Newport Classical wrapped up its extremely popular Newport Classical Music Festival, an integral part of the area’s bustling summer tourism season. While the influx of seasonal visitors may have left the island, Newport Classical is determined to continue bringing classical music to the community, and it’s a program that locals have embraced. Where so many other classical music groups are struggling during these times, Newport Classical has grown its season, adding three more concerts to its fall-spring Chamber Series. It’s both a testament to the community and to the leadership at the organization that they’ve been able to expand their offerings.
The concerts will return to their newly air-conditioned home venue, the Newport Classical Recital Hall at Emanuel Church in downtown Newport, RI. Part of the fun of the Newport Classical Music Festival is the opportunity to witness the incredible array of concerts in iconic Newport locations such as The Breakers. But one of the highlights of the Chamber Series is the chance to hear the intimate concerts in the Recital Hall at Emanuel, an acoustically brilliant space tailor-made for these events. As nice as the visuals are during the summer series, the acoustic advantage of the Chamber Series is not to be missed. Plus, the Chamber Series concerts have the added bonus of offering complimentary wines from Greenvale Vineyards and homemade treats during intermissions.
Opening night for the Chamber Series takes place on Friday, Sept. 13, and features the intriguing Merz Trio who will tackle the melodic selections of 12th-century chants of Hildegard von Bingen, Robert Schumann, Alma Mahler, Johannes Brahms and Thelonious Monk. I spoke with Newport Classical’s Executive Director, Gillian Fox, about the exciting, expanded season and why Newport Classical is thriving while so many other classical organizations are struggling.
WUN: You’ve added three more concerts and have gone from nine to 12. What’s responsible for the larger season?
Gillian Fox: Audience demand. We’ve just seen such enthusiasm from the community. What’s exciting is that the Chamber Series really attracts people from all over. But it’s also certainly for the people of Newport and Aquidneck Island. And so we’re just seeing an increase in the number of seasons and full-season subscribers.
WUN: That’s awesome, especially in the classical music world. Your organization seems to be an exception in that regard.
GF: I think that part of it is that Newport just has a really beautiful, vibrant community that’s looking for something engaging to do culturally, and so we’re excited to provide that all year round.
It provides a sense of community and brings people together through their shared love of music. And what’s been really fun—with the Chamber Series in particular—is presenting some of the most exciting early-career musicians. And there’s this real sense of, ‘I heard them first in Newport.’
WUN: I think that concert hall is really just a gem. What are your feelings coming back to that space?
GF: It’s such an intimate, acoustically exceptional place to hear music, and 182 seats is perfect for chamber music and perfect for Newport.
We love it. And, you know, our offices are there too, so we’re there all the time. We have a very long-term, community collaborative-use agreement with Emmanuel Church. So it’s very much a place that we’re investing in. And we hope the community feels like it’s their venue.
WUN: How long is your contract with Emmanuel Church?
GF: 25 years.
In contract language, 25 years, basically, is as close as you can get to ‘in perpetuity.’
WUN: So if you make changes, or if you want to tweak things, you have the freedom to do so.
GF: Yeah, and we redesigned the stage last season. Over the course of the past year, we’ve been painting and restoring a lot of the beautiful woodwork in there. You know, that space was built in 1902 so there’s a lot of historic preservation going on. We just made improvements to the roof thanks to a very generous grant from the Champlin Foundation.
WUN: What are your feelings about heading into opening night?
GF: I’m really excited. Merz Trio is fabulous, and they were a pretty big get when we booked them… And their pianist, Amy Yang, is really, really incredible. So, I’m excited for their program.
They’re an all-female piano trio, and they’ve just been getting a lot of acclaim from “BBC Music Magazine” and other reputable sources. And so I think they’re going to bring a really sensitive, beautiful performance. And I love piano trio… And our audiences love piano, but also love string quartets.
WUN: What is a particular highlight for you this season?
