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  FESTIVALS
2014 Summer Festivals Summer Festivals 2014
The Musical America Guide
The Musical America editors have taken a slightly different approach than in our past Summer Festivals previews: the information has been provided by the festivals themselves in response to questionnaires emailed to festivals painstakingly culled from the more than 1,500 North American and international events in the MA database.
You’ll note there are a few TBAs from festivals that assemble schedules relatively late in the game. We will add them to here as they arrive.
Aspen and Verbier: A Conversation With Two CEOs
As a bonus, we've included a three-way interview led by our Chicago-based correspondent Wynne Delacoma, between Martin T:son [yes, that’s how it’s spelled] Engstroem, founder and executive director of the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, and Alan Fletcher, president and CEO of the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado. We chose these two because their respective operations have so much in common—both are professional presenters and at the same time training programs for young artists, both have turned seasonal ski resorts into thriving, year-round tourist destinations.
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SUMMER FESTIVALS 2014
Aspen Music Festival
and School
The Glimmerglass Festival
June 26 - Aug 17, 2014
Aspen, CO
The Aspen Music Festival and School presents more than 300 musical events during its eight-week summer season, drawing top classical musicians from around the world to this Colorado mountain retreat. Boasting an audience of more than 100,000, it offers many free events, and seating on the David Karetsky Music Lawn and in the Music Garden is always free.
July 11 - Aug 24, 2014
Cooperstown, NY
The Glimmerglass Festival is a professional, non-profit opera and musical theater company that presents four new productions in rotation every July and August. The company’s Alice Busch Opera Theater is set on Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, New York, and has been home to more than 100 productions, many of which have been world and professional premieres. Mainstage performances are supplemented by special concerts, a discussion series and many free events, including question-and-answer sessions with the casts and backstage tours.
Philadelphia International
Music Festival
 Ravinia Festival
June 21 - July 4 or June 18 - July 4, 2014
Bryn Mawr, PA
The Philadelphia International Music Festival (PIMF), held on the estate-like grounds of Pennsylvania's Bryn Mawr College, offers young musicians an opportunity to work for 14-17 days with members of the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra, including many of its principal players. Directed by Kimberly Fisher, Principal Second Violin, and featuring Associate Conductor Cristian Macelaru, PIMF includes four distinct programs for students ages 11 through the college years.
June 5 - Sept 14, 2014
Highland Park, IL
Every summer, Ravinia attracts about 600,000 listeners to some 120 to 150 events that span all genres from classical music to jazz to musical theater every June through September. As a nonprofit organization, community outreach and music education initiatives are our key mission. Over 75,000 people are served through Ravinia's Reach*Teach*Play programs each year, ensuring that great music remains accessible to all.
American Bach Soloists Festival & Academy
2014 Berkeley Festival and Exhibition
July 11 – July 20, 2014
San Francisco, CA
The 2014 festival, titled “Bach’s Inspiration,” will trace the influences of Italian, French, and North German composers on J.S. Bach’s life and music. It will feature works by Vivaldi, Handel, Buxtehude, and Bach’s forebearers alongside masterworks by ABS’s namesake. Weekends are anchored by performances of Bach’s Mass in B Minor by the ABS Festival Orchestra and ...
June 1 – June 8, 2014
Berkeley, CA
The biennial Berkeley Festival and Exhibition presents some of the best local, national, and international early music talent every other June in the cultural melting pot of Berkeley, California. This year on the Main Stage, Belgian ensemble Vox Luminis presents their U.S. debut; keyboardist Kristian Bezuidenhout makes his West Coast debut; and Ars Lyrica Houston ...
European American Musical Alliance, Inc.
2014 Summer Festivals
Click above to download the special report
July 2 – July 31, 2014
Paris, France
The European American Musical Alliance offers summer study in Composition, Conducting and Chamber Music at the historic Schola Cantorum in Paris. The 2014 festival features celebrated pianist Simone Dinnerstein. Ms. Dinnerstein joins the artist-faculty for master classes, seminars and a recital. EAMA students study intensively the crafts of counterpoint, harmony, analysis and musicianship. Students work intimately with ...
