Music Director Robert Spano leads a season themed "Paris, City of Light," exploring the incomparable creative force with which this city has illuminated the arts, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries; theme works include those by Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, Poulenc, Offenbach, Bizet, Ibert, Gounod, Messiaen, and Boulez. Two mini-themes illuminate related, distinct creative threads: Diaghilev Ballet Russes composers from 1909 to 1929 and the American composition students of Nadia Boulanger.

Other highlights include the 25th anniversary of Harris Concert Hall, the conclusion of Jonathan Biss's complete Beethoven piano sonatas cycle, and the beginning James Ehnes's complete violin sonata cycle--both launched in Aspen, a new partnership with Grammy-Award-winning vocal ensemble Seraphic Fire, and a new brass chamber music program led by the American Brass Quintet. Operas being performed are Rossini's The Barber of Seville and Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann. The AMFS will also present a concept presentation of Bernstein's one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti, woven together with Charlie Chaplin's silent film A Dog's Life. Performers include Behzod Abduraimov, Sarah Chang, Ray Chen, Vladimir Feltsman, David Finckel, Augustin Hadelich, Daniel Hope, Sharon Isbin, Stefan Jackiw, Robert McDuffie, Midori, Garrick Ohlsson, Lise de la Salle, Gil Shaham, Orli Shaham, Conrad Tao, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Daniil Trifonov, Yuja Wang, Alisa Weilerstein, and Wu Han; string quartets include the American, Emerson, Jupiter, Pacifica, and Escher. A number of premieres are also on the schedule. The season closes with Spano conducting and selections from Die Walküre with soprano Tamara Wilson and bass-baritone Ryan McKinny.

Aspen, Colorado

June 28 - Aug 19, 2018

Robert Spano

Classical

$0 to $90

Telephone: 970-925-9042

May 2018 for Summer 2019

MASS MoCA

Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art

1040 MASS MoCA WAY

North Adams, MA 01247

July 9 - July 29, 2018

Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe

Classical

$0 to $25

Telephone: 413-662-2111

This year’s Bard Music Festival explores the musical world of composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Highlights include semi-staged performances of The Tsar’s Bride (with Lyubov Petrova, soprano; Nadezhda Babintseva, mezzo-soprano; Andrei Valentii, baritone; Efim Zavalny, baritone; Yakov Strizhak, bass) and Mozart and Salieri (with Mikhail Svetlov, bass, and Gerard Schneider, tenor); and a program devoted to Russian piano music featuring Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Rachmaninoff’s Suite No. 2, Medtner’s Sonata Tragica, Op. 39, and Scriabin’s Sonata No. 2, among other works, with pianists including Danny Driver, Piers Lane, Orion Weiss, and Fei-Fei. The festival will open with a program surveying the Mighty Five, featuring among other works Balakirev’s Islamey, Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Le coq d’or Suite and Russian Easter Festival Overture (performed by The Orchestra Now with Leon Botstein conducting; pianist Andrey Gugnin; and bass Önay Köse). Other programs will highlight the folk traditions of the Russian Empire, the legacy of Pushkin; music under Tsarist autocracy; the competing styles of the St. Petersburg and Moscow conservatories; and the influence of the classical, the exotic, and the national with a concert featuring a rare performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s From Homer.

September 8: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Adam Fischer conductor. Beethoven: Egmont Overture, Symphony No. 5; Haydn: Symphony No. 101, The Clock

September 21: Symphony Orchestra of Flanders, Jan Latham-Koenig conductor. Adriana Kohútková soprano; Markéta Cukrová contralto; Jaroslav Březina tenor; Pavel Švingr bass; Daniela Valtová Kosinová organ; Prague Philharmonic Chorus; Lukáš Vasilek choir director.

Brahms: Schicksalslied for chorus and orchestra.

Dieter Schnebel: Schicksal: Beethoven/Hölderlin for speaker, contralto, chorus and chamber ensemble (world première, commissioned by the Bonn Beethovenfest)

Leós Janáček: Glagolithic Mass for solo voices, chorus, orchestra and organ.

