Caramoor Summer Season Continues Revitalized Programming, Including a Spotlight on Caroline Shaw, Pierre-Laurent Aimard Playing Messiaen, Daniil Trifonov in Recital, and Much More (June 15-July 28)

Caramoor presents a variety of top-notch music this summer, with many concerts unique to the region, ranging from cutting-edge compositions to the finest in period-instrument early music, and from orchestral and chamber masterpieces to jazz, roots, and world music. Seven weeks of programming continues to build on longstanding traditions while increasingly embodying the full potential of Caramoor’s spectacular grounds, stellar performance venues, and notable history (June 15–July 28). Highlights of the summer include a spotlight on the music of Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw plus music from 14 other living composers, including regional premieres; a rare opportunity to hear peerless French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard perform Messiaen’s complete Catalogue d’oiseaux; and a recital by Russian superstar pianist Daniil Trifonov. Among the performers of Shaw’s pieces are Grammy-winning vocal group Roomful of Teeth, singer Davóne Tines, and pianist Jonathan Biss, who plays the New York premiere of Shaw’s new piano concerto, Watermark. Concerto performances by cellist Alisa Weilerstein and violinist Christian Tetzlaff with the resident Orchestra of St. Luke’s open and close the season. Also in this season’s vocal lineup: Renowned mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux appears in concert with New York Baroque Incorporated; the Boston Early Music Festival presents French chamber operas; and Anthony Roth Costanzo and Paul Appleby perform with composer/pianist Matthew Aucoin. Chamber offerings include concerts featuring the Takács, Dover, Omer and Aizuri Quartets; and superlative mandolinist Avi Avital performs with the Venice Baroque Orchestra. Caramoor’s Jazz Festival is headlined by the Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra, the The Milk Carton Kids headline the American Roots Festival, world music artists are featured throughout the season, and an ongoing exhibition of sound artwork is dispersed throughout the grounds.

The season is the second year of programs developed by Kathy Schuman, who joined Caramoor as VP of Artistic Programming in 2016. She says:

“I continue to be inspired by the unique setting that Caramoor provides.  Being able to present such a diverse array of artists in our varied venues means audiences can experience live music in many different ways. I am hugely encouraged by the wonderful response to last summer’s new directions and look forward to continuing to develop  new genres and concert formats here.”

Caramoor’s 90-acre estate in Katonah, Westchester, filled with picturesque Italianate architecture and gardens, all just one hour’s drive from Manhattan, gives day-trippers the perfect pastoral escape from the city, in what the New York Times dubs “bucolic, picnic-friendly settings with a programming philosophy that balances hedonism and exploration.”

Spotlight on Caroline Shaw

The music of vocalist, violinist, composer and producer Caroline Shaw is heard on six separate programs this summer. The youngest-ever recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for music when she was just 30, Shaw’s recent commissions include new works for Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw with Sō Percussion, the Dover and Calidore Quartets, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Baltimore Symphony. The spotlight on Shaw’s music centers on the New York premiere of her piano concerto Watermark, co-commissioned by Caramoor, with Jonathan Biss and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s conducted by Cristian Măcelaru (July 7). Other works featured are By and By, sung by Davóne Tines with the Dover Quartet (July 12); Gustave Le Gray for solo piano, performed by composer/pianist Timo Andres (June 20), her Pulitzer Prize-winning Partita for 8 Voices performed by Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, of which she is a member (June 28); the string orchestra version of her 2011 string quartet Entr’acte played by A Far Cry (July 19), and Blueprint, written for the Aizuri Quartet in 2016 and recorded on their Grammy-nominated 2018 album, Blueprinting (July 21). As Schuman explains:

“I’ve long been a fan of Caroline’s music and jumped at the chance to co-commission her new concerto.  I felt she would be an ideal composer to ‘spotlight’ this season and easily found several artists delighted to include her work on their programs.”

New music

A wealth of new music can be heard this summer at Caramoor, including two world premieres, one New York premiere, and works by fourteen living composers besides Shaw. In addition to Shaw’s Partita, the Caramoor debut of Roomful of Teeth finds them performing music by William Brittelle, Merrill Garbus (of Tune-Yards fame), Missy Mazzoli, and Ted Hearne. Timo Andres’s solo recital intersperses selections from Janáček’s cycle of miniatures On an Overgrown Path with Eric Shanfield’s Utopia Parkway and Christopher Cerrone’s The Arching Path, in addition to Shaw’s piece. And A Far Cry’s program juxtaposes Shaw’s music with excerpts from Gabriela Lena Frank’s Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout, which mixes elements from the western classical and Andean folk music traditions.

This season’s Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence, the Omer Quartet, performs the world premiere of Porcupine Wash, a Caramoor-commissioned new work by San Francisco native Gabriella Smith, whose music was described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “high-voltage and wildly imaginative”; this marks the 20th commissioned composition in Caramoor’s “String Quartet Library for the 21st Century” initiative. On the same program is Osvaldo Golijov’s Yiddishbbuk, “a Kafka-inspired piece of almost Webern-like compression” (Time Out New York) (June 27).

