series to Explore!
Music & Meditation in the Garden
Caramoor’s lush Sunken Garden provides a fitting setting to experience sound and silence as you learn to listen mindfully to music and nature. Each program begins with a meditation guided by Jennifer Llewellyn (of Majestic Hudson, Katonah), and continues with live music performed by the next generation of classical music stars.
Join us these Saturday mornings at 11:00am:
July 1 Tessa Lark, violin Michael Thurber, double bass
July 15 Maeve Gilchrist, Celtic harp
July 29 Harlem Chamber Players
NEW!
Concerts for Little Ones
Movement and musical discovery take flight in this new series for the littlest Caramoor attendees. Located in our flexible and accessible Education Center, this program geared for children ages 2–6 (and their caregivers) brings in world-class artists who will invite children to sing, wiggle, and dance to diverse styles of music.
Join us these Friday mornings at 11:00am:
July 7 Musiquita
July 14 Alexander Davis, bassoon & Friends
July 21 Alphonso Horne, trumpet & Friends
NEW! Recitals in the Music Room
This new series of Saturday lateafternoon hour-long classical recitals is designed with our avid chamber music devotees in mind. Each program features alumni of Caramoor’s mentoring programs. Please stay to say hello to the artists after the recital!
Join us these Saturday afternoons at 5:00pm:
July 8 Alexander Hersh, cello Christopher Goodpasture, piano
August 5 Zhu Wang, piano
Concerts on the Lawn
We invite you to Friends Field — the perfect spot for a date night, a family outing, or just another starry evening at Caramoor.
June 22 The Harlem Gospel Travelers
July 1 Plena Libre
July 14 DakhaBrakha
July 29 Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily
August 4 Samara Joy
August 11 Balún
August 16 Michael Olatuja: Lagos Pepper Soup
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caramoor.org / 914.232.1252
Sunday, June 4
Soundscapes
12:00pm–4:00pm / Caramoor Grounds
Jonny Allen, percussion
Conor Hanick, piano
Dorit Chrysler, theremin
Trimpin, Mendi & Keith Obadike, Walter Kitundu, Ranjit Bhatnagar, Annea Lockwood & Bob Bielecki, Taylor Deupree, and Liz Phillips, sound artists
Our grounds are open! Open your ears and discover a world of fascinating sounds through our Sonic Innovations exhibition and live performances. Thereminist Dorit Chrysler performs and leads workshops on the world’s oldest electronic instrument.
Jonny Allen interprets Iannis Xenakis’ multipercussion piece Rebonds , as well as plays and jogs between nine suspended bells in excerpts of Tom Johnson’s Nine Bells. Be enthralled as pianist Conor Hanick “prepares” a grand piano by inserting bolts, screws, bits of rubber, and other items between the strings for John Cage’s complete Sonatas and Interludes Meet the sound artists while you explore our innovative sound art collection and enjoy a deep sensory experience for the whole family.
This event is FREE.
Saturday, June 17
Opening Night Gala Benefit
5:30pm / Friends Field Tent
Show your enthusiasm for Caramoor and enjoy what makes it unique: exceptional live music with an equally exceptional culinary experience, all in our stunning gardens and grounds. After a pre-performance cocktail party, you’ll make your way into the Venetian Theater for an Opening Night Concert featuring the unparalleled Broadway and operatic sensation Audra McDonald. With Great American Songbook melodies still cascading through your ears, you’ll continue on to a seasonallyselected dinner paired with fine wines and dessert.
Individual and table options are available. A portion of each ticket is tax deductible.
For tickets or additional details, contact events@caramoor.org / 914.232.1492
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FREE EVENT
Dorit Chrysler
Saturday, June 17
Opening Night Concert: Audra McDonald
7:00pm / Venetian Theater
Andy Einhorn, conductor Orchestra of St. Luke’s Tony, Emmy, and Grammy Award–winning singer and actor Audra McDonald launches Caramoor’s 2023 Summer Season in a dazzling performance of beloved classics from the Great American Songbook. Blessed with a luminous soprano and an incomparable gift for dramatic truth-telling, McDonald is one of the most adored singers of her generation and perhaps the most astounding performer of our lifetimes — a once-in-a-century artist with a miraculously expressive and lyric voice.
