Ravinia debut (Aug 6) and LA Opera Music Director James Conlon guest conducts the
CSO in two performances of Mozart’s Idomeneo, starring tenor Matthew Polenzani,
soprano Andrea Carroll, and mezzo-soprano and Ravinia Steans Music Institute alumna
Emily D’Angelo (Aug 9 & 11).

Rosendal Chamber Music Festival
Aug 7–11, 2024
Norway

Rosendal, Norway (photo: Liv Øvland)

Founded in 2016 by pianist and Artistic Director Leif Ove Andsnes, the Rosendal
Chamber Music Festival is held in an idyllic Norwegian village, reached by boat from
Bergen airport. Set against a breathtaking backdrop of mountains, fjord, and sea, the
Baroniet Rosendal Manor House and Gardens date from 1665, offering visitors a glimpse of
Norwegian history in one of the country’s most spectacular natural settings. As the UK’s
Arts Desk put it, “It is a utopian place for utopian musicians.” Drawing inspiration from
Bartók’s Contrasts, the 2024 festival celebrates “Contrasts,” juxtaposing a celebration of
Hungary’s rich musical heritage with a focus on the music of J.S. Bach. Works by Liszt,
Bartók, Kodály, Kurtág, and others will be heard alongside Baroque masterpieces, such as
the St. John Passion, performed by the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir and an orchestra of
internationally renowned Baroque players led by Grete Pedersen. Other of the summer’s
60 guest artists include pianists Zlata Chochieva and Nikita Khnykin, harpsichordist
Masato Suzuki, violinists Vilde Frang and Florian Donderer, violist Antoine Tamestit,
cellist Tanja Tetzlaff, double bassist Christian Henriksen, hardanger fiddle player
Alexander Aga Røynstrand, clarinetist Wenzel Fuchs, horn player Ragnhild Lothe, tenor
Benedikt Kristjánsson, vocalist and composer Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer, actor Ragnhild
Gudbrandsen, and the Quatuor Agate.

Notable summer performances (listed alphabetically by
artist)

Teddy Abrams

June 27: This summer, Grammy winner and Musical America 2022 Conductor of the Year
Teddy Abrams conducts the Aspen Festival Ensemble at the Aspen Music Festival, joined
by multiple Grammy-winning mandolinist Chris Thile. [Aspen, CO]

Aug 1: Teddy Abrams helps to kick off World Orchestra Week (WOW!) at Carnegie Hall,
conducting a performance by NYO2 – Carnegie Hall’s “superbly talented” (New York
Classical Review) national youth orchestra for younger teens. The performance features
principal players from several of the nation’s top orchestras as soloists, and repertoire
includes Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances” from West Side Story, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and
Juliet Fantasy Overture, and Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite, as well as a Carnegie Hall
co-commissioned world premiere by Emmy Award–winning composer Jasmine Barnes.
[Carnegie Hall/NYC]

Aug 22: Turning to the opposite coast, Abrams conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic at
the Hollywood Bowl in Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, on a program with Agnegram by
Abrams’s mentor, Michael Tilson Thomas, who describes the jubilant work as being
“punctuated by alternately elegant and goofball entrances.” [Los Angeles]

* * *

Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Aug 6, 21: “A brilliant musician and an extraordinary visionary” (Wall Street Journal),
Grammy-winning French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard juxtaposes Schumann’s Gesänge
der Frühe, three Brahms Intermezzi, and Scriabin’s “Black Mass” Sonata with piano pieces
by Schoenberg and Webern in solo recitals at both Austria’s Salzburg Festival and
Scotland’s Edinburgh International Festival. [Aug 6: Salzburg; Aug 21: Edinburgh]

* * *

Marin Alsop
July 10–26: As Chief Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO)’s annual
residency at the Ravinia Festival, MacArthur award-winning conductor Marin Alsop
returns to Highland Park for another summer of innovative programming that concludes
with the third edition of her annual mini-festival, “Breaking Barriers.” As Classical Voice
North America noted after the inaugural edition: “Summer festivals can and should take
more risks and, indeed, break barriers. That is exactly what Alsop and Ravinia did
successfully.” [July 10, 12, 13, 20, 21, 25, 26: Highland Park, IL]