Matthew Aucoin’s This Earth, a setting of a passage from Dante’s Purgatorio that Aucoin translated himself, was written for countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, who premiered the work in 2015. Similarly, Aucoin’s Merrill Songs were composed for tenor Paul Appleby, who premiered the set at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in 2016. Both This Earth and excerpts from Merrill Songs are part of this summer’s “Veils for Desire” program, which also features the two singers, accompanied by Aucoin on piano, performing Benjamin Britten’s dramatic canticle Abraham and Isaac, as well as the world premiere of Harold Meltzer’s The Heaven of Animals (July 25).

Caramoor Takes Wing! Celebrating birdsong in music

A highlight of the summer is sure to be the rare opportunity to hear celebrated French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard perform Olivier Messiaen’s complete Catalogue d’oiseaux, marking the first time he will perform the piece in its entirety in the U.S. Aimard, whose Pentatone recording of the work was released to great acclaim last year, studied with Messiaen and his wife, Yvonne Loriod (for whom the cycle was composed), and is one of the most passionate interpreters of the French composer’s work. Due to its radical naturalism, the Catalogue d’oiseaux is exceptional within the repertoire for solo piano. It is the grand hymn to nature from a man who never ceased to marvel at the magic of birdsong. In the composer’s own words, the work tries “to render exactly the typical birdsong of a region, surrounded by its neighbors from the same habitat, as well as the form of song at different hours of the day and night.”

Aimard’s performance of the Catalogue in three parts begins on the evening of July 13 and will be preceded by a unique outdoor performance by clarinetist David Rothenberg, who regularly explores the relationship between humanity and nature through writing and music, and is the author of Why Birds Sing. The second part of the Catalogue will be performed early the following morning, July 14, with bird walks before and after provided by Bedford Audubon Society (free with reservation). Later that afternoon, Aimard, Rothenberg, and ornithologist J. Alan Clark will take part in a panel discussion on the topic of birdsong in music, followed by a free outdoor performance of John Luther Adams’s songbirdsongs with Sandbox Percussion and piccolo players Emi Ferguson and Catherine Gregory. Interactive children’s activities in the afternoon will be provided by the Stamford Museum and Nature Center. Caramoor Takes Wing! concludes with the third part of Aimard’s performance in the late afternoon. All of the artists involved are making their Caramoor debuts.

Opera/Vocal Music

The Boston Early Music Festival will make its debut at Caramoor with a remounting of its 2016 production “VERSAILLES: Portrait of a Royal Domain,” inspired by the splendor of Versailles and featuring Charpentier’s Les Plaisirs de Versailles, Lalande’s Les Fontaines de Versailles, and divertissements from Lully’s Atys. Music directors Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, stage director Gilbert Blin, and choreographer Carlos Fittante bring the court of Louis XIV to life with gorgeous costumes, Baroque dance, and sumptuous staging (June 23).

With an international career spanning more than two decades and a repertoire encompassing over 60 operatic roles, American mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux – recipient of the City of Halle’s prestigious 2017 Händel-Preis – is in such demand around the world that her appearance at Caramoor this season represents a rare opportunity to hear her in her native country. It also marks a welcome return for the artist who was first introduced to New York audiences at Caramoor in 1996 in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, and returned many times over the next decade. Joined by period instrument ensemble New York Baroque Incorporated, making its debut at Caramoor, Genaux performs Baroque arias by Handel, Vivaldi and Hasse, punctuated by a Corelli concerto grosso and Vivaldi’s “L’inverno” from The Four Seasons (June 30).

The American Modern Opera Company (AMOC) is a recently-formed collective of some of the most exciting artists of the rising generation. Composer and 2018 MacArthur Fellow Matthew Aucoin, one of the company’s two artistic directors, will collaborate as pianist with two other members, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and tenor Paul Appleby, for a program titled “Veils for Desire” comprising works by Monteverdi, Britten, Aucoin, and a world premiere by Harold Meltzer (July 25).

Called a “singer of immense power and fervor” by the LA Times and a “charismatic, full-voiced bass-baritone” by the New York Times, Davóne Tines is also member of the nascent AMOC. Increasingly in demand as a singer and creative force around the world, he has starred in recent operas by Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, and Matthew Aucoin, and co-created and starred in The Black Clown at American Repertory Theater last September. Last year at Caramoor he performed with the Philharmonia Baroque in Atalanta. This year, he joins the Dover Quartet in a performance of Caroline Shaw’s By and By – Tines being the only person other than herself that the composer allows to perform it – and Samuel Barber’s Dover Beach, from which the quartet takes its name (July 12).

Orchestral music: OSL, A Far Cry, Venice Baroque Orchestra

One of Caramoor’s many sources of pride is the growing roster of outstanding artists who participated in its renowned mentoring programs and have returned over the years as their careers have soared. Cellist Alisa Weilerstein first arrived at Caramoor as an Evnin Rising Star in 1999, served as Caramoor’s inaugural Artist-in-Residence in 2014, and along the way chose the Sunken Garden as the venue for her wedding. She refers to Caramoor as “a place that I am proud to call not only my musical home, but also one of my favorite places on earth.” The cellist returns this season on opening night to join conductor Peter Oundjian (who was Caramoor’s Artistic Director from 1997-2003) and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL) for Dvořák’s magnificent Cello Concerto (June 15). Weilerstein’s recording of the piece with the late Jirí Belohlávek and the Czech Philharmonic, released on Decca in 2014, was distinguished by a “take-no-prisoners emotional investment that is evident in every bar” (New York Times). The opening night program opens with Gary Kulesha’s Torque and concludes with the 1919 version of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.