The Golandsky Institute International Piano Festival
Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus
July 13 –- July 19, 2014
Princeton, NJ
The Festival presents six extraordinary concerts and brings together more than 140 performing artists, students, teachers, and passionate amateurs from 20 plus countries, who gather on the Princeton University campus to study the Taubman approach. This year’s highlights include an all-Chopin recital by Ilya Itin; a recital featuring the "Art of Improvisation" with avant-garde pianist Sylvie Courvoisier ...
July 3 - July 12, 2014
Burgenland, Austria
With unrestrained curiosity and the daring of youth, musicians will plunge into ten days of uncertainties—instead of concert programs determined in advance, the festival is built around a theme, providing the festival’s common thread. Ensembles are often formed for performing one composition, established groups dissolve temporarily. The attitude of “not playing safe” and getting into that “blind date” with artists and works is what makes ...
Killington Music Festival
La Jolla Music Society SummerFest 2014
June 28 - Aug 1, 2014
Killington, VT
The Killington Music Festival brings together young musicians and a world renowned faculty in a residency program of chamber music study, masterclasses and frequent performances. With the beauty of the Green Mountains as a backdrop, the limited enrollment, personal attention, student performance opportunities, and a collegial atmosphere, Killington Music Festival 2014 could be the musical experience of your lifetime.
July 30 – Aug 22, 2014
La Jolla, CA
La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest 2014 in San Diego, CA will showcase a program of world-renowned artists and repertoire curated by Music Director Cho-Liang Lin. This year's highlights include the signature "Evening With Series,” three intimate concerts featuring trumpeter Alison Balsom in a program with organ, piano and trumpet; pianist Yefim Bronfman performing Beethoven’s Trio No. 7 in B-flat Major ...
Mainly Mozart
Music Academy of the West
May 4 - June 21, 2014
Carlsbad, La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe & San Diego, CA; Tijuana, Mexico
Highlights include the Orion String Quartet and Windscape performing Mozart and Bach. “Mozart & The Mind” --the series combining music, science, and audience interaction--presents Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart with Dr. Adam Gazzaley in a concert featuring a live tour of real-time brain network activity. There is also a premiere performance by David Rosenboom, experimental music pioneer ...
June 16 - Aug 9, 2014
Santa Barbara, CA
Highlights include a fully staged production of Carmen, presented as a tribute to legendary mezzo-soprano and Academy Voice Program Director Marilyn Horne, as well as appearances by pianist Jonathan Biss, violinist Daniel Hope, cellist Joshua Roman, and the contemporary chamber music ensemble eighth blackbird. Guest conductors will include James Gaffigan and Larry Rachleff ...
NY Phil Biennial
OK Mozart International Festival
May 28 – June 7, 2014
New York, NY - Various venues
For 11 days in 2014 Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic will play, in every sense of the word. It’s the inaugural NY PHIL BIENNIAL — a kaleidoscopic exploration of today’s music by more than 50 contemporary and modern composers from 12 countries, presented with partners on and off the Lincoln Center campus. Inspired by visual-art biennials ...
June 7 - June 14, 2014
Bartlesville, OK
Featuring the OKM All-State Youth Orchestra and pianist Jon Kimura Parker with Amici New York Orchestra; the Miró Quartet in a Chamber Music Concert; Mozart's opera The Magic Flute with Oklahoma voices and the Amici New York orchestra; Grammy Award nominee Sarah Jarosz with Amici musicians ...
Round Top Festival Institute
TD Sunfest '14
June 1 – July 13, 2014
Round Top, TX
Round Top Festival Institute annually selects 95 students (from over 500 applicants) who study with master faculty and perform in the Texas Festival Orchestra. Programs for the two dozen concerts includes works by composers ranging from Brahms and Britten to Strauss and Vaughn Williams ...