September 23: ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna. Michael Boder conductor. Feldman: Coptic Light for orchestra; Bruckner: Symphony No. 9

World Conference Center Bonn (WCCB) and other venues, Bonn, Germany

Aug 31 - Sept 23, 2018

Prof. Dr. Nike Wagner

Classical

$9 to $115

Telephone: +40 (0) 228 50201313

Spring 2018 for Fall 2018

The 2018 Berkeley Festival & Exhibition reimagines the concept of traditional Early Music by broadening the boundaries to include historically informed masterworks from as far back as the early Middle Ages through the Romantic era. Highlights include Early Music ensemble Sequentia; programs of J.S. Bach’s cantatas and motets featuring Belgian ensemble Vox Luminis; a concert version of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas; a 19th-century salon-style presentation of solo and chamber works by Schumann and Schubert; and the Festival’s inaugural International Early Piano Competition devoted to Classical and Romantic music on historically appropriate instruments.

The eight-day festival also includes over 50 concerts; an exhibition that brings together instrument makers, publishers, retailers, and organizations; Young Artist Series featuring Seattle Historical Arts for Kids, Davis Senior High School Baroque Ensemble, Juilliard415, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music students, faculty, and alumni. The Westfield Historical Keyboard Center will present historical keyboard specialist Alexei Lubimov in a program of Debussy’s piano music on the beautiful 1913 Bechstein; also planned are an international Early Music Film Festival and special lectures and master classes.

Berkeley, California: St. Mark's Episcopal Church; First Congregational Church; First Presbyterian Church

June 3 - March 10, 2018

Robert Cole

Classical

$15 to $56

Telephone: 510-528-1725

fall of 2018 for summer 2020

Blossom Music Center, The Cleveland Orchestra’s summer home, marks its 50th anniversary this summer. July 7, opening night, will be conducted by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst. July 21: former Blossom Music Festival Director Jahja Ling conducts Mahler’s Titan Symphony, also celebrating 50 years of partnership between the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra and The Cleveland Orchestra. July 29: Audra McDonald sings Broadway favorites. August 12: Yo-Yo Ma plays all six of Bach’s Cello Suites. August 25: Carmina Burana, with the Blossom Festival Chorus (also celebrating its 50th anniversary).

Other events: July 3 and 4: Loras John Schissel returns to lead the Blossom Festival Band; July 8: Roger Daltrey performs The Who’s TOMMY with members of The Who Band and The Cleveland Orchestra. August 4: Family Fun Day with the classic Disney film The Little Mermaid. August 31-September 2 is a screening of Star Wars: A New Hope. The Cleveland Orchestra plays John Williams’s classic score live. "Under 18s Free" continues for every Blossom Music Festival concert.

Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

July 3 - Sept 2, 2018

Franz Welser-Möst

Classical • Pop/Folk • Jazz • Movie Music

$25 to $120

Telephone: 216-231-1111

The Bowdoin International Music Festival is one of the world’s premiere music institutes, providing an intensive and in-depth exploration of chamber and solo music. Every summer, 250 students make life-long connections with peers, enhance musicianship through study and performance, and engage with world-renowned faculty.

Festival faculty come to Bowdoin from leading conservatories including Curtis, Cincinnati Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Eastman, Indiana, Oberlin, Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, Mannes, New England Conservatory, Peabody, Rice, Royal College of Music, and University of Southern California, among others. At Bowdoin, these faculty members are dedicated to collaborating with and guiding the next generation’s most promising artists.

