Falls Village, Conn — Music Mountain’s 94th Summer Festival continues through August and September, with four more weekends of classical and jazz music featuring leading chamber music and jazz ensembles.
Here is the remaining schedule of classical concerts at Music Mountain:
August 27
The Boston-based Parker Quartet with pianist [Orion Weiss will perform works by Beethoven, Mozart, and Vaughan Williams. The Washington Post has praised the group for its “exceptional virtuosity and imaginative interpretation.” Of Orion Weiss, the Baltimore Sun wrote, “Weiss achieved a rare, affecting delicacy and inwardness. Sublime.” And the Arizona Republic described him as “an effortlessly brilliant performer.”
September 3
The Borromeo Quartet and pianist Henry Kramer will perform works by Alberga, Beethoven, and Dvorak. Ensemble-in-Residence at the New England Conservatory of Music and Taos School of Music summer program for 25 years and
at the Heifetz International Music Institute for 20, the Borromeo won the 2007 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award (2001), and the Cleveland Quartet Award (1998). The group is known for both its fresh interpretations of the classical music canon and its championing of works by 20th- and 21st-century composers. Henry Kramer won Second Prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels and in 2019 received an Avery Fisher Career Grant by Lincoln Center after winning the National Chopin Competition in 2010. He has received praise from the Cleveland Classical Review for his “astonishingly confident technique” and from The New York Times for “thrilling [and] triumphant” performances.
September 10
The Dalí Quartet and pianist Vanessa Perez offer a free family concert featuring Miguel del Aguila’s “Clocks” for piano quintet. The Dalí is known for bringing Latin American quartet repertoire into equal standing with the Classical and Romantic canon, and when they performed works by Villa-Lobos, Amaya, and Ginastera, the Boston Music Intelligencer wrote, “This unfamiliar but utterly enjoyable repertoire came to us through strong and rewarding advocacy.”
September 17
Known for its “mighty rapport and relentless commitment,” the Cassatt String Quartet, along with pianist Ursula Oppens, will perform a program of Fanny Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Shostakovich. Oppens, a five-time GRAMMY nominee, has the ability—powered by the sheer force of her enthusiasm—to sell you on a piece of difficult new music that you would otherwise hate. She makes you believe in everything she plays, including the music of Elliott Carter, whom she has championed all her life.
And here is the remaining schedule of “Jazz and More” performances at Music Mountain:
August 19
Bassist and Berklee graduate Luques Curtis is recipient of the 2016 Down Beat Rising Star Bassist on the Critics Poll. Zaccai Curtis is a pianist and bandleader who was chosen in 2003-2006 as winner of the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer’s competition. As the Curtis Brothers, the two have released five recordings, the most recent being “Algorithm.”
August 26
The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players specialize in performing and teaching the works of (wait for it…) Gilbert and Sullivan. New York Magazine called the company’s artistic director, Albert Bergeret, “the leading custodian of the G&S classics.” The group has presented over 2,500 performances of Gilbert and Sullivan works since its founding in 1974.
September 2
The Galvanized Jazz Band limits itself to performing Dixieland, New Orleans jazz, blues, rags, stomps, struts, spirituals, swing, and classic popular songs from the last 100 years. The group performs at jazz festivals from Maine to New Orleans and throughout Europe. The group is recognized by Connecticut Magazine as “Best Jazz Band in the State.”
Sunday classical concerts at Music Mountain take place at 3 p.m., and Saturday jazz concerts at 7 p.m., in air-conditioned Gordon Hall. Tickets are available here.
