Newport Classical brings eight-Concert Chamber series to downtown Newport
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Having just completed an incredible, 17-day Newport Classical Music Festival this past weekend, it’s hard to believe it’s already time to look ahead to this fall and the launch of our 2022-2023 Chamber Series concerts. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this summer’s festival, which was our first since 2019 to take place indoors at this city’s iconic mansions and historic venues. We were thrilled to welcome back so many familiar faces, as well as many new ones — almost a third of our audiences were coming to their first Newport Classical concert this summer!
From this September through next June, Newport Classical will be presenting some of the world’s most engaging musicians in our new home venue, the Recital Hall at Emmanuel Church. We hope that you’ll mark your calendars and join us for our year-round programming, and in our commitment to bringing timeless music for today to the Newport community. Tickets will be on sale starting on July 26.
Our Chamber Series begins on Sept. 9, when rising-star violist Matthew Lipman, who regularly performs with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York, and pianist Henry Kramer, present the enduring music of J.S. Bach and Brahms, paired with Gabriela Lena Frank’s Cinco Danzas de Chambi, inspired by the work of Amerindian photographer Martín Chambi.
On Oct. 7, the incredible Memphis-based flutist Adam Sadberry, known for his radiant tone, will perform the tango-inspired music of Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla, plus works by Valerie Coleman, William Grant Still, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and César Franck.
The Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet will be with us on Nov. 4, in a program centered around a Mozart string quartet, paired with a new work reflecting that masterpiece by Vijay Iyer (also an acclaimed jazz musician) and a work close to their hearts from their conservatory days — Bartók’s fifth quartet.
On Feb. 17, celebrated and versatile Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez will give a concert featuring music by Rachmaninoff and Beethoven along with selections by young composers Caroline Shaw and Viet Cuong, as well as Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.
Virtuoso 25-year-old violinist Randall Goosby, hailed by The New York Times for his “exquisite tone and sheer virtuosity,” will come to Newport on March 10, to perform music by Beethoven, Grant Still, Ravel, and Boulanger, with pianist Ann Han.
The powerhouse duo of Thomas Mesa, hailed as one of the most charismatic cellists of his generation, and Ilya Yakushev, known for his pyrotechnics on the piano, perform our April 21 concert, featuring music by J.S. Bach and Rachmaninoff, alongside contemporary works by Lera Auerbach and Kevin Day.
The remarkable saxophonists of the Kenari Quartet, described as “polished” and “intense” by the Wall Street Journal, come to Newport on May 19 for a concert that includes music by J.S. Bach and Mendelssohn, Jennifer Higdon’s Short Stories, and David Maslanka’s Mountain Roads.
And on June 9, our Chamber Series concludes with a concert by violinist William Hagen, hailed as a “brilliant virtuoso…a standout,” by The Dallas Morning News, including rarely heard works by Louise Farrenc, Clara Schumann, and Harry Thacker Burleigh, paired with Schumann’s Sonata No. 2.
As part of our commitment to creating connections between classical music, the artists who perform it, and our Newport community, we will again be bringing all of these artists into our area public schools to perform for and speak with students during their time here, through our Music Education Residency initiative.
In this column, I’ll be introducing some of the musicians performing in Newport to you – asking them some questions about themselves, and the music that they’ll be playing. I look forward to sharing that with you, and to seeing many of you at our Chamber Series concerts throughout this season.
Visit www.newportclassical.org for packages, single tickets and more information about the Newport Classical Chamber Series, which runs from September 2022 through June 2023 at Recital Hall at Emmanuel Church, 42 Dearborn St., in Newport.
Gillian Friedman Fox is the executive director of Newport Classical. Her column appears monthly on newportri.com and in The Newport Daily News.
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Newport Classical brings 8-Concert Chamber series to downtown Newport