Brunswick, Maine

June 23 - Aug 4, 2018

David Ying and Phillip Ying

Classical

$0 to $45

Telephone: 207-725-3895

Vail, Colorado

June 21 - Aug 4, 2018

Anne-Marie McDermott

Classical

$5 to $100

Telephone: 877-812-5700

America’s longest-running festival of new orchestral music celebrates its 56th season and the second season of brilliant new Music Director and Conductor Cristian Macelaru, who wowed critics and audiences last year. Works that are rarely more than a year or two old by both preeminent and emerging composers are performed by an orchestra of dedicated professional musicians and renowned guest artists from across the globe. With a professional training workshop for early career conductors and composers, open rehearsals, educational programming, and a street fair showcasing local performers and artists, the festival offers dozens of opportunities for meaningful engagement.

Among this year’s 17 composers-in-residence are Karim Al-Zand, William Bolcom, Anna Clyne, John Corigliano, Dan Dediu, Zosha di Castri, Gabriela Lena Frank, Vivian Fung, Michael Gandolfi, Pierre Jalbert, Kristin Kuster, Missy Mazzoli, Huang Ruo, Pande Shahov, Sean Shepherd, Peter Shin, and Andrea Tarrodi.

Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, California

July 29 - Aug 12, 2018

Cristian Macelaru

Classical

$30 to $65

Telephone: 831-426-6966

The resident Orchestra of St. Luke’s opens and closes the festival with concerts featuring superstar vocalists Audra McDonald and Susan Graham, plus a mid-summer performance of Tchaikovsky, Smetana, and a New York premiere by Matthew Aucoin. Met Opera star Isabel Leonard gives an intimate recital with guitarist Sharon Isbin, and San Francisco’s peerless vocal ensemble Chanticleer celebrates its 40th-anniversary season. New music abounds, performed by the Kronos Quartet, So Percussion, and The Knights; John Luther Adams’s monumental out-of-doors percussion piece Inuksuit, featuring 60+ musicians, will be the highlight of a free day of events.

Operatic offerings include Handel’s Atalanta with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and a special Sunken Garden production of Mozart’s The Secret Gardener. Cleveland Baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire completes the early music roster. The Verona Quartet serves as the Ernst Stiefel String quartet-in-residence, premiering a Caramoor commission from composer Julia Adolphe. Other chamber offerings include concerts by the Jasper and Brentano Quartets and solo piano recitals from Marc-André Hamelin and Michael Brown. Ted Sperling leads a "Bernstein’s Broadway" concert with Broadway stars; Dianne Reeves headlines the annual Caramoor Jazz Festival; singer/songwriter Aimee Mann headlines the annual American Roots Music Festival.

Katonah, New York: Rosen House, Spanish Courtyard, Venetian Theater

June 16 - July 29, 2018

Kathy Schuman

Classical • Pop/Folk • Jazz • Ethnic • Opera • Symphonic

$10 to $110

Telephone: 914-232-1252

The Carmel Bach Festival presents its 81st performance season, July 14-28, 2018, in venues throughout Carmel, Monterey, and Pebble Beach, California. This year’s schedule features more than 40 events including main concerts, recitals, and a "Music and Ideas" series.

"World-renowned musicians and vocal soloists, including Mhairi Lawson, Clara Rottsolk, Meg Bragle, Thomas Cooley, Rufus Mnller, and John Brancy will appear," said Paul Goodwin, artistic director and principal conductor. "The 2018 Carmel Bach Festival is full of stories and narratives that use the expressive power of music and words to lift you out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary!"

Carmel-by-the-Sea, California

July 14 - July 28, 2018

Paul Goodwin

Classical

$20 to $128

Telephone: 831-624-1521

Delight in the glorious music of Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Verdi’s extraordinary Il trovatore featuring artists from around the world. Revel in the remarkable voices of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists performing Acis and Galatea and the 40th-anniversary production of The Face on the Barroom Floor. Be inspired by exquisite opera this summer in the world-renowned jewel box theater nestled in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Steal away for an unforgettable weekend and enjoy up to four different opera performances.

Central City Opera House, Central City, Colorado

July 7 - Aug 5, 2018

Pelham G. Pearce, General/Artistic Director

Opera

$31 to $108

Telephone: 303-292-6700