The season’s second concert by the OSL – Caramoor’s Orchestra-in-Residence and “one of the most versatile and galvanic ensembles in the U.S.” (WQXR) – features another alumnus, pianist Jonathan Biss, who participated in the Evnin Rising Stars program the year before Weilerstein. He too has returned many times, and was Caramoor’s 2016 Artist-in-Residence. In 2015 Biss launched Beethoven/5, a commissioning project in which he chose five composers to write a piano concerto in response to one of Beethoven’s. During his 2016 residency, he performed Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto and Timo Andres’ The Blind Banister, which was inspired by Beethoven’s cadenza to that work. This season, he gives the New York premiere of Caroline Shaw’s Watermark, which premiered last month in Seattle, as well as Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto under the baton of Cristian Măcelaru. Both new concerti were co-commissioned by Caramoor. Mozart’s “Prague” Symphony completes this program (July 7).

Closing out Caramoor’s summer season is a third OSL program led by Bernard Labadie, the orchestra’s Principal Conductor, that features violinist Christian Tetzlaff – an “exceptional soloist … with soaring tone making every note sound with absolute clarity” (Boston Classical Review). Tetzlaff is soloist for Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, on a program with the same composer’s The Hebrides and Beethoven’s First Symphony (July 28).

Nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance in both 2015 and 2018, the innovative and self-conducted chamber orchestra A Far Cry has earned “a reputation for top-drawer playing [and] engrossing programming” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). The group’s wide-ranging debut program at Caramoor this summer, in addition to new music by Caroline Shaw and Gabriela Lena Frank, encompasses a concerto grosso by French Baroque composer Georg Muffat, and Tchaikovsky’s perennially popular Serenade (July 19).  More Baroque music can be found in the Caramoor debuts of the Venice Baroque Orchestra and stunning Israeli mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital, performing works by Vivaldi, Corelli, Albinoni and Barbella (July 13). When they appeared at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in support of their 2015 Deutsche Grammophon album, Vivaldi, the New York Times raved about Avital’s “deep musicality” and “eye-watering virtuosity,” declaring the entire performance “nothing short of electric.”

Chamber Music: Daniil Trifonov, Four String Quartets, Guitar in the Garden

Russian piano phenomenon Daniil Trifonov – “without question the most astounding pianist of our age” (The Times of London) – returns to Caramoor to play a solo recital, following up on his rapturously received Caramoor performance of two seasons ago.  Since that time, besides receiving raves from every corner of the globe, he has won Gramophone’s 2016 Artist of the Year award and added two albums to his discography: Transcendental, a double album of Liszt’s works that won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Solo Album in 2018, and this season’s Destination Rachmaninov: Departure, on which he performs the Russian composer’s Second and Fourth Concertos along with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. At Caramoor, he plays works by Beethoven, Schumann and Prokofiev (July 26). 

“Arguably the world’s most versatile string quartet” (Sunday Times, UK), the Takács Quartet was the first string quartet to win the prestigious Wigmore Hall Medal and the only one inducted into Gramophone’s first Hall of Fame. The group’s discography has been recognized with a Grammy, three Gramophone Awards, three Japanese Record Academy Awards, “Disc of the Year” at the inaugural BBC Music Magazine Awards, and “Ensemble Album of the Year” at the Classical Brits. The quartet’s Caramoor program comprises three giants of the string quartet literature: Haydn, Beethoven, and Bartók (July 5).

Caramoor is justly celebrated for nurturing young talent and offering sterling follow-up support, and its young artist programs include not only Evnin Rising Stars but also Schwab Vocal Rising Stars and the Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence program. The Dover Quartet has had a dizzying ascent since its holding this residency in 2013-14. Lauded as “string quartet nirvana” in the Santa Fe New Mexican, and for its “masterly nuanced … gutsy and earth sound” by the Wall Street Journal, the quartet now has two albums to its credit and can boast both a Cleveland Quartet Award and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. They return to Caramoor with bass-baritone Davóne Tines, who joins them for Barber and Shaw; they play three of the four pieces for string quartet, published together as Op. 81, that Mendelssohn wrote in the last few years of his life; and the concert concludes with Dvořák’ String Quartet in A-flat (July 12).

The 2018-19 incumbent Stiefel quartet is the Omer Quartet, which originally formed at the Cleveland Institute of Music before pursuing graduate residencies at the New England Conservatory and the University of Maryland (where they currently reside). The group rose to prominence in 2013 with a Grand Prize and Gold Medal win at the Fischoff International Competition, and among numerous other prizes since then, took First Prize in the 2017 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. Praised by the New York Times as “poised, mature, and ebullient,” the quartet will give a concert on June 27 that, besides the works by Gabriella Smith and Osvaldo Golijov, offers Brahms’s lighthearted and cheerful Third String Quartet. The performance caps a yearlong residency that also sees the Omer give classroom-based instruction and performance clinics in Caramoor’s educational outreach program, as well as concerts in Caramoor’s fall and spring seasons.