Aug 5: Alsop conducts the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America
(NYO-USA) at Carnegie Hall in the venue’s World Orchestra Week (WOW!). Their
program features a performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, with Jean-Yves
Thibaudet as piano soloist, to celebrate the work’s centennial; Barber’s single-movement
First Symphony and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade bookend Gershwin’s masterpiece.
Following the New York concert, Alsop, Thibaudet, and NYO-USA embark on a South
American tour. [Carnegie Hall/NYC]

* * *

Julia Bullock
July 6–17: “One of today’s smartest, most arresting vocalists in any genre” (NPR), 2024
Grammy-winning American classical singer Julia Bullock returns to France’s Festival
d’Aix-en-Provence to headline Katie Mitchell’s staging of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande.
A co-production with Warsaw’s Teatr Wielki–Polish National Opera and the New National
Theatre Tokyo, this will co-star Huw Montague Rendall and Laurent Naouri, with Susanna
Mälkki conducting. [July 6, 9, 12, 15, 17: Aix-en-Provence, France]

Aug 9: Bullock also returns to Brainerd, MN for the annual Lakes Area Music Festival, of
which she is a frequent guest. The Music Director of this year’s edition of the festival is her
husband, conductor Christian Reif, who was recognized alongside the singer with a 2024
Grammy Award for his performance as both conductor and pianist on her album debut,
Walking in the Dark. [Brainerd, MN]

* * *

Chanticleer

July 7–27: This summer, multiple Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer – a
group that “fascinates and enthralls … through luxurious perfection” (Los Angeles Times) –
performs at the Newport Chamber Music Festival before embarking on a twelve-stop
European tour. All but one of the performances feature the group’s “Music of a Silent
World” program, excepting only July 13, when Chanticleer will combine forces with Voces8
for one performance in Ludwigsburg, Germany. “Music of a Silent World” centers on Majel
Connery’s The Rivers are our Brothers, a song cycle on ecological responsibility told from
the point of view of the land in which each movement represents a different part of the
Sierra Nevada’s natural beauty. Also on the program is a new commission, “I miss you like I
miss the trees,” on the subject of wildfires, written by Chanticleer composer-in-residence
Ayanna Woods. Music by Heinrich Isaac, Max Reger, Kurt Weill and more rounds out the
repertoire. [July 7: Newport, RI; July 11: St. Vith, Belgium; July 12: Karlsruhe, Germany; July
13: Ludwigsburg, Germany; July 14: Freigericht, Germany; July 16: Lörrach, Germany; July
18: Merano, Italy; July 19: Munich; July 20: St. Florian, Austria; July 21: Blaibach, Germany;
July 24: Gackenbach, Germany; July 26: Walkenried, Germany; July 27: Dresden, Germany]

* * *

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

June 3–16: The Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and Music Director Fabio Luisi
embark on a two-week tour across Europe this summer, marking the first international
tour of Luisi’s music directorship and the DSO’s first visit to Europe in over a decade. The
ten-city tour will include stops in Spain, Germany, Austria and Belgium. Programs will
feature Tchaikovsky’s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, Mahler’s Fifth Symphony and What Keeps
Me Awake by former DSO composer-in-residence Angélica Negrón. The orchestra will also
present the European premiere of composer-in-residence Sophia Jani’s new work, Flare,
in her hometown of Munich, Germany. Soloists Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin), Thomas
Hampson (baritone) and James Ehnes (violin) will be featured throughout the tour. [June
3: Zaragoza, Spain; June 4–5: Madrid; June 7: Frankfurt; June 8: Freiburg, Germany; June 9:
Munich; June 11: Hamburg; June 12: Vienna; June 14: Cologne; June 15: Essen, Germany;
June 16: Brussels, Belgium]

June 26–July 1: In late June, Luisi and the orchestra will give four performances at Bravo!
Vail, including some of the music from the European tour. They reprise Mahler’s Fifth
Symphony on a program with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9, featuring soloist Daniil
Trifonov (June 26). They follow that up with selections from the American Broadway
Songbook sung by soprano Karen Slack and tenor Issachah Savage (June 28); and play
Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony on a program with the festival’s first Symphonic
Commissioning Project premiere of the summer: Anna Clyne’s ATLAS for piano and
orchestra featuring soloist Jeremy Denk (June 29). Finally, Luisi and the orchestra are
joined by Taiwanese American violinist Paul Huang for a performance of Brahms’s Violin
Concerto in D, on a program that also includes two works by Richard Strauss: Don Juan and
the Suite from Der Rosenkavalier (June 30). The orchestra performs once more in Vail led by
Jeff Tyzik in a program called “Country Hits: Songs from Nashville” (July 1). [June 26–July
1: Vail, CO]