July 3 – July 6, 2014
London, Ontario, Canada
Celebrate TD Sunfest’s 20th anniversary with enchanting global sounds, scrumptious international cuisine, and a unique assortment of crafts and visual art. Canada’s Premier Festival of World Cultures features over 35 top professional world music and jazz groups representing almost every corner of the planet. Performances are held on two main stages ...
Verbier Festival
Westben Music Festival
July 18 – Aug 3, 2014
Verbier, Switzerland
The 21st festival features performances of La Damnation de Faust, Fidelio, Il Tabarro with Acts 3 and 4 of Don Carlo, and Il re pastore.. Established stars such as Ramón Vargas, Vittorio Grigolo, Rolando Villazón, and René Pape will rub shoulders with rising talents Thiago Arancam, Brandon Jovanovich, and Pretty Yende. Thomas Hampson will perform ...
June 7 - Aug 3, 2014
Campbellford, Ontario, Canada
Nestled amongst the peaceful hills of Northumberland County 90 minutes east of Toronto, Westben's primary performance venue is a custom-built, timber-frame barn. The Barn seats 400 and combines state-of-the-art acoustics with a rustic yet sophisticated atmosphere. From June to August, massive walls and doors roll away ...
Bard Summerscape and Bard Music Festival
Blossom Music Festival
June 26 - Aug 17, 2014
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Bard SummerScape 2014 presents eight inspired weeks of opera, music, theater, dance, film, and cabaret. The centerpiece is the 25th annual Bard Music Festival, this year examining the life, work, and ...
June 26 - Aug 17, 2014
Cuyahoga Falls, OH
The Festival comprises 18 concerts, including 15 by The Cleveland Orchestra, two Blossom Festival Band concerts, and one concert by the Blossom Festival Orchestra. Highlights include ...
Bravo! Vail
Buxton Festival
June 26 - Aug 17, 2014
Vail, CO
The New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra return to Bravo! Vail this summer with guest soloists including Joshua Bell, Midori, Yefim Bronfman, and Hélène Grimaud ...
June 26 - Aug 17, 2014
Buxton, Debyshire, United Kingdom
This year's Buxton Festival offers a great line-up of opera, music, and literature, as well as some unexpected surprises. Opera productions continue the tradition of reviving overlooked masterpieces ...
Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music
Caramoor Center for Music & the Arts Summer Music
June 7 - Aug 10, 2014
Santa Cruz & San Juan Bautista, CA
Maestra Marin Alsop returns to her summer oasis to lead the award-winning Cabrillo Festival Orchestra in a TBA program that includes three world premieres, two U.S. premieres, and four West Coast ...
June 21 - Aug 3, 2014
Katonah, NY
The Festival opens with a performance by world renowned violinist Joshua Bell and the Orchestra of St. Luke's. Enjoy an opera-filled weekend featuring Angela Meade in Lucrezia Borgia and ...
Castleton Festival
Cork International Choral Festival
June 28 - July 20, 2014
Castleton, Rappahannock County, VA
The sixth season of the Castleton Festival will showcase rising stars alongside world-renowned artists. Plans include Don Giovanni and Madama Butterfly, three symphonic concerts by the 50-student ...
April 30 - May 4, 2014
Cork, Ireland
The festival will open with Orff's masterpiece Carmina Burana; Tallaght Choral Society and East Cork Choral Society will join forces with the Band of 1st Southern Brigade and soloists under the ...
Drottningholms Slottsteater
Festival d'Aix-en-Provence
Aug 3 - Sept 20, 2014
Drottninghom, Sweden
Two Mozart operas will be the highlight of the opera festival: In August, Mitridate, re di Ponto, with conductor David Stern and director Francisco Negrin, and in September Idomeneo, re di ...