Caramoor’s 3rd Annual Chamber Feast features yet another former Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence, two of whose members (violist Ayane Kozasa and cellist Karen Ouzounian) are also alumnae of the Evnin Rising Stars program: the Aizuri Quartet, along with pianist Andrew Tyson and violist Dimitri Murrath (July 21). Praised by the Washington Post for “captivating” performances that draw from its notable “meld of intellect, technique and emotions,” the Aizuri Quartet received the Grand Prize and the CAG Management Prize at the 2018 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition, along with top prizes at the 2017 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition. Its debut album, Blueprinting, featuring new works written for the quartet by five American composers including both Caroline Shaw and Gabriella Smith, was released by New Amsterdam Records and nominated for a 2019 Grammy Award. Apart from Shaw’s Blueprint, the Chamber Feast performance includes Mozart’s E-flat major String Quintet and Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F minor.

Montenegrin guitarist Miloš Karadaglić, known by his mononym, MILOŠ, and styled “classical music’s guitar hero” by BBC Music Magazine after a trio of chart-topping albums, makes his Caramoor debut with a solo recital in the Sunken Garden of music from Bach and Villa-Lobos to Lennon and McCartney. The first classical guitarist to ever play a solo recital in London’s Royal Albert Hall, he left The Guardian marveling at “the way a single guitarist … could shrink the Hall’s cavernous space into something so close” (July 18).

Jazz Festival, Hot Jazz, and Broadway

The elder statesman of Latin jazz pianists and a ten-time Grammy winner, Eddie Palmieri with his Salsa Orchestra headlines the annual Caramoor Jazz Festival, presented for the fifth year in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center (July 20). Daytime artists announced so far for the all-day Jazz Festival include returning favorite Etienne Charles & Creole Soul, an Afro-Caribbean-inflected outfit led by Trinidadian trumpeter Charles; Lakecia Benjamin Plays Coltrane, featuring New York native Benjamin making her Caramoor debut on a sultry alto saxophone; Michela Marino Lerman’s Love Movement, a trio of tap dancers led by Marino and joined by vocalist Vuyo Sotashe and a quartet; Sammy Miller and The Congregation; and the Isaiah J. Daytime artists announced so far for the all-day Jazz Festival include returning favorite Etienne Charles & Creole Soul, an Afro-Caribbean-inflected outfit led by Trinidadian trumpeter Charles; Lakecia Benjamin Plays Coltrane, featuring New York native Benjamin making her Caramoor debut on a sultry alto saxophone; Michela Marino Lerman’s Love Movement, a trio of tap dancers led by Marino and joined by vocalist Vuyo Sotashe and a quartet; Sammy Miller and The Congregation; and the Isaiah J. Thompson Quartet. More performers will be announced in the coming months.

A “Hot Jazz Age Frolic,” produced in collaboration with the New York Hot Jazz Festival, will bring Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks to Caramoor for their first public performance, along with Bria Skonberg’s Hot Five, vocalist Kat Edmonson (also making a Caramoor debut), tap dancer DeWitt Fleming, Jr., and gramophone DJ Michael Cumella (June 16). A bandstand and a large dance floor under the gala tent will provide the setting for music and swing dancing (lesson included).  A special early family set by Bria Skonberg will be presented in collaboration with New York Hot Jazz Camp.

Broadway star and Tony Award-winner Laura Benanti gives her first solo show in New York with a Caramoor debut in the Venetian Theater this summer (July 6). A celebrated singer, dancer, and actress who took Broadway by storm at the age of 18, Benanti’s talents have led her to numerous roles on stage and screen, including recent revivals of She Loves Me and My Fair Lady. As the Philadelphia Inquirer raves about Benanti: “She is flat-out gorgeous, sings like an angel, and inhabits a character with the sort of presence and total conviction granted only to a precious few.”

American Roots/World Music

Noted for their virtuosic playing, masterful tight harmonies and quirky humor, the duo known as the Milk Carton Kids, in a special performance backed by a full band, headline the annual American Roots Music Festival on June 22. A full day of music spanning the spectrum of folk, bluegrass, blues, country, traditional, gospel, and various permutations, the festival takes place throughout the idyllic 90-acre Caramoor estate, and like much of Caramoor’s programming is structured with an emphasis on rising star performers who are not regularly heard in the area, providing unique opportunities to both audiences and performers. Tennessee-based multi-instrumentalist Amythyst Kiah, a powerhouse rising star and collaborator with Rhiannon Giddens, bring her raw, hypnotic old-time sound steeped in the stories of African-American roots music. Other confirmed artists are all making Caramoor debuts: the legendary Taj Mahal’s daughter Deva Mahal, “a vocalist who can wring power from every note” (Bandcamp); Bumper Jacksons, a self-proclaimed “hot and sweet” six-piece Americana band with horns and pedal steel; Oliver the Crow, a fiddle-cello duo that NPR Music calls “an inspired collaboration”; and Youth In A Roman Field, a New York City-based “bastardized string quartet meets folk band meets jazz combo.”