* * *

Alan Gilbert

July 6, 7: By way of a postscript to his fifth season as Chief Conductor of Hamburg’s NDR
Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Grammy winner Alan Gilbert leads the orchestra’s
opening-night concerts at Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. They give two
performances of a program pairing Mahler’s Fifth Symphony with Mozart’s 25th Piano
Concerto, featuring Emanuel Ax, of which the second (July 7) will stream live to audiences
worldwide. [July 6, 7: Lübeck, Germany]

July 15–24: As Principal Guest Conductor of Japan’s Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony,
Gilbert conducts two programs with the orchestra this summer. The first combines
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with music by Mozart and Ives (July 15, 16), while the second
juxtaposes Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade with works by Magnus Lindberg and Estonia’s
Eduard Tubin (July 23, 24). [July 15, 16, 23, 24: Tokyo]

Aug 2–9: Native New Yorker Gilbert returns to the States for a weeklong residency at the
Tanglewood Music Festival. He conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a pairing of
Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony with the same composer’s Triple Concerto, featuring Kirill
Gerstein, Joshua Bell, and Steven Isserlis (open rehearsal Aug 3; performance Aug 4),
followed by a coupling of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring with Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano
Concerto, again with Gerstein as soloist (Aug 9). Gilbert also talks about “The Art of
Conducting” in the Tanglewood Learning Institute’s ongoing series of that name (Aug 2)
and joins the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and TMC Conducting Fellows for a
program of Haydn, Ravel, Dutilleux, and Revueltas (Aug 5). Gilbert’s long association with
Tanglewood dates back to his student days, when he conducted there for Bernstein and
Ozawa. More recently, his leadership of the Boston Symphony has been described as
“revelatory,” thanks to “his thoughtful musicianship and fresh approaches to programming”
(Boston Globe). [Aug 2, 3, 4, 5, 9: Lenox, MA]

Sep 15: Gilbert leads the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in the closing concert of
Switzerland’s Lucerne Festival. Joined by narrator Thomas Quasthoff; vocal soloists
Christina Nilsson, Jamie Barton, Stuart Skelton, Michael Schade, and Michael Nagy; and both
the NDR Vokalensemble and MDR Radio Choir, they will perform Schoenberg’s mighty
Gurre-Lieder, just two days after the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Gilbert,
who considers the three-part oratorio to be Schoenberg’s crowning achievement, has led
many performances of the composer’s music, including a production of his opera Moses und
Aron at Dresden’s Semperoper that “showed the house at its very best” (Opera Traveller).
[Lucerne, Switzerland]

* * *

Daniel Hope

June 20, 21; July 6, 7; July 25–27: Daniel Hope, the violinist whose “thriving solo career
[is] built on inventive programming and a probing interpretive style” (New York Times),
returns to Germany’s Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival for a three-part residency this
summer. First, he joins the SIGNUM saxophone quartet for chamber music by Bloch, Weill,
Bruch, Gershwin, and Shankar (June 20, 21). Two weeks later, bookending his recital of
works by Grieg, De Falla, and others with pianist Sebastian Knauer (July 7), he performs
Bruch’s Concerto for Violin, Viola, and Strings with Gramophone Award-winning violist
Timothy Ridout and The Hope Orchestra, which brings together young musicians and
leading professionals (July 6, 7). For the third and final installment of his residency, Hope
reunites with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra (ZCO), one of the two conductor-less
ensembles of which he is Music Director. As well as performing music for strings by Elgar
and Tchaikovsky (July 26, 27), they give a live account of their imaginatively curated
program tracing the history of Western dance from medieval times to the present day
(July 25), as heard on their most recent Deutsche Grammophon release, which topped the
German classical chart. [June 20, 21; July 6, 7, 25, 26, 27: various, Mecklenburg-Western
Pomerania, Germany]