Talent this manifold is too miraculous to deconstruct, but there is at the heart of McDonald’s art a moral radiance, a desire to align beauty with truth and justice.
— Los Angeles Times
Sunday, June 18
Family Concert: Gotta Swing!
Eyal Vilner Swing Band
1:30pm / Friends Field Tent
Gaby Cook, Nathan Bugh, Jennifer Jones, Ray Davis, dancers Swing is an energetic, rhythmic dance that originated in Harlem in the 1920s. Bring the kids and join the Eyal Vilner Swing Band and dancers for a fun show that will explore the rich history of this uniquely American art form. By late afternoon, everyone will fully understand why it’s called swing ... when the musicians play (or sing), they “swing the beat,” meaning they play the notes late and then catch up in the next beat. Gotta swing, baby!
Hot Jazz Age Frolic
Eyal Vilner Big Band
4:00pm / Friends Field Tent
Imani Rousselle, guest vocalist
Nathan Bugh and Gaby Cook, dance instructors
Slip on your shiny dancing shoes and get swept away by the irresistible rhythms of swingin’ jazz at Caramoor’s second Hot Jazz Age Frolic! This high-energy event takes place under an airy tent turned into a hot-to-trot dance club plucked right out of 1920s Harlem. Join us on the dance floor for a lesson, then be unabashed and strut your stuff. Or just sit back at a table with your two left feet, a cocktail in hand, and enjoy the live music by the critically acclaimed Eyal Vilner Big Band, a 17-piece musical tour de force. Feel free to sport your favorite swing-era vintage look!
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Thursday, June 22
The Harlem Gospel Travelers
Presented in Collaboration with City Winery concert on the lawn
7:00pm / Friends Field
Amidst socio-political unrest and lingering pandemic unease, The Harlem Gospel Travelers sing about hope and resiliency in a style that draws on the gospel quartet tradition of the ‘50s and ‘60s. Their debut LP, He’s on Time, landed a spot on the 2019 Billboard charts. While the album could be classified as “retro” or “vintage,” the truth is that The Harlem Gospel Travelers aren’t just reviving sounds from the past, they’re revitalizing them for the present and reminding us just how relevant this music is (and always has been) in times of hardship and uncertainty. Continue your celebration of Juneteenth at this joyous show.
Friday, June 23
Brooklyn Rider
8:00pm / Spanish Courtyard
FOUR ELEMENTS
Suite of American Folk Songs, collected / transcribed by Ruth Crawford Seeger, arranged by Colin Jacobsen
Andreia Pinto-Correia: Aere senza stelle (NY premiere)
Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110 Osvaldo Golijov: Tenebrae
With the energy of four young rock stars, Brooklyn Rider performs a program that explores the four elements (earth, air, water, and fire) as a metaphor for the complex inner world of the string quartet and the current health of planet Earth. You’ll hear music created within the last century of accelerated and unprecedented climate change, including pieces commissioned by the Quartet, by composers whose works reflect current realities and serve as a musical call to action. Will you heed the call?
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caramoor.org / 914.232.1252
Celebrate Juneteenth!
Saturday, June 24
American Roots Music Festival
Presented in collaboration with City Winery
1:00pm / Caramoor Grounds
Evening performance by Brandy Clark
Daytime performers include:
Sunny War
Miko Marks
Mike Block Trio
More artists to be announced!
Caramoor’s annual American Roots Music Festival is back with a day overflowing with spectacular music performed throughout our grounds spanning the genres of blues, Americana, folk, and bluegrass. Spend the day in the gardens and discover the next artist you’ll add to your playlist.
This day features multiple bands and ends with acclaimed singersongwriter / ten-time Grammy-nominee Brandy Clark.