Banjo masters Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn, crowned “the king and queen of the banjo” by Paste Magazine, have a distinct style that stretches “beyond bluegrass, across continents, and into everything from prog-rock to Eastern instrumentation” (NPR). Their 2016 self-titled debut won the Grammy for Best Folk Album, and their second album, Echo in the Valley, was released in 2017. Fleck, a 16-time Grammy Award-winning banjo pioneer, has collaborated at Caramoor with partners as varied as the Brooklyn Rider string quartet, the Marcus Roberts Trio, and Malian singer-songwriter Oumou Sangaré, while Washburn played an early incarnation of Caramoor’s American Roots Music Festival: the “New Shoots Festival” in 2010 (July 27).

World music this summer comes from Russia, Colombia, and Equatorial Guinea by way of Spain and Miami, with all three groups making Caramoor debuts. BUIKA, a Grammy-nominated Spanish singer born of Equatoguinean parents and who was named one of NPR’s “50 Great Voices” of the world, brings a musical fusion of jazz, flamenco, pop, soul and African polyrhythm (June 29). Colombia’s Tribu Baharú proudly champions champeta, a high-energy hybrid of Colombian, African and Afro-Caribbean styles that was eclipsed in the 1990s by Reggaeton but is enjoying a transformed and expanded resurgence in Colombia’s capital (June 21). And Russian Renaissance, a fast-ascending virtuosic quartet playing traditional Russian folk instruments with a contemporary flair, was catapulted to international fame after winning First Prize at the 69th Coupe Mondiale in Russia in 2016 and the prestigious M-Prize Competition in 2017. In March of last year the group was named Musical America’s “New Artist of the Month” (July 11).

Family programming

Family-friendly Dancing at Dusk returns for an eleventh season this summer with four programs on the spacious lawn of Friends Field, where guests are treated to music forms from around the globe and invited to watch and learn the distinctive dance traditions that accompany them. On June 19 Cady Finlayson & Vita Tanga blend traditional Celtic fiddle tunes with American folk and world music influences. On July 10 renowned bouzouki player Kostas Psarros performs rebetika (often known as the Greek Blues), music from the ’60s and ’70s and traditional folk music from across Greece. The July 17 program features Lei Pasifika, with South Pacific traditional dances in colorful costumes from Tahiti and Hawaii. And on July 24, Grammy-winning Argentine bandoneon virtuoso Héctor Del Curto explores the century-old history of tango, with a performance by his trio, 11-year-old clarinet whiz Santiago Del Curto as a special guest, and Argentine tango dancers.

Other family events this summer include a special afternoon set by Bria Skonberg’s Hot Five as part of the Hot Jazz Age Frolic (June 16), presented in collaboration with the New York Hot Jazz Camp; an interactive family performance called “TRAPEZE!” with  Decoda in its Caramoor debut, based on music by Prokofiev from a lost ballet about the highs and lows of the circus (June 29); and interactive children’s activities provided by the Stamford Museum & Nature Center in conjunction with the birdsong-related programming (July 14).

Last, but certainly not least, audience favorites Curt Ebersole and his 60-piece Westchester Symphonic Winds celebrate Independence Day in style with a family-friendly “Pops, Patriots and Fireworks” event steeped in American heritage. Guest vocalists – and Schwab Vocal Rising Stars alums – soprano Madison Leonard and baritone Shea Owens sing a Rodgers and Hammerstein medley, on a program that includes patriotic tunes, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, and much more. The evening’s festivities conclude with fireworks to celebrate the holiday (July 4).

Pre-Concert Conversations

Pre-concert conversations with the artists will take place in conjunction with a wide variety of performances. The informal talks take place on stage one hour before the performances of Versailles (June 23), Roomful of Teeth (June 28), Orchestra of St Luke’s (July 7 & 28), Dover Quartet (July 12), and A Far Cry (July 19).

Sonic Innovations

An important component of Caramoor’s adventurous programming is its commitment to sound art. Collectively titled Sonic Innovations, the rotating annual exhibition is curated by Chicago-based sound artist and former Merce Cunningham sound engineer Stephan Moore. Two new works join the exhibition this season. First, in Miya Masaoka’s Listen Ahead, a traffic sign anticipates a space for aural attention, leading toward an elegant listening hut hidden on the Caramoor grounds. The second new piece, Tonally Inclined, is a collaboration between sound artist Gayle Young and sculptor REITZENSTEIN. The piece will feature a system of resonant tubes, activated by the voices of the artists, and of visitors. Three familiar pieces will also return this summer. Annea Lockwood and Bob Bielecki’s Wild Energy, a fantastical tour through sounds occurring outside the human range of hearing which premiered in Caramoor’s Cedar Walk for the 2014 exhibit In the Garden of Sonic Delights, begins with solar oscillations recorded by the SOHO spacecraft, sped up 42,000 times, and ends with ultrasound recorded from the interior of a Scots pine tree, slowed down 10 times. In 2019, the piece will be freshly installed in a new location. Taylor Deupree’s t(ch)ime is a site-specific sound installation that turns a quiet, wooded passage into a shimmering sonic environment that is both familiar and otherworldly. Its sounds are derived from a collection of bell chimes that have been manipulated through increasing layers of digital processing. Stone Song by Ranjit Bhatnagar is a dry stone structure reminiscent of a freestanding stone wall. Pressure sensors and strain gauges laced into the sculpture, as well as sensors for humidity, temperature, and barometric pressure, are fed into a drone synthesizer, whose fundamental tones emanate from the stones, shifting slowly over the months as the stones settle and the weather changes.

