Caramoor Announces 2019 Festival Line-up

Posted OnFebruary 13, 2019

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Caramoor Announces 2019 Festival Line-up: Tickets for Caramoor’s 2019 Summer Festival go on sale Tuesday, February 19. The festival, which runs from June 15 through July 27, offers 31 nights and days (and days into night) of opera, chamber, orchestral, jazz, Broadway, American Roots and World Music on the 90 acre Caramoor estate. Their new season, the second developed by Kathy Schuman, Caramoor’s VP of Artistic Programming, opens with the world-renowned cellist Alisa Weilerstein and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s performing Dvořák’s Cello Concerto – called one of the greatest of all cello concertos – and Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite.

Classical, Jazz, Opera, Roots, World Music… and Dance (oh my!)

The Caramoor festival offers highlights for lovers of every musical genre. From Russian piano sensation Daniil Trifonov, a 2018 Grammy-winner, who will perform works by Beethoven, Schumann and Prokofiev on July 26. To the elder statesman of Latin jazz pianists, and a ten-time Grammy winner, Eddie Palmieri and his Salsa Orchestra, who will headline the annual Caramoor Jazz Festival on July 20. Opera fans get a musical feast on June 23 when The Boston Early Music Festival brings the court of Louis XIV to life with a staging of their 2016 production, “VERSAILLES: Portrait of a Royal Domain,” featuring two chamber operas; Charpentier’s Les Plaisirs de Versailles and Lalande’s Les Fontaines de Versailles. And on June 22, The Milk Carton Kids headline Caramoor’s American Roots Festival, a day into evening affair, featuring a dozen musical acts across the Caramoor grounds, including Taj Mahal’s daughter Deva Mahal, the fiddle-cello duo Oliver the Crow, and the folk meets jazz combo, Youth in a Roman Field. Orchestral music fans will be treated to “superstar” mandolinist, Avi Avital, and the award-winning Venice Baroque Orchestra in an evening of mostly Vivaldi on July 13. “Classical music’s guitar hero”, Miloš Karadaglić, performs a solo recital of music from Bach to The Beatles in Caramoor’s Sunken Garden on July 18. And there will be five nights of chamber music from, among others, the Grammy Award-winning Takacs Quartet and two-time Grammy-nominees, A Far Cry.

Spotlight on Caroline Shaw

A special feature of this year’s programming, from Kathy Schumann, is a six-part Spotlight on Caroline Shaw, the vocalist, violinist, composer and producer. Her works will be performed in six different shows throughout the summer including Ms. Shaw’s performance, of her Pulitzer Prize-winning Partita for 8 Voices, which she will perform with the Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth on June 28. Another highlight of this “festival within a festival’ is the New York premiere of her piano concerto, Watermark, a response to Beethoven’s 3rd piano concerto. Both will be performed by Jonathan Biss and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s on July 7.

Songbirds from Baroque to Broadway’s My Fair Lady

Lovers of vocal music will want to save these dates. On June 30, mezzo-soprano, Vivica Genaux, who first caught the attention of NY critics in her 1996 Caramoor debut in La Cenerentola, makes a rare US performance singing arias from Handel and Vivaldi with New York Baroque Incorporated. And Laura Benanti, currently performing in My Fair Lady on Broadway, sings from the great American Songbook in her show, Tales From Soprano Island on July 6. Laura won a 2008 Tony Award for her role in Gypsy and a Tony-nomination for She Loves Me in 2016. See you there.

Mo’ Roots from the king and queen of the banjo

You will also find us at Caramoor’s Spanish Courtyard on July 27 for “the king and queen of the banjo” Bela Flek and Abigail Ashburn, whose sound stretches beyond bluegrass and “into everything from prog-rock to Eastern instrumentation.” – NPR Their 2016 self-titled debut won the Grammy for Best Folk Album. Mr. Flek is a 16 time Grammy Award-winner, winning in more categories including country, jazz, pop, classical crossover, folk and world music than any other artist. This will be our third trip to Caramoor to see Mr. Flek.

“Let me hear your balalaikas ringing out…”

Caramoor has stealthily built a growing reputation for its World Music Series in recent years. This year they present three exciting concerts highlighted by a June 29 visit to the Venetian Theatre stage from Spanish singer Buika, who has been compared to Nina Simone and Billie Holiday. She received a Grammy-nom for Best World Music Album in 2018, and was named one of the world’s “50 Great Voices” by NPR. On June 28, the Afro-Caribbean sounds of Tribu Baharu comes to Caramoor. Their champeta music offers traces of soukous, zouk, calypso, soca, and rap. And on July 11, the genre-defying quartet, Russian Renaissance performs everything from Russian folk songs to compositions from Astor Piazzolla and Bela Flek on balalaika, domra and button accordion.

Bring the kids to these family events

Finally, Caramoor’s Family programming features a Hot Jazz Age Frolic with Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, with Kat Edmondson and Bria Skonberg, Carnegie Hall’s first affiliate ensemble DeCoda, and Dancing at Dusk, which takes you around the world in four nights of music and dancing on Friends Field. This year you can learn how to dance jigs and reels to the Celtic music of Cady Findlayson and Vita Tanga; the Greek blues with bouzouki player Kostas Psarros, the South Pacific ukulele music of Lei Pasifikia, and the tango bandoneon virtuoso Héctor Del Curto.

Don’t forget the bottle of chilled Sauvignon Blanc

Whether you are a jazz hound or an opera buff, make sure you leave time for a picnic on Caramoor’s well-coifed grounds. You don’t have to bring a table cloth and candelabras, though some do, just pack your favorite quaff and a summer nosh because this is the best picnicking in Westchester. If you are not a pack rat, you can pre-order a picnic box from Great Performances when you buy your tickets or check out the Katchkie Food Truck for a Caramoor burger and the Tap Tent for chilled beer, wine, soft drink or coffee. PS there’s a Ben & Jerry’s stand to cleanse your palette before the show.