* * *

Tessa Lark

June 13, 21; July 28; Aug 22: Genre-defying, Grammy-nominated violinist Tessa Lark
performs this summer at four U.S. festivals. Sarasota Music Festival presents her in an
artist’s showcase titled “Something Old, Something New,” comprising chamber music of
Duruflé, Beethoven, and Dvořák plus an improvisation on the Largo from the latter’s New
World Symphony. At Detroit’s Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, she curates a concert
highlighted by music of Telemann, Ysaÿe, Wynton Marsalis, and John Corigliano that also
features pianist Justin Snyder and the Hesper Quartet. In July, she plays chamber works
of Janáček and Beethoven at La Jolla Music Society with violinists Alexi Kenney and
Andrew Wan, violist Teng Li, and cellists Jay Campbell and Jonathan Swensen. Finally,
she gives a solo performance at Oregon’s Sunriver Festival. [June 13: Sarasota, FL; June 21:
Detroit; July 28: San Diego, CA; Aug 22: Sunriver, OR]

* * *

Kathryn Lewek

Aug 13–30: Following star turns at the Austrian festival in Ariodante and Orpheus in the
Underworld, American soprano Kathryn Lewek returns to the Salzburg Festival to
portray all Four Heroines in a new production of Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann
from the OPER! Award-winning creative team of director Mariame Clément and designer
Julia Hansen. The soprano will be joined by tenor Benjamin Bernheim in the title role,
mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey as The Muse / Nicklausse, and bass-baritone Christian Van
Horn as the Four Villains, with Marc Minkowski leading the Vienna Philharmonic and
Vienna State Opera Chorus. The New York Times writes: “Singing like Lewek’s is what the
magic of opera is all about.” [Aug 13, 16, 21, 24, 27, 30: Salzburg]

* * *

Anthony Parnther

June 29: “A conductor for the future” with “a flourishing career” (New York Times),
Anthony Parnther returns to Santa Barbara’s Music Academy (formerly known as Music
Academy of the West) to lead the Academy Festival Orchestra in a program of
Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Joan Huang’s Tujia Dance, and Price’s Third Symphony, of
which his “interpretation was a revelation” (ArtsATL, Atlanta). [Santa Barbara, CA]

July 19, 20; Aug 17: As “Hollywood’s go-to conductor for epic projects” (Billboard),
Parnther helms recording sessions for many of the world’s top international feature films
and television series. Live in concert this summer, he leads the Grant Park Orchestra in
“Star Wars and more: The Music of John Williams” at Chicago’s Grant Park Music
Festival, before making his Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut with Michael Giacchino’s
Academy Award-winning score to Disney/Pixar’s Up, performed live in concert alongside a
15th-anniversary screening of the blockbuster film at the Ravinia Festival. [July 19, 20:
Chicago; Aug 17: Highland Park, IL]

Aug 7, 8, 15: A master of multiple genres who has conducted many of the world’s
preeminent artists, Parnther rounds out the summer on tour with twelve-time Grammy
winner John Legend. Together they perform evenings of stories and song in collaboration
with three great American ensembles: the Philadelphia Orchestra at New York’s Saratoga
Springs; the Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Music Festival; and the San Diego
Symphony at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. [Aug 7: Saratoga Springs, NY; Aug 8:
Cuyahoga Falls, OH; Aug 15: San Diego, CA]

* * *

Rafael Payare

July 6, 9, 14: Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare leads Puccini’s Turandot at the Berlin
State Opera, where Liudmyla Monastyrskaunder, Florian Hoffmann, and René Pape
head a strong cast under Philipp Stölzl’s direction. When Payare made his Royal Opera
House debut with The Barber of Seville, the performance he drew from the London
Philharmonic Orchestra was deemed “irresistible” (The Guardian), “full of character”
(Financial Times), and “perfectly judged” (The Times of London). [July 6, 9, 14: Berlin]

July 19: As Music Director of Canada’s Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Montreal
Symphony Orchestra/OSM), Payare leads the orchestra at the annual Festival de
Lanaudière in a program of Mozart’s Magic Flute overture, the late Saariaho’s Orion,
Wagner’s “Wotan’s Farewell,” featuring baritone Matthias Goerne, and Richard Strauss’s
Also sprach Zarathustra. Released earlier this year by Pentatone, Payare’s OSM recording of
another of the German composer’s great tone poems was hailed as “one of the most
beautiful, compelling Heldenlebens around” (Classical Explorer). [Joliette, QC]

