classical music

The Lake George Music Festival returns to the historic Fort William Henry Carriage House Theatre and features a diverse musical lineup, showcasing the versatility of more than 30 World-Class Symphony musicians as they perform music ranging from cherished legendary masterworks to new works.They are celebrating their11th season – running from August 10-18. The Season Opener is the Emmy Award Winning group – Time for Three. To tell us more, we welcome co-founders: CEO Alex Lombard, Artistic Director and Conductor Roger Kalia, and Artistic Director Barbora Kolářová.

The Bard Music Festival returns for its 32nd season with an exploration of the life and work of Sergei Rachmaninoff who lived from 1873 to 1943.Through a series of themed concert programs, lectures, and panel discussions, Rachmaninoff and His World explores such themes as composition during the Cold War, virtuoso pianists and their public, and America’s ongoing love affair with Rachmaninoff’s music.The festival runs through August 5–14, 2022. To tell us more, we welcome: Christopher Gibbs - Co-Artistic Director of the Bard Music Festival and James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Music at Bard College.

Meadowmount School of Music in Westport, New York in the Adirondacks is a summer program for young string players founded by legendary violin teacher Ivan Galamian that has helped mold some of the world’s most prominent musicians, among them Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and Joshua Bell.This summer, “the original practice camp” marks its 78th year with its first fully in-person session since 2019 and two new leaders at the helm: Executive Director Mark Hayman, former Executive Director of Young Concert Artists; and Artistic Director Janet Sung, international violin soloist as well as Head of Strings and Violin Professor at the DePaul University School of Music and Artistic Director and Founder of Chamber Music Chicago.

Set in an apple orchard in the foothills of the Berkshires, PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century presents dance, music, and theater. PS21 programming also includes free performances for kids, dance, and theater workshops, and movie screenings. PS21 has returned with an adventurous season of programming full of surprises and wonder. Elena Siyanko is the Artistic & Executive Director of PS21.

The mission of the Aston Magna Foundation in Great Barrington, MA is to enrich the appreciation of music of the past through the use of historical instruments and practices in performances, recordings, and workshops, and through innovative interdisciplinary educational programs, publications, and electronic media. Aston Magna’s 2022 Summer Festival begins this weekend with two musical/theatrical works that feature the struggle between personifications of good and evil: Scarlatti’s “Humanity and Lucifer” (1706) and Stravinsky’s Faustian “The Soldier’s Tale” (1918). Daniel Stepner is Artistic Director of Aston Magna and he joins us to preview this weekend’s concerts and the season on the whole.

This Sunday, June 12, at 3pm - The Empire State Youth Orchestra will perform a very special concert at Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood in Lenox, MA.ESYO’s new Music Director and Conductor Etienne Abelin and the Symphony Orchestra will perform Beethoven’s Egmont Overture alongside Arturo Márquez's Danzón No. 2. And Fabrizio Cassol's Concerto Grosso for DJ/Electronics, Cello, Saxophone, and Orchestra is the centerpiece of the concert.

Maestro and Albany Symphony Orchestra Music Director David Alan Miller, the musicians of the Albany Symphony and the members of Albany Pro Musica will be performing this weekend at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall – performing Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter.” Two-time Grammy Award winning conductor David Alan Miller has established a reputation as one of the leading American conductors of his generation. As music director of the Albany Symphony since 1992, Mr. Miller has proven himself a creative and compelling orchestra builder. Through exploration of unusual repertoire, educational programming, community outreach, and recording initiatives, he has reaffirmed the Albany Symphony’s reputation as the nation’s leading champion of American symphonic music and one of its most innovative orchestras.

The Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) has announced the return of its resident companies -- New York City Ballet and The Philadelphia Orchestra -- to their summer home in Saratoga for a diverse season featuring SPAC premieres and debuts by women and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) composers, choreographers, performers and conductors, alongside iconic masterworks of the classical repertoire. It has been an awesomely weird year for all of us and certainly for the arts. So, talking about some normalcy is quite refreshing. We do so this morning with Elizabeth Sobol, president and CEO of Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

This Saturday, February 26 Close Encounters with Music presents a concert entitled “Folk & Baroque.” Cellist and Close Encounters with Music Artistic Director, Yehuda Hanani will be joined at Saint James Place in downtown Great Barrington by virtuoso guitarist Eliot Fisk and esteemed contralto soloist Emily Marvosh in a program featuring works by Bach, Scarlatti, Villa-Lobos, Dowland, Schumber, Vittorio Monti, Seiber, French chansons and Stephen Foster!

Brendan Slocumb’s debut thriller, “The Violin Conspiracy,” is a page-turner about a Black classical musician’s desperate quest to recover his lost family heirloom violin on the eve of the most prestigious musical competition in the world.