Even as her world expands, and her style shifts along with it, Brandy Clark keeps her feet grounded in the here and now. Her songwriting is only getting better.
— American Songwriter
Sunday, June 25
Francesca Caccini’s Alcina
4:00pm / Venetian Theater
Boston Early Music Festival
Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, Musical Co-Directors
Gilbert Blin, Stage Director
Mireille Lebel, mezzo-soprano (Alcina)
Colin Balzer, tenor (Ruggiero)
Virginia Warnken Kelsey, mezzo-soprano (Melissa)
Spend a late afternoon on a magical island with a beautiful enchantress, a vengeful sorceress, a valiant knight, and an eager lover who gets seduced, then cursed and turned into a rock. This passionate paradise awaits you in the tent of Caramoor’s Venetian Theater. Full of wit, drama, and melodious arias, this first opera by a female composer will cast its spell as Caramoor’s gardens are transformed through song, people shapeshift into trees, and true love prevails.
3:00pm / Join us for a conversation with Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs.
3:00pm / Toast Pride Month with LGBTQ+ friends, family, and allies at our annual Pride and Prosecco reception!
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Brandy Clark
Mike Block Trio
Miko Marks
Sunny War
Thursday, June 29
Ivalas Quartet
2022-23 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence
7:00pm / Spanish Courtyard
Jessie Montgomery: Strum
Carlos Simon: Warmth from Other Suns
Eleanor Alberga: String Quartet No. 2
Derrick Skye: New work (World Premiere, Commissioned by Caramoor)
As part of our mission to nurture and present the next generation of artists, Caramoor’s 2022-2023 Ernst String Quartet-in-Residence, the Ivalas Quartet — one of the brightest rising string quartets today — caps off its yearlong residency of community engagement and concerts with a performance in our jewel-like Spanish Courtyard. Representative of their celebration of diverse voices and spotlighting of Black and indigenous composers, their program includes a world premiere by Derrick Skye, a composer with Ghanian, Nigerian, Native American, and British/Irish ancestry who believes music is a doorway into understanding other cultures.
Wielding lightning-fast syncopated stickwork, Sandbox Percussion created a hypersonic morse code … — Musical America
Friday, June 30
Sandbox Percussion
8:00pm / Venetian Theater
Andy Akiho: Seven Pillars
Described as “exhilarating” (The New York Times), and “virtuosic and utterly mesmerizing” (The Guardian), Brooklyn’s Sandbox Percussion is one of today’s leading percussion ensembles. Seven Pillars, nominated for a Grammy in 2021, is the jaw-dropping result of a years-long collaboration with trailblazing composer Andy Akiho. The boldly genre-defying collaboration consists of seven ensemble movements and one solo movement for each member of Sandbox. With a striking lighting scheme by Michael Joseph McQuilken, the 80-minute, 11-part work is the largest-scale chamber music work that Akiho has written and that Sandbox has commissioned, with their collaboration spanning the past eight years.
7:00pm / Join us for a conversation with members of Sandbox Percussion.
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caramoor.org
Saturday, July 1
Tessa Lark, violin
Michael Thurber, double bass music & meditation in the garden
11:00am / Sunken Garden
Jennifer Llewellyn, Meditation Coach
Caramoor’s lush Sunken Garden provides the perfect environment to experience both sound and silence as you learn to listen mindfully to music and nature.
Violinist Tessa Lark (Evnin Rising Stars alumna) and double bassist Michael Thurber blend their bluegrass and jazz backgrounds for this meditative event.
Saturday, July 1
Plena Libre
concert on the lawn
8:00pm / Friends Field
The trailblazing Plena Libre has been thrilling international audiences for nearly three decades. Masters of the traditional Puerto Rican plena and bomba styles, Plena Libre fuses well-loved traditions with modern Afro-Caribbean influences, putting a new and always electrifying spin on this scintillating music. With mesmerizing hand drumming, raucous horns, and soaring three-part vocal harmonies, this multi-Grammy Award–nominated band always brings the heat.
