The Kingston Chamber Music Festival will present its 38th season, “Life, Liberty, & Music,” from July 22 to Aug. 2 on the University of Rhode Island campus, highlighted by its first collaboration with Rhode Island native and Olympic medalist Elizabeth Beisel.
While many Rhode Islanders know Beisel as a three-time Olympian and two-time Olympic medalist in swimming, she has increasingly emerged as a violinist and multi-instrumentalist. She has also performed at the Newport Folk Festival with the Newport-based band Laden Valley. At the festival, Beisel will appear in the July 31 program “Between Worlds,” marking her first collaboration with violinist Zachary DePue, concertmaster of the Naples Philharmonic and first violinist of The Indianapolis Quartet. The two are known for blending bluegrass and classical music with elements of jazz, blues and rock, in a program featuring works by Carlos Simon and Antonín Dvořák.
Inspired by the nation’s semiquincentennial, the festival’s six-concert series and special solo recital span 250 years of chamber music and explore the global influences that have shaped the classical tradition.
“As the nation commemorates its 250th anniversary, ‘Life, Liberty, & Music’ explores the conversations that connect composers, performers, and audiences across generations and cultures,” said Artistic Director Natalie Zhu. “These programs celebrate the diverse influences that have shaped our musical heritage while highlighting the artists and composers who continue to expand it today.”
The season also marks the Rhode Island debut of the Terra String Quartet, recent prizewinners of the 2025 Walter Naumburg Award and the 2025 Bordeaux and Wigmore Hall International Quartet Competitions. The quartet opens the series July 24 with “250 Years — A Chamber Music Journey from 1776 to Modern America,” tracing the nation’s musical path through works by Luigi Boccherini, Wolfgang A. Mozart, Antonín Dvořák and living composer Jessie Montgomery, Performance Today’s 2025 Classical Woman of the Year.
Other programs include “The British Are Coming” on July 25, featuring music by Frank Bridge, Rebecca Clarke and Edward Elgar; “Mozart and Britten” on July 26, marking the 50th anniversary of Benjamin Britten’s death; and “Youth and Memory” on Aug. 2, a program of Brahms. Canadian cellist Yegor Dyachkov will give a solo recital, “Conversation with Bach,” on July 29 at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Kingston, featuring works by J.S. Bach, George Crumb and Witold Lutosławski. On Aug. 1, author and flutist Thomas Wolf will narrate “Nightingale’s Encore,” blending live storytelling and music drawn from his family’s musical history.
The festival will also offer free community events, including open rehearsals July 25 and Aug. 1 from 10 a.m. to noon at URI’s Fine Arts Center, and a free performance by the URI Summer Music Academy on Aug. 2 at 2:45 p.m.
Concerts are $40 each, with a 10% discount available for subscriptions to the six-concert series. Free tickets are available for students 25 and younger with a student ID. Tickets are available at kingstonchambermusic.org or by calling the box office at (401) 308-3614.
