Yo Yo Ma, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Molly Tuttle Highlight Caramoor Summer Season

Yo Yo Ma, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Dawn Upshaw Highlight Caramoor Summer Season

Yo Yo Ma and The Knights kick off Caramoor’s 30 night star-studded season of classical, jazz, Broadway, roots, and world music with an opening night performance of Leonard Bernstein, Scott Joplin, and Brahms on June 18. Tony Award-winner, Brian Stokes Mitchell, (Kiss Me Kate, Ragtime, Man of La Mancha), who The New York Times called “the last leading man” headlines the American Songbook portion of Caramoor’s summer season with a performance of July 9. On the jazz and roots fronts, Camille Thurman and the Darrell Green Quartet reimagine Burt Bacharach at the evening performance of the Caramoor Roots Festival on July 30. And the multi-award winning guitarist/banjoist Molly Tuttle and her band Golden Highway gets the evening pimp spot at Caramoor’s American Roots Festival on June 25.

Other highlights of Caramoor’s summer at the Venetian Theater include A Night at the Opera with Stephanie Blythe and Laquita Mitchell on July 22; the return of Grammy-Award winner Americana star Rhiannon Giddens in a new role as Artistic Director of The Silk Road Ensemble on July 16; “Africa’s premier diva” Angélique Kidjo’s return performance on August 6 after winning her fifth Grammy Award; Inon Barnatan’s (piano) recital based on his recent album, Time Traveler’s Suite, which traces a musical lineage through the ages — from Baroque to modern masters — for a uniquely curated performance on June 26. And The Orchestra of St. Lukes with Conductor Bernard Labadie and Marc-André Hamelin (Piano) who will close out the summer season with an all-Beethoven program on August 7.

Of equal import may be the return of events at Caramoor’s intimate outdoor venue, The Spanish Courtyard. The Spanish Courtyard has provided the Caramoor festival with a broad range of up and coming talents, stars expanding their repertoire and some of the world’s best chamber music over the years. This year the Courtyard’s lineup lives up to its mandate when the world-class opera and American songbook crossover artist Dawn Upshaw performs with the Brentano Quartet. There will be more top-flight ensemble music in the Spanish Courtyard from The Imani Winds, Thalea String Quartet, Les Arts Florissants Trio and the British vocal ensemble Voces8.

Finally, for musical audiences who like to live on the edge, the Caramoor season will include the original and eternally edgy chamber ensemble The Kronos Quartet who will perform a program of works drawn from its 50 for the Future project in a Concert on the Lawn. An evening of New Music with voice, electronics, viola and accordion from composers Caroline Shaw, Angélica Negrón, and Raquel Acevedo Klein in the Spanish Courtyard. Lake Street Dive singer-songwriter Rachael Price and composer, singer, and guitarist Vilray’s reboot of 30s & 40s music on Friends Field. R&B/Americana singer Shemekia Copeland in a Concert on the Lawn; Afro/Latin jazz and funk band, the Grammy-nominated Pedrito Martinez, and Las Cafeterias, a Chicano band from East LA who fuse folk music with traditional Afro-Mexican music and dance. Finally, in a free event in Caramoor’s magnificent Sunken Garden Bang on a Can composer Michael Gordon will deliver the world premiere of his new work, Field of Vision.

See the full Caramoor Summer Festival Calendar Here.