Everyone needs a vacation, even musicians, and the summer is quite naturally a time that the classical music world slows down. So this is it for your Classical Music Agenda, until August. This week’s installment will be a little longer than normal, because there are several interesting things happening over the next couple months. If you want to hear some music this summer, you can, and here’s where.
HEADLINES:
>> The most important classical music event of the summer is the William Kapell International Piano Competition and Festival hosted by the University of Maryland next month. It only happens every four years, and the competing pianists and associated concert performers are always of the highest caliber. The competition begins on July 10, with preliminary and semifinal rounds, including requirements in solo and chamber music formats, leading up to a final round of three pianists each performing a concerto with the Baltimore Symphony on July 21. Think of it as the NCAA tournament of classical music, in honor of one of the greatest American pianists, William Kapell.
>> Performers also appearing as part of the Kapell Festival this year include pianist Garrick Ohlsson (July 12, lecture-presentation at 2 p.m. and concert at 8 p.m.), cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han (July 17, lecture-presentation at 11 a.m. and concert at 8 p.m.), pianist Marilyn Nonken and composer Jason Eckardt (July 18, 11 a.m.), pianist and composer Philip Glass playing his own compositions (July 18, 8 p.m.), and much more. All of these concerts take place in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park.
>> The Summer Music Festival at Washington National Cathedral later this month offers several excellent free performances (and some that are not free). Free concerts that deserve your attention include the organ recital by Alan Morrison, who teaches at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia (June 17, 5 p.m.), the program of medieval Italian music performed by Hesperus (June 21, 7:30 p.m.), the daring Troping the Light Fantastic program by the 21st Century Consort (June 26, 7:30 p.m.), the pure choral sounds of the Woodley Ensemble (June 27, 7:30 p.m.), the concert of Bach’s viola da gamba sonatas by Miles Hoffman and J. Reilly Lewis (June 28, 7:30 p.m.), and the Independence Day Organ Concert by cathedral organists Erik Wm. Suter and Scott Hanoian (July 4, 11 a.m.). Concerts that will cost you money, but that are still worthwhile, are the Washington National Cathedral Choirs performing Baroque Classics (June 16, 7:30 p.m.) and the Cathedral Choral Society and National Symphony Orchestra performing the Chichester Psalms (June 22, 7:30 p.m.).
Photo of William Kapell (1922-1953) at the piano
>> Opera, orchestral concerts, free concerts, and more after the jump.
