Alan Alda To Help Launch 34th Annual Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival

The 34th season of the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival will present 13 captivating concerts over the course of five weeks.

Starting Sunday, July 30, through Sunday, August 27, concerts will offer audience members listening enjoyment of everything from Mozart to Brahms, Beethoven, and Brown. Concerts will be held at beloved Hamptons locations and feature several different orchestras.

In celebration of the summer season, the overlying theme for this year’s Festival is water.

“What better way to recognize the deep connection between the Festival and the beach than by building a season where water and sea are always close at hand? Composers for centuries have been influenced by the elements, and water in particular. We’re thrilled to flood our programs with flowing melodies and turbulent rhythms – from Vivaldi’s ‘La tempesta di mare’ concerto to our world-premiere from Elizabeth Brown called Island Nocturnes,” said Artistic Director Marya Martin. “In a world that is ever-more complicated, it’s nice to get back to basics and remember the essential.”

2017 performers will include Marya Martin, Romie de Guise-Langlois, Stewart Rose, Nikki Chooi, Frank Huang, Paul Huang, Ani Kavafian, Erin Keefe, Kristin Lee, Anthony Marwood, Amy Schwartz Moretti, Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, Ettore Causa, Scott Lee, Dimitri Murrath, Richard O’Neill, Cynthia Phelps, Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, Edward Arron, Clive Greensmith, Jacob Koranyi, Peter Stumpf, Paul Watkins, Xavier Foley, Donald Palma, Bridget Kibbey, Juho Pohjonen, Gilles Vonsattel, Orion Weiss, Kenneth Weiss, the Stephane Wrembel Band, Stephane Wrembel, Thor Jensen, Ari-Folman Cohen, and Nick Anderson.

Actor Alan Alda, who opened the 2016 Festival with a portrait of Mozart in music and words, will return to help launch this year’s Festival with the story of the intimate relationship of Johannes Brahms and Clara and Robert Schumann featuring excerpts of their letters and music by all three. “As I was researching and writing this piece, I was struck by the story of these three extraordinary people who were hit by so many common human difficulties,” Alda explained. “They had to cope with a shortage of money, mental illness, more children than they could care for and still do their work – and yet from each of them came not only the most generous and heartfelt support for one another, but some of the most beautiful music ever written.”

The actor’s program was so popular last year, he will take part in two performances (on Sunday, July 30 and Monday, July 31) this year.

“I’m looking forward to the performances when I’ll sitting next to extraordinary musicians as they play those parts of this story that can’t be conveyed in words, but only in music,” Alda added.

For more information visit, bcmf.org.