Sunday, July 2
Pops & Patriots
4:00pm / Venetian Theater
Westchester Symphonic Winds
Curt Ebersole, conductor
Nicoletta Berry, soprano
Terrence Chin-Loy, tenor
Celebrate Independence Day at Caramoor!
The Westchester Symphonic Winds join us for their annual tribute to America’s independence with a program that includes The Star-Spangled Banner, Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever, and a Broadway medley performed by alumni of our Schwab Vocal Rising Stars program.
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Terrence Chin-Loy
Nicoletta Berry
Thursday, July 6
Miró Quartet
7:00pm / Spanish Courtyard
Robert Schumann:
String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 41, No. 1: II. Scherzo
Caroline Shaw: Microfictions
George T. Walker: Lyric for Strings
Johannes Brahms: String Quartet in C Minor, Op. 51, No. 1
One of Caramoor’s earliest quartets-in-residence, the internationally acclaimed Miró Quartet returns to the Spanish Courtyard to perform masterpieces from Brahms and Schumann, as well as contemporary works by two Pulitzer Prize-winning composers.
Caroline Shaw’s Microfictions is a set of six miniatures inspired by the surreal paintings of Joan Miró, the quartet’s namesake, and George T. Walker’s Lyric for Strings is an elegy to the composer’s grandmother, who suffered and escaped slavery.
“The ensemble played with lithe tempos and lean textures, beautifully balancing cool refinement and intense expressivity.” — The New York Times
Friday, July 7
Ruckus
featuring Emi Ferguson, flute and Rachell Ellen Wong, violin
8:00pm / Spanish Courtyard
ARCADIAN VISIONS
Ruckus is a shapeshifting, collaborative Baroque band with a visceral and playful approach to early music. ARCADIAN VISIONS features Ruckus with soloists Emi Ferguson and Rachell Ellen Wong in joyful dialogue with the rustic pastoral traditions of 18th century London and New England. Featuring trio sonatas by George Frideric Handel and Thomas Arne, country dances from Ignacio Sancho, instrumental hymns from William Billings and Daniel Read, and a new work from Celeste Oram.
“Ruckus brought continuo playing to not simply a new level, but a revelatory new dimension of dynamism altogether ... Wit, panache, and the jubilant, virtuosic verve of a bebop-Baroque jam session.”
— Boston Musical Intelligencer
Saturday, July 8
Alexander Hersh, cello
Christopher Goodpasture, piano
5:00pm / Music Room
Claude Debussy: Sonata for Cello and Piano
Paul Wiancko: Microsuite for Solo Cello
Anton Webern: 2 Pieces for Cello and Piano
Felix Mendelssohn: Cello Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 58
Giovanni Sollima: Lamentatio for Solo Cello
This intimate Music Room recital, performed by Evnin
Rising Star alumnus Alexander Hersh, traverses five distinct sound worlds with the cello as a guide. Invoking ancient instruments while breathing life into music of our time, the program probes sonic possibilities, both familiar and fantastical. Please stay afterwards to meet the artists, and enjoy a refreshing beverage!
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Ruckus Rachell Ellen Wong
Emi Ferguson
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Alexander Hersh
caramoor.org
America’s most astonishing choir … The Crossing, led by Donald Nally, combines an embrace of the new, a social conscience, and fearless technique.
— The New York Times
Sunday, July 9
FARMING
Performed by The Crossing
Donald Nally, conductor Ashley Tata, director
4:00pm / Sunken Garden
Ted Hearne: Farming (NY premiere)
Saturday, July 8
Over the Rainbow:
The Songs of Harold Arlen
8:00pm / Venetian Theater
Ted Sperling, Music Director and Host
Aisha de Haas
Mikaela Bennett
Nicholas Ward
It’s time for you to “Get Happy” and travel “Over the Rainbow,” no matter the “Stormy Weather” in July, to immerse yourself in an evening celebrating the unique American legend Harold Arlen, one of the most prolific composers for the stage and screen. Tony Awardwinner Ted Sperling is Music Director and host, along with celebrated Broadway artists
Mikaela Bennett (The Golden Apple),
Aisha de Haas (Disney’s Newsies), and Nicholas Ward (The Music Man). True, there’s no place like home … except for the Venetian Theater at Caramoor!