July 2 - July 24, 2014
Aix, France
The 2014 Festival d'Aix presents four new productions: Handel's Ariodante and Rossini's Il Turco in Italia, Katie Mitchell's staging of Bach cantatas, Trauernacht, and William ...
Grafenegg Festival
Grant Park Music Festival
Aug 14 - Sept 7, 2014
Grafenegg, Austria
The 2014 Grafenegg Festival opens with a Fanfare by composer-in-residence, J”rg Widmann. The program continues with an anniversary tribute to Richard Strauss conducted by Andr‚s Orozco-Estrada, music ...
June 11 - Aug 16, 2014
Chicago, IL
The 80th-anniversary season includes a weeklong residency by William Bolcom and the world premiere of his new concerto for orchestra. Christopher Theofanidis's The Legend of the Northern Lights ...
Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival
Hollywood Bowl Summer Season 2014
June 22 - July 19, 2014
Burlington, VT
This season, audiences will enjoy seven concerts by the 30 distinguished faculty of our summer conservatory, performing chamber repertory, rarely heard 19th- and 20th-century works, and fresh ...
June 21 - Sept 28, 2014
Los Angeles, CA
Pollstar magazine's Best Major Outdoor Venue (eight years in a row!), the Hollywood Bowl is the largest natural outdoor amphitheater in the United States and the summer home to the Los Angeles ...
Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik
Internationale Händel-Festspiele Göttingenn
Aug 12 - Aug 31, 2014
Innsbruck, Austria
Three opera productions, a semi-staged production at Castle Ambras, church- and chamber-music concerts, and the International Singing Competition for Baroque Opera Pietro Antonio Cesti will highlight ...
May 29 - June 10, 2014
Göttingenn, Germany
Artists: Laurence Cummings, Festspiel Orchester Göttingenn, Ingeborg Danz, Robin Blaze, Knabenchor Hannover, NDR Chor, L'Arpeggiata, Göttingenn Symphony Orchestra, Hannoversche Hofkapelle, and more. Work ...
Lincoln Center Festival
Lincoln Center Out of Doors
July 17 - Aug 16, 2014
New York, NY
The 2014 Lincoln Center Festival will feature performances by artists and ensembles from 11 countries unfolding in six venues on and off the Lincoln Center campus. Scheduled for this summer: Heisei ...
July 25 - Aug 10, 2014
New York, NY
Over its 40-plus-year history, Out of Doors has commissioned more than 100 works from composers and choreographers and presented hundreds of major dance companies, renowned world-music artists, and ...
Lucerne Festival in Summer
Luminato Festival
Aug 15 - Sept 14, 2014
Lucerne, Switzerland
With our theme of "Psyche," the tremendous power of music itself becomes the focus in the summer of 2014. How is it that music manages to stir our souls? The roster of stars addressing this question ...
June 6 - June 15, 2014
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
For 10 days each June, Luminato Festival transforms Toronto's theatres, parks, and public spaces with hundreds of events celebrating theatre, dance, music, literature, food, visual arts, magic, and ...
Marlboro Music Festival
Mostly Mozart Festival
July 19 - Aug 17, 2014
Marlboro, VT
Founded in 1951, Marlboro Music is the noted summer retreat for advanced musical studies in Southern Vermont led by Artistic Director Mitsuko Uchida. Master concert artists and exceptional young ...
June 25 - Aug 23, 2014
New York, NY
Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival--now in its 48th season--features a wide range of classical music events ranging from baroque to contemporary styles, including chamber music, opera, dance, ...
Musikfest
Ojai Music Festival
Aug 1 - Aug 10, 2014
Bethlehem, PA
Musikfest is the nation's largest free music festival, with 500 free performances on 14 different stages over 10 days. Over the years we have hosted local, regional, national, and international artist ...
