(Through September 11)
America’s oldest continuously running summer chamber music series has once again returned to the forest just outside of Woodstock. Highlights include Simone Dinnerstein and Tim Fain (July 3), the Escher String Quartet (July 10), the Miro Quartet (July 10), the Borromeo String Quartet (August 21), and the Catalyst Quartet (September 3 and 4). Non-classical fare includes the play “Finding North” (June 17), percussion ensemble Nexus’s 50th anniversary concert with Paul Winter (July 2), jazz by the Christian Sands (August 16) and Bill Charlap trios (September 3), pop by Simi Stone (July 16), folk from Happy Traum and Cindy Cashdollar (July 23), and more.
TrailBlaze
(June 5-July 3)
As its director, David Alan Miller, celebrates 30 years on the podium, the Albany Symphony has assembled an appetizing program for its 2022 TrailBlaze series, which will bring free performances by the orchestra in addition to food, family fun, and fireworks to various locations around the Hudson Valley. TrailBlaze will hit the Veg Out festival in downtown Troy (June 5), Hudson Crossing Park in Schuylerville (June 11), Hutton Brickyards in Kingston (June 19), Basilica Hudson in Hudson (June 24), Mohawk Harbor in Schenectady (July 1), Jennings Landing in Albany (July 2), and Riverlink Park in Amsterdam (July 3). See website for individual event schedules.
(June 18-August 19)
Held at the lavish Rosen Family estate for which it’s named, Caramoor concentrates on classical but adds other styles. For the former, there’s Yo-Yo Ma and the Knights on opening night (June 18), pianists Inon Barnatan (June 26) and Lara Downes (June 30), mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges with pianist Bradley Moore (July 7), the Kronos Quartet (July 8), the Imani Winds Quartet (July 14), and the Brenato Quartet with Joan Upshaw (July 15). Also on offer are global sounds by Los Cafeteras (June 23) and Angelique Kidjo (August 6), jazz by Pedrito Martinez (July 1) and Matthew Whitaker (August 19), new music by Michael Gordon (July 24), and American roots sounds by Rachel and Vilray (July 23) and Shemekia Copeland (July 29).
Aston Magna at Hudson Hall
(June 24-July 22)Although its home is in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, this year the Aston Magna organization is presenting its summer music festival at historic Hudson Hall in nearby Hudson. The event promises five nights of early and Baroque music by a host of the Hudson Valley region’s most masterful musicians. The lineup has “The Devil’s in the Tails” with works by Scarlatti and Stravinsky (June 24), chamber music by Robert and Clara Schumann (July 1), Bach (July 8), Handel (July 15), and “Double Apotheosis” with pieces by Francois Couperin, Arcangelo Corelli and Jean-Fery Rebe (July 22).
Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice
(August 5-7)The venerated vocal celebration is back amid the peaks with a soaring weekend of lofty performances at Saint Ursala Place. This season includes New York’s Teatro Grattacielo company with Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” that’s been “updated as a celebration of Spanish sic-kitsch set in [the] ’90s replete with air couches, Channel clothes, lots of jewels, and a bright white stage made of tiles with bulls” (August 5), New York City Opera’s production of Verdi’s tragicomic masterwork “La Traviatta” starring baritone Michael Chioldi (August 6), and “Hollywood in the Hills,” which utilizes a full chorus, orchestra, and soloists to stage opera vignettes from such films as Philadelphia, The Shawshank Redemption, and Pretty Woman.
(August 18-21)
Now in its lucky 13th season, the Hudson Valley Jazz Festival is back to span various venues in Ulster and Orange counties and welcomes the Hudson Valley Jazz Ensemble (August 18), Rave Tesar (August 18), the Teri Roiger Trio (August 19), Neil Alexander (August 19), Stanley Jordan (August 20), the Bendy Effect (August 20), the Rick Savage Group (August 20), Billy Ware (August 21), and even more fine acts to be announced at the time of this writing. Check the festival’s website and Facebook page for an up-to-the-minute schedule of performances.
