In not so many weeks, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival will commence to celebrate both the Shalin Liu Center’s 15th anniversary and a decades-strong tradition of presenting the best in chamber music. The 44th season’s slate of 20 concerts, spanning from June 13th to July 13th with three “annex” dates through early August, includes musicians ranging from up-and-coming virtuosi to living legends. As has been the case since its inception, the Festival will offer opportunities to witness premieres, as well as masterful renditions of classical favorites—all in our intimate, 330-capacity venue backlit by the glistening Atlantic. Festival tickets are now available HERE. And HERE is the season brochure.
Our two dozen concerts span an incredible range of artists who, I hope, will make the same impression on you that they had made on me when I’d heard them in their auditions and in concerts around the country.
Opening night on June 13th with Gramophone Magazine Hall of Fame pianist Angela Hewitt performing J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations promises “subtlety, beauty of tone and instrumental command.”
The festival is also honored to host a star-studded two-concert event on July 5th and 6th that commemorates the 100th anniversary of Gabriel Fauré’s death. Programs will include the French composer’s most celebrated chamber works performed by Joshua Bell (violin), Steven Isserlis (cello), Jeremy Denk (piano), Irène Duval (violin) and Blythe Teh Engstroem (viola).
In celebration of the Shalin Liu Performance Center’s 15th anniversary, the GRAMMY-winning Parker Quartet will join clarinetist Todd Palmer Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet and Copland’s picturesque Appalachian Spring. The Copland masterpiece was performed on the opening night of the Shalin Liu Performance Center in 2010 and has not returned to the stage until now.
Then, trumpeter Jens Lindemann, pianist Stephen Prutsman and violinist Chee-Yun will perform a program spanning from Brahms’s Horn Trio to Oscar Peterson’s iconic Canadiana Suite on July 25. The performance will also include a new commission by California-based composer Peter Golub that recognizes the recent tragic California wildfires.
Not all of the Festival will be dedicated to looking back, however. Chamber music is alive and well in 2025, and Rockport Music has several concerts featuring contemporary composers to show for it. Performers will include the Imani Winds alongside steel pan drummer/composer Andy Akiho, the Isidore Quartet with saxophonist/composer Stephen Banks, and a new commission by Peter Golub paying tribute to the resilience and recovery of all who lost their homes in the California wildfires earlier this year.
A particularly unique and innovative performance comes courtesy of soprano and 2025 GRAMMY winner Karen Slack, who will perform a program celebrating the legacy of seven African queens who aren’t widely heralded in the Western world. The evening-length recital, which Slack toured nationally, weaves historical narrative through new works by acclaimed composers Jasmine Barnes, Damien Geter, Jessie Montgomery, Shawn Okpebholo, Dave Ragland, Carlos Simon, and Joel Thompson along with carefully selected traditional repertoire and passages of spoken text and thematic artwork.
The festival culminates on July 13th as violinist Pinchas Zukerman and pianist Jan Lisiecki essay Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 and Violin Concerto No. 5 with the Rockport Festival Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Earl Lee, winner of the 2022 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award.
Music has the power to captivate, challenge and transform. It’s meant to be felt in the moment—visceral, immediate, and deeply moving. It stirs the soul, offering comfort, reflection, and inspiration. Join us for an unforgettable journey through the beauty and emotion of chamber music. Barry Schiffman