Aug 30: Always “electrifying in front of an orchestra” (Los Angeles Times), Payare concludes
his fifth summer as Music Director of California’s San Diego Symphony with a
“Tchaikovsky Spectacular” at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, the orchestra’s stunning
open-air venue. Violinist Blake Pouliot joins them for the Russian composer’s Violin
Concerto and their interpretation of his iconic 1812 Overture will be accompanied by a
pyrotechnic firework display over the bay. [San Diego, CA]

* * *

Daniil Trifonov
June 20–23: Grammy-winning pianist Daniil Trifonov performs with the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra led by Lahav Shani, playing former CSO Mead
Composer-in-Residence Mason Bates’s Piano Concerto, which was co-commissioned for
Trifonov by the Philadelphia Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony. Bates describes the
work as a journey through three stylistic sound worlds, from Renaissance dance music to
Romantic-era brooding to a contemporary finale imbued with strains of jazz and
minimalism. [June 20–23: Chicago, IL]

June 25, 26: At Bravo! Vail, Trifonov opens the summer’s chamber music series with a
recital of Rachmaninoff piano duo music along with his teacher, Sergei Babayan. The next
day he performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9 with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra
under the baton of Fabio Luisi. [June 25, 26: Vail, CO]

June 28, 29; Aug 17, 21: Trifonov also gives three performances at the Aspen Music
Festival, first reprising Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9, this time with the Aspen Chamber
Symphony under the baton of James Gaffigan. He reprises his Rachmaninoff duo recital
with Sergei Babayan in Aspen as well, and culminates with a recital with violinist
Leonidas Kavakos that marks their first public performance together. Following the Aspen
performance, Trifonov and Kavakos take the same program – comprising music of
Beethoven, Poulenc, Brahms and Bartók – to Tanglewood. [June 28, 29; Aug 17: Aspen, CO;
Aug 21: Lenox, MA]

Aug 28, 29: Trifonov plays a recital of Rameau, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Beethoven at the
Salzburg Festival, and the following night joins the Vienna Philharmonic at the festival
for a performance of Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto under the baton of the pianist’s
frequent collaborator Yannick Nézet-Séguin. [Aug 28, 29: Salzburg]

* * *

Alisa Weilerstein
July 2, 3, 5, 7: MacArthur award-winning cellist Alisa Weilerstein begins her summer at
Colorado’s Aspen Music Festival, performing Parts 1 & 2 from her acclaimed multisensory
solo cello project, “FRAGMENTS.” Two nights later she will be in Boulder for the Colorado
Music Festival, performing Dvořák’s Cello Concerto under the baton of festival Music
Director Peter Oundjian. [July 2, 3: Aspen, CO; July 5, 7: Boulder, CO]

July 18, 24–29: From Aspen, Weilerstein crosses the Atlantic for several European
engagements, beginning with the final concert of the Estonia’s Pärnu Music Festival,
where she performs Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the festival orchestra led by Paavo Järvi.
The end of July sees her give multiple performances and masterclasses at Switzerland’s
Verbier Festival, including a performance of Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor
with violinist Leonidas Kavakos and pianist Kirill Gerstein, and culminating with Richard
Strauss’s Don Quixote led by Lahav Shani. [July 18: Pärnu, Estonia: July 24–29: Verbier,
Switzerland]

Aug 7, 9, 11: Closer to home, Weilerstein gives three performances at the La Jolla Music
Society SummerFest in August. First up is a collaboration with the Voces8 vocal ensemble
on Arvo Pärt’s Fratres for cello and choir. Her other two performances are both piano trios,
by Beethoven and Arensky respectively, both with longtime collaborator and SummerFest
Music Director Inon Barnatan. For Beethoven’s “Archduke” Trio they will be joined by
violinist Stefan Jackiw, and for Arensky’s Piano Trio No. 1 the violinist will be Blake
Pouliot. [Aug 7, 9, 11: San Diego, CA]

Aug 18, 19: Also in August, Weilerstein revisits Dvořák’s Cello Concerto at the
Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Hamburg’s celebrated Elbphilharmonie, with the festival
orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach. [Aug 18, 19: Hamburg]

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© 21C Media Group, April 2024