FARMING, a stirring new oratorio by Ted Hearne written for The Crossing choir, grapples with the current impact of our agricultural history and asks what it would take to reconnect us with the people who produce our food — and what forces are keeping us apart. Scored for 24 vocalists with guitars, keyboards, and percussion, the performance will be set near Caramoor’s pastoral Sunken Garden, allowing the audience to explore and listen to this explosive work as it unfolds.
3:00pm / Join us for a conversation with Ted Hearne, Donald Nally, and Ashley Tata
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Aisha de Haas
Ted Sperling
Mikaela Bennett
Nicholas Ward
caramoor.org / 914.232.1252
Thursday, July 13
Davóne Tines, bass-baritone
Adam Nielsen, piano
7:00pm / Spanish Courtyard
RECITAL NO. 1: MASS
Heralded as a “singer of immense power and fervor” and “[one] of the most powerful voices of our time”
(Los Angeles Times), Davóne Tines brings to the intimate Spanish Courtyard a program of spiritual and intellectual exploration that he entitles Recital No 1: Mass. Tines envisions his work as stretching the boundaries of what classical music can be — and what impact it can have on an audience. Featuring works by Caroline Shaw, J.S. Bach, Tyshawn Sorey, Margaret Bonds, and Julius Eastman, and using the framework of the Catholic Mass, Tines interweaves his own lived experience to bring audiences through themes of spirituality, justice, and identity.
“Davóne Tines is changing what it means to be a classical singer.” — The New Yorker
Post-Concert / Talkback with Davóne Tines
Friday, July 14
DakhaBrakha
concert on the lawn
8:00pm / Friends Field
With roots in Ukrainian folklore and music filtered through modern rhythms and instruments based in punk, cabaret, rock, and hip-hop, DakhaBrakha is an award-winning ensemble from Kyiv with astonishingly powerful and uncompromising vocal range. They will bring their thunderous and theatrical energy to our Friends Field stage for an evening of “ethno-chaos” and national pride.
Saturday, July 15
Maeve Gilchrist, Celtic harp music & meditation in the garden
11:00am / Sunken Garden
Jennifer Llewellyn, Meditation Coach
Described by one critic as “a phenomenal harp player who can make her instrument ring with unparalleled purity,” Maeve Gilchrist has taken the Celtic harp to new levels. Caramoor’s lush Sunken Garden provides the perfect setting to meditate and then luxuriate in the sounds of harp strings as they mingle with nature.
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Davóne Tines
Saturday, July 15
Oumou Sangaré
8:00pm / Venetian Theater
Global superstar and Grammy Award-winner
Oumou Sangaré catapults
Westchester to West Africa! Renowned worldwide for her vibrant and powerful music, the Malian “songbird of Wassoulou” infuses her music with traditional African percussion, distinctive vocals, and progressive social criticism, creating a unique sound that has propelled her onto the international stage. Her return to Caramoor after 12 years will feature music that spans traditional Wassoulou music to contemporary sounds coming out of Africa, as well as songs from her recent critically acclaimed album, Timbuktu.
Percussive, danceable, and haunting, the singer’s visionary mix is the primary reason that her voice has come to carry as much respect as Aretha Franklin’s.
— The New Yorker
Sunday, July 16
Orchestra of St. Luke’s & Hélène Grimaud
4:00pm / Venetian Theater
Lina González-Granados, conductor Hélène Grimaud, piano
Gabriela Lena Frank: Elegía Andina
Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto in G Major
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 2
Praised for her “rich, heartfelt orchestral sound” (Chicago Sun-Times) and “raw power” (Los Angeles Times), Colombian-American conductor Lina González-Granados leads Orchestra of St. Luke’s in a program that includes works by Gabriela Lena Frank, Ravel, and Brahms. One of classical music’s most passionate and committed artists, pianist Hélène Grimaud takes on Ravel’s jaunty and virtuosic Piano Concerto in G Major.
