America came into its own in the last century, changing from an artistic backwater to a cultural superpower. Newburyport Chamber Music Festival 2025 features a diverse range of 20^th-century American classical voices, from popularly inclined composers like Aaron Copland to abstract works by the likes of Elliott Carter. Some of this summer’s composers, like Jerome Kern, made a living by writing hit musicals with lush orchestral scores like Show Boat. Others, like John Cage, conceived of the thought-provoking/outrage-inducing 4’33, which challenged the very definition of what music is. George Gershwin, in works such as “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess or “Lullaby,” attempted to bridge the gap between so-called high art and entertainment. Even jazz, our native musical tradition, wasn’t immune to the conflicting pull of these forces.  The diverse viewpoints that were a hallmark of a nation founded by immigrants have not always coexisted comfortably, and cruel ironies abounded: popular composers blacklisted for communist sympathies. In contrast, ultra-abstract composers were promoted in CIA-funded concerts.

This summer represents a mini-overview of the multiple directions classical music has taken. Opening night on Saturday, August 9^th, is an all-American clarinet recital with music of Copland, Ives, Bernstein, Barber, and Gershwin. This is followed by a Salon concert of music and conversation in a private home on Wednesday, August 13^th, that includes a pre-concert interview with Todd Palmer, and a post-concert discussion with the artists and audience. Like the night before, Thursday’s concert at St. Paul’s also features Argentine-American composer Osvaldo Golijov’s wild klezmer clarinet quintet, The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, paired with the darkest piece in a major key that I know, Mozart’s autumnal clarinet quintet. I’ve also slipped in composer Guillaume Connesson’s jazzy Disco toccata.

On Friday, August 15^th, we’ll hold the popular Nachtmusik in a new location, St. Anna’s chapel on High Street. For the final St. Paul’s concert (Saturday), nothing makes more sense for this American-flavored season than to feature Guthrie Ramsey, our 2025 Composer-in-Residence, jazz pianist, and music historian extraordinaire. He has written a work for string quartet and jazz singer, his daughter, Bridget Ramsey. Beat Chick: Tunes for Hettie Jones, is a tribute to Bridget’s grandmother, the legendary beat poet and mid-century cultural center of gravity, Hettie Jones, who passed away last year. 

The father-daughter duo will also perform Gershwin’s “Summertime” and a spiritual by the Queen of Folk, Joan Baez. Anchoring that concert is none other than Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 12 in E-flat major, Op. 127, one of the master’s late, great examples that went on to re-shape the direction of classical music. 

Our final event will be something completely new that I am calling “NCMF: Cabaret!” Held upstairs at The Joy Nest in the Tannery, the concert will consist of two mixed sets where Guthrie and Bridget will let loose with keyboards and voice, alternating with the strings performing some deliciously rare quartets by Gershwin and Kern, including “All The Things You Are” and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” We’ll then come together and perform “Beat Chick” a second time. 

Like the big, messy, and complicated country it springs from, American music has a similarly complex history; a century’s worth will all be on offer this summer in Newburyport.

Artistic Director David Yang has forged a career that combines performing (viola) and premiering dozens of original works as the Artistic Director of the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival and the Ashburton Chamber Music Festival (England). He was the founder and Director of Chamber Music at the University of Pennsylvania for twenty years. Yang plays a viola made by the viola da gamba maker Johannes Tielka in 1670.