GF: I’m really excited for Markel Reed. He’s a baritone with a program in November. And I just really love being able to have a vocal recital in the recital hall. Our audiences love opera… He actually originated one of the roles in “Fire Shut up in my Bones,” the work by Terence Blanchard that was the first opera by a Black composer to be at the Met.
Similarly, we actually have the US premiere of a new work composed by composer Philip Lasser, who wrote his own responses to the Bach Well-Tempered Clavier.
WUN: How do you find a balance with some of the classical pieces and some of the modern?
GF: We try and have a balance within every program, if we’re able to. Within a single evening, we’d love for people to hear something that sounds familiar, but also kind of looking towards the future.
WUN: How far ahead do you plan a season out at Newport Classical?
GF: About 18 months.
We’re almost done with next summer, and we’re starting to work on the next Chamber Series. I’m already starting to think about the summer of 2026.
WUN: How do you find the different artists when you’re planning out a season?
GF: We work with an incredible array of agents, and so my colleague, Trevor Neal, who’s our Director of Artistic Planning, and I are constantly in talks with agents who are going to make sure that we know what their artists are doing. Not just about who the artists are, but what programs they put together, as well as what their plans are in the rest of the country: making sure that we have artists coming here that we call ‘routed,’ so that they’re not just coming from California to Newport and back again, and that they’re kind of in the neighborhood, shall we say?
WUN: That makes a lot of sense, and especially during the winter, I imagine, with the weather delays, I’m sure it can get dicey.
GF: Right, you never want somebody to be canceled because of a delayed flight.
WUN: Have you ever had to do that?
GF: We’ve definitely cut it close, but I don’t think since I’ve been here.
We’ve had health cancelations, though, and those are unfortunate.
Luckily, we’ve never had to cancel a concert, which we’re really proud of. But yeah, you just get on the phone, and basically, [and try to find out], ‘Who’s the next person that’s available and nearby that can do a program of the same caliber?’ Famously, in 2022 we had Joyce Yang, was supposed to be on that season, and she was unwell and wasn’t able to come. And we had Natasha Paremski, who was able to fill in at the last minute. It was a fabulous performance… Everyone loved it, and then everyone was really excited for Joyce to come back this past summer.
WUN: And what is a type of music that you would really like to see in the future at Newport Classical?
GF: Well, one of the things that I’ve been bringing is percussion. That was not an area that was really performed prior to my arrival, but is something I think is a really fun aspect to classical music. And since then, we’ve had Third Coast percussion, So Percussion, Excelsis Percussion. So really, I’d love to see more of that, and for the audiences to continue to grow. We’ve had an amazing response so far.
WUN: What’s the best part of your job?
GF: Getting to hear rehearsals while I work. The fact that our offices are in the surrounding area of the recital hall. When artists come to practice, that’s all we hear, and it is so beautiful and validating and makes us love what we do.
The 2024-2025 season
The rest of the season will include the Ariel Quartet performing a poignant concert in response to loss, Finnish-Cuban pianist Anton Mejias performing a US premiere response to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, baritone Markel Reed from the Metropolitan Opera singing Brahms, Margaret Bonds, Terence Blanchard, among others.
Cellist Seth Parker Woods closes out 2024, with 2025 bringing to the area the Telegraph Quartet performing Beethoven, Boyd Meets Girl performing on Valentine’s Day, the acclaimed Trio Karénine playing trios by Franz Schubert and Antonín Dvořák, with oboist James Austin Smith and pianist Gloria Chien ushering in the spring.
April will bring Bulgarian American violinist Bella Hristova combined with pianist Anna Polonsky in a Bach- Messiaen program, followed by a repeat appearance by Orion Weiss featuring Bach’s beloved Goldberg Variations, with the GRAMMY-nominated Norwegian Trio Mediaeval concluding the season in June, 2025.
You can find more information on the season and tickets at Newport Classic’s website, www.newportclassical.org.