“When González-Granados conducts, it’s as if the music is alive inside her body, flowing through her arms, dancing with all the right steps.” — Los Angeles Times
3:00pm / Join us for a conversation with Lina González-Granados.
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Hélène Grimaud
Lina González-Granados
caramoor.org / 914.232.1252
Thursday, July 20
Conrad Tao, piano
Caleb Teicher, dancer
7:00pm / Venetian Theater
COUNTERPOINT
This dynamic interplay of piano and tap dance features pianist-composer Conrad Tao, who has been dubbed “the kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music” by New York Magazine, and choreographer-dancer Caleb Teicher, about whom
The New Yorker says: “mixing super-charged energy with tossed-off charm, Teicher is among the more promising figures in tap dance.” The pair come from two art forms, each with their own traditions and practices, but their collaboration explores the connections between them and the different ways the percussion of piano and tap relate to one another.
Their program includes works by J.S. Bach, Johannes Brahms, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, George Gershwin, Maurice Ravel, and more.
Friday, July 21
Dover Quartet
Steven Banks, alto saxophone
8:00pm / Spanish Courtyard
Joseph Haydn:
String Quartet in E-flat Major, H.III: 38 (“The Joke”)
William Grant Still: Lyric String Quartette
Steven Banks: Cries, Sighs, and Dreams
Antonín Dvořák: String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major, Op. 51
The Dover Quartet returns to Caramoor with charismatic classical saxophonist, composer, and 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant winner Steven Banks. In addition to Banks’ recent quintet, the program includes string quartets by Haydn, known as the “Father” of the form, William Grant Still, one of the foremost African American composers of the 20th century, and Dvořák, noted for employing the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia in his works.
“Banks has the potential to be one of the transformational artists of the 21st century.”
— Seen and Heard International
7:00pm / Join us for a conversation with Steven Banks.
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Conrad Tao
Caleb Teicher
Saturday, July 22 Jazz Festival
Presented in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center
1:00pm / Caramoor Grounds
Evening performance by Cécile McLorin Salvant
Daytime performers include: Anthony Hervey Quintet Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Summer Jazz Academy Big Band with special guests
New Jazz Underground featuring Abdias Armenteros, Sebastian Rios, and TJ Reddick
Christie Dashiell
More artists to be announced!
Caramoor’s Jazz Festival is back! This highly anticipated annual event of the summer is filled with the many facets of the jazz genre performed by phenomenal talent, amid lush gardens and distinctive venues throughout Caramoor’s expansive grounds. Bring the family for the day, and treat yourself to the headlining evening performance — three-time Grammy Award-winner and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Cécile McLorin Salvant, a singer with, as the late Jessye Norman described her, “a voice supported by an intelligence and full-fledged musicality, which light up every note she sings.”
Sunday, July 23
Handel’s Acis and Galatea
4:00pm / Venetian Theater
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
Richard Egarr, conductor
Nicholas Mulroy, tenor (Acis)
Hera Hyesang Park, soprano (Galatea)
Isaiah Bell, tenor (Damon)
Dashon Burton, bass-baritone (Polyphemus)
Aria Umezawa, director
We’ve all been there … you (Galatea) are madly in love (with that hottie, Acis), when a jealous monster destroys your relationship with one smash of a boulder. Rather than mope about it, you use your magic powers to transform your (now deceased) lover into a beautiful fountain that flows eternally! This pastoral opera premiered in 1718 and remains one of Handel’s most popular dramatic works. Join Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra — recognized as “America’s leading historically informed ensemble” (The New York Times) — and some of opera’s most revered voices in this fully costumed presentation, surrounded by Caramoor’s serene gardens.