Family-friendly sound art tours will be available on select days. Visit caramoor.org or call 914.232.1252 for details.

Rosen House Tours

The historic Rosen House, an enchanting Mediterranean villa built by Walter and Lucie Rosen in the 1930s, has recently completed a 5-year revitalization project. Tours of the Rosen House are available throughout the season and are included with the purchase of Afternoon Tea. Limited tours are available during the American Roots and Jazz Festivals, and an I SPY tour for families with children seven years old and under will be offered after the “TRAPEZE!” family concert on June 29. This season, the magnificent Music Room will be open for viewing prior to concerts in the Venetian Theater, audiences are encouraged to arrive early and explore.

Food + Drink Offerings

On performance days during the summer, spread a blanket on the lawn, reminisce with family and friends over a glass of wine at a picnic table, or set up your own table and chairs for the day—Caramoor has plenty of space. The onsite Food + Drink Offerings during the Summer Season feature a variety of delicious, organic, and locally-sourced snacks and beverages provided by Great Performances catering and events company. The Tap Tent has something for everyone: salads, sandwiches, snacks, water, soda, local wine and beer, coffee and tea, and ice cream. Vegetarian, gluten-free, and vegan items are available. On weekends, the Katchkie Food Truck offers the mouth-watering Caramoor Burger and Treble Dog. Festival days feature special menus. Caramoor Members enjoy 10% off the Food + Drink selections.

For maximum convenience and to avoid the lines, Great Performances also offers pre-ordered picnic boxes in a variety of menus. Each picnic includes an entrée, sides, and dessert. Upgrade to Picnic Plus to get a reserved seat at a set table under the Pavilion Tent and unlimited soft beverages. Additionally, on July 7 and 28 a relaxed Symphony Court post-performance buffet meal seated under the Pavilion Tent is offered and includes unlimited wine, beer, and soda. Menus for the picnics and Symphony Court are available online, and you can either order online or call the Box Office at 914.232.1252. Order by Tuesday at 4:00pm for the upcoming week’s performance.

For high-resolution photos, click here.

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About Caramoor

Caramoor is a performing arts center located on a unique 90-acre estate with Italianate architecture and gardens in Westchester County, NY. It enriches the lives of its audiences through innovative and diverse musical performances of the highest quality. Its mission also includes mentoring young professional musicians and providing educational programs for young children centered around music. Audiences are invited to come early to explore the beautiful grounds; tour the historic Rosen House, a stunning mansion listed on the National Register of Historic Places; unwind with a pre-concert picnic or concessions with beer and wine; enjoy a delicious Afternoon Tea on Wednesdays and Sundays; and discover beautiful music in the relaxed settings of the Venetian Theater, Spanish Courtyard, Music Room of the Rosen House, and magnificent gardens. Summer concerts take place in two outdoor theaters: the acoustically superb Venetian Theater, which seats approximately 1,500, and the more intimate, romantic Spanish Courtyard, which seats around 470. In the fall and spring, concerts are presented in the splendid Music Room in the Rosen House. Caramoor’s gardens, also used for concerts and the sound art exhibition Sonic Innovations, are well worth the visit and include nine unique perennial gardens. Among them are a Sense Circle for the visually impaired, the Sunken Garden, a Butterfly Garden, the Tapestry Hedge, and the Iris and Peony Garden.

Getting to Caramoor

Getting to Caramoor is simple by car, train or public transportation. All parking is free and close to the performance areas. Handicapped parking is also free and readily available.

By car from New York City, take the Henry Hudson Parkway north to the Saw Mill River Parkway north to I-684 north to Exit 6. Go east on Route 35 to the traffic light (0.3 miles). Turn right onto Route 22 south, and travel 1.9 miles to the junction of Girdle Ridge Road where there is a green Caramoor sign. At the junction, veer left and make a quick right onto Girdle Ridge Road. Continue on Girdle Ridge Road 0.5 miles to the Caramoor gates on the right. Approximate drive time is one hour.

By train from Grand Central Station, take the Harlem Division Line of the Metro-North Railroad heading to Southeast, and exit at Katonah. Caramoor is a 3.5-mile drive from the Katonah station, where taxi service is always available and free shuttle service is available for most performances. For current information, check the Metro-North schedule.

