Get set for vocal fireworks – and actual ones – as the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah once again presents its beloved summer festival.
Show-stopping soprano Angela Meade, Caramoor artist-in-residence this season, along with guitarist Jason Vieaux, will be at the heart of the Saturday, June 17 gala. She’ll also be featured in the semi-staged production of Bellini’s “Il Pirata,” celebrating the 20th anniversary of the “Bel Canto at Caramoor” series.
Under the leadership of Director of Opera Will Crutchfield, these events will be anchored by the resident Orchestra of St. Luke’s, which returns to close the season (July 30) in company with Principal Conductor Pablo Heras-Casado and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. The orchestra also appears under the baton of Bernard Labadie, who is, like Russian piano phenomenon Daniil Trifonov and Broadway star Sutton Foster, one of three major artists making Caramoor debuts this season.
The 72nd season ranges over the musical landscape, from world premieres of new commissions to canonical masterworks, from Argentinean tango to Independence Day bells and whistles. In addition to opera, there will be orchestral, chamber, jazz, world and American Roots music, family programs, young artist showcases and sound artwork.
The summer’s chamber lineup includes cellist Edward Arron, the Escher String Quartet, and the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble in collaboration with the New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik, while the Argus Quartet serves as the 2016-17 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence, and premieres a new Caramoor commission from composer Donald Crockett. Headlined by towering jazz pianist McCoy Tyner, the annual Caramoor Jazz Festival is now in the third year of its partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center, which additionally presents a concert by Butler, Bernstein and the Hot 9.
Rhiannon Giddens and Sarah Jarosz, 2016 Grammy Award nominees, headline the annual American Roots Music Festival, while other American Roots events include an evening with singer-songwriter John Fullbright and later a concert by country legend Emmylou Harris. Family-friendly “Dancing at Dusk” introduces music and culture from around the world, and participants and alumni from Caramoor’s numerous young artist programs perform in a variety of concerts. With 90 acres of picturesque Italianate architecture and gardens – just one hour’s drive from Manhattan – Caramoor gives day-trippers the perfect pastoral escape from the city, in what The New York Times dubs “bucolic, picnic-friendly settings with a programming philosophy that balances hedonism and exploration.” Click here for a video highlighting the Caramoor experience.
For tickets and more, visit caramoor.org.
– Georgette Gouveia
