The Newport Classical Music Festival will spotlight the piano this summer with four featured concerts, part of a festival running July 2-19 that includes 30 concerts across 11 venues.
The piano series brings several of today’s sought-after performers to Newport’s mansions and historic spaces. Tchaikovsky Competition prizewinner Dmitry Shishkin opens the series July 3 at The Breakers with a program of Schubert, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky. Grammy Award winner Michelle Cann makes her Newport debut July 7 at Castle Hill Inn with music by Brahms and Robert and Clara Schumann; that concert is sold out, though a waitlist is available.
Gilmore Young Artist Janice Carissa performs an afternoon recital July 11 at the historic Emmanuel Church, with a program spanning Bach, Granados, Ravel and Messiaen. The series closes July 17 with the duo of Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy at The Breakers, anchored by Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” and Ravel’s “Ma Mère l’Oye” in a program for two pianos.
The piano concerts are part of a festival that spans cliffside lawns and gilded mansions, including The Breakers, The Elms, Rosecliff and the Redwood Library and Athenæum. Broader festival highlights include opening night with the chamber orchestra Delirium Musicum, a celebration of opera’s golden age with Lawrence Brownlee and Erin Morley, two evenings with Broadway star Jeremy Jordan, and closing night with the Grammy-winning Harlem Quartet, along with the festival’s signature 5:15 a.m. Sunrise Concerts and a free Fourth of July concert at King Park.
Founded in 1969, Newport Classical is the most active year-round presenter of live performing arts on Aquidneck Island. The full schedule and tickets are available at newportclassical.org/music-festival.