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Caramoor: 74th summer music season (2019)

Week 1

June 15
Opening Night Concert: Orchestra of St. Luke’s
8:30pm
Venetian Theater
Alisa Weilerstein, cellist (ERS alum)
Orchestra of St. Luke’s/ Peter Oundjian
Gary Kulesha: Torque
Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104
Stravinsky: Suite from The Firebird (1919 Version)

June 16
Hot Jazz Age Frolic
3pm
Gala Tent
Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks*
Bria Skonberg’s Hot Five
Kat Edmonson, vocalist*
DeWitt Fleming, Jr., tap dancer*
Michael Cumella, gramophone DJ*

Week 2

June 19
Dancing at Dusk
5:30pm
Friends’ Field
Cady Finlayson & Vita Tanga: Celtic fiddle tunes, jigs, reels and more

June 20
Timo Andres, Piano
7pm
Spanish Courtyard
Janáček: Selections from On the Overgrown Path
Caroline Shaw: Gustave Le Gray
Eric Shanfield: Utopia Parkway
Christopher Cerrone: The Arching Path 

June 21
Tribu Baharú*
8pm
Spanish Courtyard

June 22
American Roots Music Festival
12pm
Various Venues
Daytime artists:
Deva Mahal*
Bumper Jacksons*
Youth In A Roman Field*
Oliver the Crow*

7:30pm
Venetian Theater
Evening headliner:
The Milk Carton Kids
Introducing Amythyst Kiah

June 23
Versailles: Portrait of a Royal Domain
4pm
Venetian Theater
Boston Early Music Festival*
Paul O’Dette & Stephen Stubbs, musical directors
Gilbert Blin, stage director
Carlos Fittante, choreographer
Charpentier: Les Plaisirs de Versailles
Lully: Atys (two divertissements)
Lalande: Les Fontaines de Versailles 

Week 3

June 27
Omer Quartet
7pm
Venetian Theater
Osvaldo Golijov: Yiddishbbuk
Gabriella Smith: New Work (world premiere, commissioned by Caramoor)
Brahms: String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat, Op. 67

June 28
Roomful of Teeth*
8pm
Spanish Courtyard
Caroline Shaw: Partita for 8 Voices
Missy Mazzoli: Vesper Sparrow
Merrill Garbus: Ansa Ya
William Brittelle: High Done No Why To
Ted Hearne: Letter to my Father (from Coloring Book)
Merrill Garbus: There Will Be

June 29
Family Concert: Decoda*
1pm
Spanish Courtyard
TRAPEZE!
Prokofiev: Quintet in G minor, Op. 39

June 29
BUIKA*
8pm
Venetian Theater

June 30
New York Baroque Incorporated with Vivica Genaux
4pm
Venetian Theater
New York Baroque Incorporated*
Vivica Genaux, mezzo-soprano
Corelli: Concerto Grosso in D, Op. 6, No. 4: Adagio-Allegro (i)
Handel: “Brilla nell’alma un non inteso ancor” from Alessandro
Handel: “Lascia la spina” from Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno
Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in F minor, RV 297, “L’inverno” from The Four Seasons
Vivaldi: “Gelido in ogni vena” from Farnace, RV 711
Hasse: “Come nave in mezzo all’onde” from Viriate
Geminiani: Concerto Grosso in E, No. 11, H 142 (After Corelli’s Violin Sonata)
Handel: Armida abbandonata, HWV 105

Week 4

July 4
Pops, Patriots and Fireworks
8pm
Venetian Theater
Westchester Symphonic Winds/Curt Ebersole
Madison Leonard, soprano (VRS alumna)
Shea Owens, baritone (VRS alumnus)
Smith: The Star Spangled Banner (Arr. by Walter Damrosch/ John Philip Sousa)
Smith: Eternal Father, Strong to Save
Various Composers: American Originals (Sammy Nestico)
Williams: Strategic Air Command
Broughton: Silverado (Randol Alan Bass)
Galante: Beyond the Horizon
Rodgers and Hammerstein: Medley (Matt Podd)
Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture, Op. 49 (Mayhew L. Lake)
Sousa: Stars and Stripes Forever (Keith Brion & Loras Schissel)

July 5
Takács Quartet
8pm
Spanish Courtyard
Haydn: String Quartet in C, H.III:39 (“The Bird”)
Bartók: String Quartet No. 3, BB 93
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 9 in C, Op. 59, No. 3 (“Razumovsky”)

July 6
Laura Benanti*
8pm
Venetian Theater
TALES FROM SOPRANO ISLE
Laura Benanti, vocalist

July 7
Orchestra of St. Luke’s
4pm
Venetian Theater
Orchestra of St. Luke’s/Cristian Măcelaru
Jonathan Biss, piano (ERS alumnus)
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37
Caroline Shaw: Watermark (NY Premiere, co-commissioned by Caramoor)
Mozart: Symphony No. 38 in D, K. 504 (“Prague”)

Week 5

July 10
Dancing at Dusk
5:30pm
Friends’ Field
Kostas Psarros & Friends: Traditional group dances from Greece

July 11
Russian Renaissance*
7pm
Spanish Courtyard
Piazzolla: Milonga Is Coming
Zimmer: First Step (from Interstellar)
De Holanda: 1 Byte 10 Cordas
Sakamoto: Tibetan Dance
Fleck: Bug Tussle
Folk Song (Russian): Poliushko Pole (Field, Oh Field)
Folk Song (Russian): Sronila Kolechko (She Dropped A Ring)
Gismonti: Frevo
Abreu: Tico-Tico no Fubá
Fleck: Sinister Minister 

