From chamber quartets to funk drag cabaret, the Hudson Valley’s summer music scene hits every note. Highlights include the Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle’s 75th anniversary concerts, Caramoor’s genre-hopping lineup from Beethoven to Broadway, and Maverick’s Woodstock-seasoned chamber series.
Bard SummerScape stages operas and oddities alike, while Jazz in the Valley returns with Craig Harris and Jazzmeia Horn. Tanglewood mixes Nas, Jon Batiste, and Beethoven, and the Stissing Center keeps it eclectic with everything from bluegrass to “Kafkaesque!” If you’re wondering where the beat went, it’s here—and probably on five stages at once.
Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle
June 8-15
As the Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle marks its 75th anniversary, the June concert series at Bard’s Olin Hall offers two standout performances. On June 8, violinist Bella Hristova and pianist Anna Polonsky present a program featuring Bach, Haydn, Grieg’s Violin Sonata No. 2, and the world premiere of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Carousel” for solo violin. Then, on June 15, Artistic Directors Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson join violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt and pianist Anna Polonsky as Espressivo! Their program includes Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G minor, Dvořák’s Piano Quartet No. 2, and the Hudson Valley premiere of Nokuthula Ngwenyama’s Joy Steppin’.
Caramoor
June 15-August 3
Katonah’s Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts has a Juneteenth celebration with the Legendary Ingramettes (June 15), the Orchestra of St. Luke’s with Beethoven’s ninth symphony, “Ode to Joy” (June 21), the Terra String Quartet (June 22), Seth Rudetsky’s “Broadway Pride!” (June 26), the American Roots Festival (June 28), Telemann’s “Pimpinone” and “Ino” (June 29), Endea Owens and the Cookout (July 3), La Excelencia (July 5), the Escher String Quartet with Alessio Bax (July 6), Ranky Tanky (July 11), Chanticleer (July 18), Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway (July 19), the Caramoor Jazz Festival headlined by Arturo O’Farrill (July 26), Terry Riley’s “In C” (July 27), Leonidas Kavakos with Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma (July 30), Lyle Lovett (August 2), and others.
Maverick Concerts
June 21-September 14
America’s oldest continuously running outdoor chamber music festival returns to the Woodstock woods with afternoon family and evening concerts. The 2025 roster includes Ars Choralis (June 21-22), Trio Celeste (June 28 and 29), Cindy Cashdollar with Joan Osbourne and Rachel Yamagata (June 28), Connie Hahn (July 5), the Manhattan Chamber Players with Mariam Adam (July 6), Elizabeth Mitchell honoring Joan Baez and Peter Schickele (July 12), the Miro Quartet (July 13), Adam Tendler (July 13), the Pacifica Quartet (July 13), Fred Hirsch (July 26), Margaret Leng Tan on toy piano and toy instruments (August 2), the Restless Age (August 2), Joel Harrison and Free Country (August 9), the Calisto Quartet (August 17), the Dali Quartet (August 30 and 31), Bill Charlap (August 30), and more.
Bard SummerScape/Bard Music Festival
June 27-August 17
Bard SummerScape and its “festival within a festival,” the Bard Music Festival (August 8-17), are back, the latter component focusing on Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu. Pam Tanowitz Dance’s ballet “Pastoral” premieres (June 27-29), followed by a reading of a musical inspired by Scott Joplin’s opera, “Jubilee” (July 11–13), and Bedrich Smetana’s opera “Dalibor” (July 25-August 3). Emceed by performer Adrienne Truscott (July 5), the Spiegeltent has, among other acts, funk band Third Reprise (June 27), electropop duo Ringdown (June 28), Indian American drummer Sunny Jain (July 11), Indigenous American blues singer Martha Redbone (July 12), Canadian Inuk singer-songwriter Elisapie (July 13), bluegrass fiddler Jason Carter (July 17), drag artist Juno Birch (August 1-2), string duo Brittany and Natalie Haas (August 7), genre-defying musician Meshell Ndegeocello (August 9-10), and John Cameron Mitchell doing David Bowie (August 15-16).
Jazz in the Valley
August 16-17
Jazz in the Valley is trumpeting its 25th year with two days of hot and cool music at Poughkeepsie’s riverside Waryas Park. Things get underway with trombonist Craig Harris and his 50-musician ensemble playing his extended, awareness-raising composition “Breathe” (August 16). “[The piece] is about the ancient contemporary sonic offerings we play, which will inspire one to only accept social justice past, present, and future,” says Harris. Day two has the awesomely named vocalist Jazzmeia Horn, Bobby Sanabria and his orchestra, and Echoes of an Era featuring Javon Jackson, Lenny White, Lisa Fischer, Orrin Evans, Dr. Eddie Henderson, and John Patitucci (August 17).
Stissing Center for Arts and Culture
Through August 29
Situated in pastoral Pine Plains, the Stissing Center for Arts and Culture is a creative bastion of the eastern edge of the Hudson Valley. Its current event program encompasses such delights as clarinetist Graeme Johnson’s “Fleeting Inventions” (June 6), pop rock party band Hillbilly Parade (June 7), Nova Scotian folk duo Cassie and Maggie (June 17), pianist and composer Jeff Beal (June 29), accordionist Radu Ratoi (July 12), jazz from the Galen Pittman Quartet (July 17), bluegrass by Bright Star Theatre (July 26), Off-Broadway musical “Kafkaesque!” (August 9), Brazilian/classical guitarist Benji Kaplan (August 21), the Northern Dutchess Symphony with Broadway musicians Rachel Handman and Keve Wilson (August 29), and other fine fare.
Tanglewood
Through September 5
The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home since 1937, Tanglewood always has a packed, highly varied schedule. This year’s no exception, with Nas with the Boston Pops (June 27), Jon Batiste (June 28), the TMC String Quartet Marathon (June 29), John Mulaney (June 29), James Taylor (July 3-4), an all-Rachmaninoff program with Daniil Trifonov (July 5), the Barenaked Ladies (July 8), the TMI Orchestra performing Adams, Bartok, and Tchaikovsky (August 18), a Keith Lockhart 30th anniversary concert (August 22), Poulenc “Gloria” and Holst’s “The Planets” with Kazuki Yamada (August 23), Beethoven’s ninth symphony, “Ode to Joy” (August 24), Lynyrd Skynyrd (August 30), Bonnie Raitt (August 31), Jon Legend (September 5), plus more.
This article appears in June 2025.