3:00pm / Join us for a lecture with MIT professor emeritus and Handel scholar Ellen T. Harris.
Members are invited to a pre-concert Friends Garden Party and will enjoy a 20% discount on tickets to this performance.
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Isaiah Bell
Nicholas Mulroy Dashon Burton
Hera Hyesang Park
Cécile McLorin Salvant
Anthony Hervey Quintet
Jazz at Lincoln Center's Summer Jazz Academy Big Bands
New Jazz Underground
Christie Dashiell
Thursday, July 27
Pekka Kuusisto, violin
Nico Muhly, piano
7:00pm / Spanish Courtyard
Two leading voices on today’s music scene, Finnish violinist, conductor, and composer Pekka Kuusisto and celebrated American composer and pianist Nico Muhly, team up for an evening of unexpected musical connections. Among their explorations will be works by Muhly himself, Glass, Pärt, and other contemporaries. You won’t have to lean in far to hear what made The Globe and Mail, Toronto call this violinist “one-of-akind” and The Telegraph, London to identify his musicmaking as “the most personal sound of any classical violinist now alive.”
Friday, July 28
The Knights with Pekka Kuusisto
8:00pm / Venetian Theater
Eric Jacobsen, conductor
Pekka Kuusisto, violin
Felix Mendelssohn: Sinfonia No. 10 in B Minor
Nico Muhly: Shrink (NY Premiere)
Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring
Colin Jacobsen: A Shadow Under Every Light
The Knights are dedicated to transforming the orchestral experience and eliminating barriers between audience and music. The New York Times has described them as “an adventurous young orchestra that has established a strong reputation for polished performances and imaginative programming.” The ensemble performs the New York premiere of Nico Muhly’s Shrink with Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto, described as “one-ofa-kind” by Toronto’s The Globe and Mail and renowned for his fresh approach to repertoire.
“Muhly’s Shrink, a glittering, jittery, mischievous violin concerto written for Kuusisto … The work reflects its title, contracting and intensifying as it progresses, a perfect mirror of the word “shrink” and a platform for Kuusisto in hyperactive, virtuosic mode …” — The Guardian
7:00pm / Join us for a conversation with Eric Jacobsen, Pekka Kuusisto, and Nico Muhly.
Pekka Kuusisto … surely has the most personal sound of any classical violinist now alive.
— The Telegraph
caramoor.org / 914.232.1252
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Nico Muhly Pekka Kuusisto
The Knights
Pekka Kuusisto
Eric Jacobsen
Saturday, July 29
Harlem Chamber Players
music & meditation in the garden
11:00am / Sunken Garden
Jennifer Llewellyn, Meditation Coach
The Harlem Chamber Players is an ethnically diverse collective of professional musicians dedicated to bringing high-caliber, affordable, and accessible live classical music to people in the Harlem community and beyond. Our Sunken Garden is an ideal spot for you to spend a Saturday morning meditating amidst a gentle summer breeze, followed by the music-making of these gifted artists.
Saturday, July 29
Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily concert on the lawn
8:00pm / Friends Field
LOVE IN EXILE
In 2022, Brooklyn-based singer and composer Arooj Aftab became the first Pakistani woman to win a Grammy, for her album Vulture Prince. Love in Exile is a new project featuring two of her most trusted collaborators, pianist Vijay Iyer and multiinstrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, who together transform voice and electronic sound into melodic sculpture. Their performances are largely improvised, which allows the music endless options. Aftab’s mesmerizing vocals are sure to cast a spell under the summer night stars.
“Her voice is contemplative, breathy and relaxed, with the intimacy of indie-pop and jazz though she occasionally uses the microtonal embellishments of classical South Asian singing.” — The New York Times
Sunday, July 30
Garrick Ohlsson, piano
4:00pm / Venetian Theater
All-Chopin Program
Nocturne in F Major, Op. 15, No. 1
Nocturne in B Major, Op. 9, No. 3
Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, Op. 60
Fantasie in F Minor, Op. 49
Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 39
Impromptu in F-sharp Major, Op. 36
Piano Sonata in B Minor, Op. 58
Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition (still the single American to have done so), pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Ohlsson has long been regarded as one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Frédéric Chopin, and has been hailed by The Seattle Times as having “incredible technique with razor-sharp accuracy, producing a sound so lush it almost glistens.”