July 12
Dover Quartet with Davóne Tines
8pm
Spanish Courtyard
Dover Quartet
Davóne Tines, bass-baritone
Mendelssohn: Andante sostenuto and Variations in E, Op. 81, No. 1
Mendelssohn: Scherzo in A minor, Op. 81, No. 2
Mendelssohn: Fugue in E-flat, Op. 81, No. 4
Barber: Dover Beach, Op. 3
Caroline Shaw: By and By
Dvořák: String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat, Op. 105

July 13
Venice Baroque Orchestra with Avi Avital
4pm
Venetian Theater
Venice Baroque Orchestra*
Avi Avital, mandolin*
Anna Fusek, recorder
Vivaldi: L’Olimpiade, RV 725: Sinfonia
Vivaldi: Concerto for Lute, Two Violins, and Continuo in D, RV 93
Albinoni: Concerto for Strings and Basso Continuo in G, Op. 7, No. 4
Vivaldi: Concerto for mandolin and recorder in G, RV 532
Corelli: Concerto Grosso in D, Op. 6, No. 4
Barbella: Concerto in D for mandolin and strings
Vivaldi: Sinfonia in C for strings and basso continuo, RV 114
Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in G minor, RV 315, “Summer”

July 13
David Rothenberg, clarinet*
7:30pm
Sunken Garden

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano*
8:30pm
Spanish Courtyard
Messiaen: Catalogue d’oiseaux: Part I

July 14
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano
7:30am
Spanish Courtyard
Messiaen: Catalogue d’oiseaux: Part II

2pm- 4pm
Family Activities
provided by
Stamford Museum & Nature Center

2pm
Panel Discussion: Messiaen / Bird Song
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, David Rothenberg, J. Alan Clark

3pm
Sandbox Percussion*
Emi Ferguson, piccolo*
Catherine Gregory, piccolo*
John Luther Adams: songbirdsongs

4:30pm
Venetian Theater
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano
Messiaen: Catalogue d’oiseaux: Part III

6:00am and 8:30am Bird Walks provided by Bedford Audubon Society

Week 6

July 17
Dancing at Dusk
5:30pm
Friends’ Field
Lei Pasifika: South Pacific traditional dances

July 18
MILOŠ*
7pm
Sunken Garden
Miloš Karadaglić, guitar
Works by J.S. Bach, Villa-Lobos, Granados, Duplessy, Lennon & McCartney, and others

July 19
A Far Cry*
8pm
Venetian Theater
Muffat: Concerto Grosso No. 12 in G, “Propitia Sydera”
Caroline Shaw: Entr’acte
Gabriela Lena Frank: Excerpts from Leyendas: an Andean Walkabout
Tchaikovsky: Serenade in C, Op. 48

July 20
Jazz Festival Day
12pm
Various venues
Daytime artists:
Etienne Charles & Creole Soul
Lakecia Benjamin Quartet Plays Coltrane*
Michela Marino Lerman’s Love Movement
Sammy Miller and The Congregation
The Isaiah J. Thompson Quartet

Evening headliner: Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra
8pm
Venetian Theater

July 21
Caramoor’s 3rd Annual Chamber Feast
4pm
Venetian Theater
Aizuri Quartet
Andrew Tyson, piano
Dimitri Murrath, viola
Caroline Shaw: Blueprint
Mozart: String Quintet in E-flat, K. 614
Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34

Week 7

July 24
Dancing at Dusk
5:30pm
Friends’ Field
Héctor Del Curto Tango Trio with
special guest Santiago Del Curto: Argentine tango

July 25
American Modern Opera Company*:
Anthony Roth Costanzo, countertenor
Paul Appleby, tenor
Matthew Aucoin, piano
7pm
Spanish Courtyard
VEILS FOR DESIRE
Britten: Abraham and Isaac
Matthew Aucoin: This Earth
Monteverdi: “Possente spirto”
Matthew Aucoin: Selections from Merrill Songs
Harold Meltzer: The Heaven of Animals (world premiere)

July 26
Daniil Trifonov, Piano
8pm
Venetian Theater
Beethoven: Andante in F, WoO 57 (“Andante favori”)
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 18 in E-flat, Op. 31, No. 3
Schumann: Bunte Blätter, Op. 99
Schumann: Presto passionato, WoO 5
Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 8 in B-flat, Op. 84

July 27
Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn
8pm
Spanish Courtyard
Béla Fleck, banjo
Abigail Washburn, banjo

July 28
Orchestra of St. Luke’s
4pm
Venetian Theater
Orchestra of St. Luke’s/Bernard Labadie
Christian Tetzlaff, violin
Mendelssohn: The Hebrides, Op. 26 (“Fingals Cave”)
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 in C, Op. 21

* Caramoor debut

#          #          #

All concerts made possible, in part, by ArtsWestchester with funds from the Westchester County Government.
All concerts made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
The 2018 Summer Music Festival is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

© 21C Media Group, February 2019