Season includes a special concert on October 6 featuring internationally renowned violinist Chad Hoopes and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott
Following its successful summer festival, Newport Classical continues its commitment to ongoing year-round programming for the third year, with a full season, nine-concert Chamber Series held on Fridays at 7:30pm, running from September 2023 through June 2024 at the organization's home venue, Newport Classical Recital Hall (42 Dearborn St.). Tickets will go on sale to the public on August 1 at www.newportclassical.org.
Newport Classical Executive Director Gillian Friedman Fox says, “This year's Newport Classical Music Festival drew nearly 7,500 attendees, with 38% of audience members attending a concert for the first time. We are so thrilled to have welcomed so many familiar faces and new patrons to experience classical music with us in an inviting and intimate atmosphere. Our Chamber Series continues this programming throughout the year, and we can't wait to share with the community the incredible artistry of these world-class musicians who will be coming to perform from September through June in downtown Newport.”
As part of Newport Classical's desire to create connections between classical music, the artists who perform it, and the Newport community, all musicians performing on the Chamber Series will also go into the Newport-area public schools to perform for and speak with students, through Newport Classical's Music Education and Engagement initiative.
Newport Classical's Chamber Series opens on September 1 with musicians from Young Concert Artists on Tour, featuring today's emerging star performers and arts leaders in music by Mendelssohn, Strauss, and more. On October 6, internationally renowned soloists and chamber musicians violinist Chad Hoopes and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott come together to create an exciting duo in a program anchored by Beethoven's Sonata No. 9. Hoopes previously performed on the series in 2022, and McDermott has a long relationship with the organization – from 1990 to 1997, she was in residence as a Festival Artist. Violinist William Hagen, who performs on November 3 with pianist Orion Weiss, has been hailed as a “brilliant virtuoso…a standout” (The Dallas Morning News). On January 26, rising-star pianist Eric Lu, who has been described by The Guardian as “a veritable poet of the keyboard," will make his Newport Classical debut in a program featuring music by Schubert, Mendelssohn, Bach, and Chopin. The Galvin Cello Quartet, which burst onto the scene after capturing the Silver Medal at the 2021 Fischoff Competition and the 2022 Victor Elmaleh Competition, will perform on February 23. Bassoonist Eleni Katz and pianist Evren Ozel take the stage on March 22 in a program celebrating the many facets of the bassoon, featuring music by Debussy, Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Coleridge-Taylor, and more. On April 26, the award-winning Balourdet Quartet, which recently won the Grand Prize at the 2021 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, will present a program featuring Hadyn, Kurtág, and Schubert. Polish-American soprano Magdalena Kuźma, praised as a "standout" with "star quality" by Opera News, performs a program spanning from Chopin to Rachmaninoff to Rodgers and Hammerstein on May 17. On June 7, pianist Asiya Korepanova closes the Chamber Series with music by Rachmaninoff, Mussorgsky, Beach, Chopin, and more.
During the 2023-2024 season, Newport Classical will also present several free family-friendly Community Concerts at neighborhood-centered locations, generously sponsored by BankNewport, and two holiday programs, which will be announced later this year. The 2024 Newport Classical Music Festival will take place from July 4-21, 2024.
September 1: Young Concert Artists Sing Mendelssohn and Strauss
October 6: Chad Hoopes and Anne-Marie McDermott in Concert
November 3: Violinist William Hagen Plays Dvořák and Brahms
January 26: Pianist Eric Lu Performs Bach and Mendelssohn
February 23: Galvin Cello Quartet Plays Vivaldi and Piazzolla
March 22: Eleni Katz and the Bassoon
April 26: Balourdet Quartet Plays Schubert and Haydn
May 17: Soprano Magdalena Kuźma Sings Barber, Rachmaninoff, Chopin
June 7: Pianist Asiya Korepanova Plays Mussorgsky and Rachmaninoff
Complete concert details can be found at www.newportclassical.org/concerts. All Chamber Series concerts are held on Fridays at 7:30pm at Newport Classical Recital Hall (42 Dearborn Street).
Newport Classical is a premier performing arts organization that welcomes people of every age, culture, and background to intimate, immersive musical experiences. The organization presents world-renowned and up-and-coming artistic talents at stunning, storied venues across Newport – an internationally sought-after cultural and recreational destination.
Originally founded in 1969 as Rhode Island Arts Foundation at Newport, Inc. and previously known as Newport Music Festival (NMF), Newport Classical has a rich legacy of musical curiosity presenting the American debuts of over 130 International Artists and rarely heard works and is most well-known for hosting three weeks of concerts in the summer in the historic mansions throughout Newport and Aquidneck Island. The organization has produced more than 2,000 concerts and hosted more than 1,000 musicians and singers. In 2021, the organization launched a new commissioning initiative – each year, Newport Classical will commission a new work by a Black, Indigenous, person of color, or woman composer as a commitment to the future of classical music.
Newport Classical is proud to be an essential pillar of New England's cultural landscape, and to invest in the future of classical music as a diverse, relevant, and ever-evolving art form. Newport Classical's four core programming initiatives – the iconic summer Music Festival taking place across Newport; the year-round Chamber Series at the organization's home base Newport Classical Recital Hall at Emmanuel Church in downtown Newport; the free family-friendly Community Concerts held in green spaces around Aquidneck Island; and its newly expanded Music Education and Engagement Initiative program – illustrate the organization's ongoing commitment to presenting “timeless music for today.”
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