Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival

After highly successful “BCM Autumn 2021” and “BCM Spring 2022” series, this summer’s Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival presents 11 concerts from July 24 to August 21 – approaching its pre-pandemic scope. The 11 distinct programs in the 39^th season of Long Island’s longest-running classical music festival highlight interconnections in music: works by contemporary composers Caroline Shaw, William Bolcom, and Lowell Liebermann inspired by Haydn and Bach; a Ghanaian dance-inspired work by Derek Bermel; and Tzigane-inspired (“Hungarian Gypsy”) works by Valerie Coleman and Johannes Brahms, to name a few examples. Throughout the festival, the music of 12 living composers combines with works by Beethoven, Brahms, Dvořák, Mozart, and Schumann to spotlight musical intersections of time and place.

“Now more than ever, our lives are interconnected,” said Bridgehampton Chamber Music Artistic Director Marya Martin, “and music is a space for connection, understanding, and sharing of ideas and values. For this summer’s festival, we have built programs of wonderfully rich music that embrace the melding of the here and there and then and now.”

Beginning with an encore presentation of the popular program “A Mozart Portrait with Alan Alda” hosted by the longtime friend of Bridgehampton Chamber Music, the festival brings back its annual Free Outdoor Concert, this year featuring the exciting ensemble Sandbox Percussion. In succeeding programs, Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte for String Quartet (that was inspired by a Haydn quartet) joins works by Mozart and Shostakovich; and a program with Valerie Coleman’s Tzigane for Wind Quintet and Brahms’s Piano Quartet in G minor that concludes with a rollicking “Tzigane” movement, also features Lowell Liebermann’s Fantasy on a Fugue by J. S. Bach for Wind Quintet and Piano.

Carlos Simon’s Be Still and Know for Piano Trio and Brahms’s Piano Quartet in C minor share a program with the world premiere of a BCM-commissioned work by Paul Moravec (that itself is inspired by a previous work Moravec wrote for Marya Martin); BCM’s annual concert at the Parrish Art Museum features music by Valerie Coleman and Derek Bermel along with works by Mozart, Sibelius, Zemlinsky, and Françaix; and the festival’s annual Wm. Brian Little Concert is titled “Bach to Bluegrass,” showcasing violinist Tessa Lark, who has feet in both those worlds.

The festival’s lineup also features music by contemporary composers Eric Ewazen, Jessie Montgomery, and Tian Zhou. (See complete programs below.) The festival’s annual benefit, a concert with cocktails and dinner, is back at the Atlantic Golf Club, and the Wm. Brian Little Concert, an event with wine and hors d’oeuvres, takes place in the Channing Sculpture Garden.

As always, the festival’s roster of artists comprises one of the best multi-generational groups of chamber musicians to be found anywhere. Led by flutist and festival founder Marya Martin, this summer’s BCM musicians are James Austin Smith, oboe; Bixby Kennedy, clarinet; Stewart Rose, horn; Ben Beilman, Stella Chen, Chad Hoopes*, Ani Kavafian, Kristin Lee, Tessa Lark, Anthony Marwood, Amy Schwartz Moretti, Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, violin; Ettore Causa, Matthew Lipman, Melissa Reardon, and Cong Wu, viola; Nick Canellakis, Leland Ko*, Mihai Marica, David Requiro, and Peter Stumpf, cello; Donald Palma, bass; Michael Brown, Zoltán Fejérvári*, David Fung, Gilles Vonsattel, Ying Li*, and Zhu Wang*, piano; Frank Vignola*, guitar; Alan Alda, narrator; and the ensemble Sandbox Percussion*. (Those marked with an asterisk are making their BCM debuts.)

For more info, visit https://www.bcmf.org