“I know of few performers who resist so well this literature’s temptations toward self-aggrandizement and yet emerge with such a vibrant sense of identity.”
— The New York Times
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caramoor.org / 914.232.1252
Thursday, August 3
Tengyue Zhang, guitar
guitar in the garden
7:00pm / Sunken Garden
There is no venue more fitting for a classical guitar concert than Caramoor’s treasure of a garden. Guitarist Tengyue Zhang — who received First Prize in the 2017 Guitar Foundation of American (GFA) International Concert Artists Competition, known as the most prestigious guitar contest in the world — brings his brilliant talent and musicality to this tranquil, flowering outdoor space. His program includes work by J.S. Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, Isaac Albéniz, Jean-Philippe Rameau, and more.
Join us! / Stay after the performance for an All-Audience Afterglow Reception in the garden, weather permitting.
Friday, August 4
Samara Joy
Presented in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center concert on the lawn
8:00pm / Friends Field
With her newly released Verve Records debut, Linger Awhile, 23-year-old and twice-Grammy-nominated Samara Joy makes her case to join the likes of Sarah, Ella, and Billie as the next mononymous jazz singing sensation recorded by the venerable label. Her rich and velvety yet precociously refined voice has perhaps cemented her status as the first Gen-Z jazz singing star. Joy’s Caramoor debut will introduce the audience to a slew of classic standards several times older than she is through her timeless, irresistible sound.
Saturday, August 5
Zhu Wang, piano
5:00pm / Music Room
Robert Schumann: Arabesque, Op. 18
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata in G Major, Op. 31, No. 1
Zhang Zhao: Pi Huang (Moments from Beijing Opera)
William Grant Still: Summerland from Three Visions
Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite (arr. Agosti)
China-born Zhu Wang, an alumnus of Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars mentoring program and winner of the 2020 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, has been praised by The New York Times as “especially impressive” and “a thoughtful, sensitive performer” who balances “lyrical warmth and crisp clarity.” His intimate recital bridges piano literature from Germany, China, and America, from the realms of opera, ballet, and the afterlife.
Please stay afterwards to meet the artist, and enjoy a refreshing beverage!
Saturday, August 5
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Presented in collaboration with City Winery
7:30pm / Venetian Theater
Some of us (not all!) are old enough to remember the tug of our heartstrings when we first heard Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “Passionate Kisses,” “I Feel Lucky,” and “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her,” among her countless other country / folk / rock hits from the ‘80s and ‘90s. Having since won five Grammy and two CMA awards and sold over 15 million albums, this acclaimed mega singer / songwriter continues to awe fans around the world. With her full band in tow, she brings her emotional, empowering, and inspiring artistry to Caramoor’s Venetian Theater. Come be star-struck with us!
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Sunday, August 6
Orchestra of St. Luke’s & Alisa Weilerstein
4:00pm / Venetian Theater
Roderick Cox, Alisa Weilerstein, George T. Walker: Dmitri Shostakovich: Ludwig van Beethoven:
Before the summer season wanes, join maestro Roderick Cox — who has been praised as a conductor “paving the way” ( as he leads Orchestra of St. Luke’s in a program that features cellist, MacArthur Genius Grant winner, and Evnin Rising Star alumna Alisa Weilerstein, who will entrance with her fearless rendition of Shostakovich’s profoundly complex and strikingly haunting first cello concerto. 3:00pm / Join us for a conversation with Roderick Cox and Alisa Weilerstein.
As always, her playing was technically flawless and deeply expressive: her vibrato saturated with meaning, her lyricism slinking and menacingly enigmatic.
— The New York Times
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Alisa Weilerstein
Roderick Cox