June 12 - June 15, 2014
Ojai, CA
The 68th Ojai Music Festival presents a daring program that fully reflects both the Festival's ideals and the inventive musical mind of Music Director Jeremy Denk. A highlight is the world premiere of ...
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
Philadelphia Orchestra at SPAC
May 24 - June 29, 2014
St. Louis, MO
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis's annual festival season features four operas in repertory, highlighting both classic and innovative new work. All performances are presented in English with super titles ...
Aug 6 - Aug 23, 2014
Saratoga, NY
This year the Philadelphia Orchestra will be collaborating with a number of world renowned performers including Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Milos, Broadway stars Stephanie Block and Andrew Ranells, ...
Playboy Jazz Festival
Rigas Ritm Festival
June 14 - June 15, 2014
Los Angeles, CA
The 36th Anniversary Playboy Jazz Festival features George Benson with special guest Earl Klugh; Jamie Cullum; Dianne Reeves; Arturo Sandoval Big Band; Kenny Barron with special guest Ravi Coltrane; ...
July 3 - July 5, 2014
Riga, Latvia
Rigas Ritmi 2014 includes such artists as Edmar Castaneda, Paolo Fresu, Daniele Di Boniventura, Mike Dawes, Yasmin Levy, Jeff Lorber Fusion, Albare, as well as local talent, like the Latvian Radion ...
Ruhrtriennale - International Festival of the Arts
Salzburg Festival
Aug 15 - Sept 28, 2014
Essen, Germany
The region's outstanding industrial monuments provide sites for music, fine art, theater, dance, and performance. Highlights this summer are Louis Andriessen's opera De Materie; Matthew Barney ...
July 18 - Aug 31, 2014
Salzburg, Austria
Salzburg Festival 2014 has 270 performances in 45 days at 16 venues. Operas include new productions of Il trovatore, Der Rosenkavalier, Don Giovanni, Schubert's Fierrabras, and the world ...
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
The Santa Fe Opera
July 20 - Aug 25, 2014
Santa Fe, NM
Now in its 42nd season, the SFCMF presents a summer filled with world-renowned artists performing compelling programs of chamber masterworks. Highlights of 2014 include pianist Yefim Bronfman serving ...
June 27 - Aug 23, 2014
Santa Fe, NM
Carmen and Don Pasquale are planned this season, along with the company's first performances of Fidelio, with Alex Penda as Leonore and Paul Groves as Florestan; Harry Bicket lead ...
Spoleto Festival USA
Stresa Festival
May 23 - June 8, 2014
Charleston, SC
Spoleto Festival USA fills historic Charleston's theaters, churches, and outdoor spaces with performances by renowned and emerging artists in a wide range of genres. Our 2014 program includes Dorrance ...
July 24 - Sept 6, 2014
Stresa, Italy
Lake Maggiore is the gorgeous location for performances by extraordinary international artists. Highlights include open-air Midsummer Jazz Concerts; Beethoven's complete cello suites and violin and ...
Tanglewood
Toronto Summer Music Festival
June 27 - Aug 30, 2014
Lenox, MA
The summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, situated in the beautiful Berkshire hills, offers an Opening Night Gala with superstar Ren‚e Fleming. Among the other major artists in 2014: Jason ...
July 22 - Aug 12, 2014
Toronto, Canada
The line-up for the Ninth Toronto Summer Music Festival includes the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's first performance in Koerner Hall before it departs on a European tour of festivals. The rest of the ...
Virginia Arts Festival
Wolf Trap
April 2 - May 29, 2014
Verbier, Switzerland
The festival presents performances in several cities and annually presents the Virginia International Tattoo. On this year's schedule, the 1925 epic silent film Ben-Hur will be accompanied by ...
May 23 - Sept 13, 2014
Various venues in coastal Virginia cities
Wolf Trap’s Filene Center is a 7,028-seat outdoor amphitheater that showcases an array of artists, from May through September. Festival Artists: Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Wynton Marsalis, trumpet ...