Festival season continues with lots to do and see, both in person and online. Enjoy!
Carnegie Hall presents NYO-USA at Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, Texas
On-demand
Experience the vibrant future of the country’s orchestral tradition in live recording by the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), following their July residency at Purchase College. Part of the ensemble’s coast-to-coast North American tour and conducted by the great Sir Andrew Davis, this performance features new music by Valerie Coleman, commissioned by Carnegie Hall in celebration of NYO-USA’s 10th birthday; Berlioz’s wildly imaginative Symphonie fantastique; and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, which highlights esteemed soloist Hilary Hahn.
Watch NYO-USA at Meyerson Symphony Center on YouTube
Jazz Forum Arts presents Free Outdoor Summer Concerts
Enjoy live Jazz with your friends and family in your neighborhood park! We present 32 concerts annually at five Hudson River locations: Dobbs Ferry Waterfront Park, Lyndhurst and Pierson Park in Tarrytown, Horan’s Landing in Sleepy Hollow, and Henry Gourdine Park in Ossining.
View the live concert schedule on the Jazz Forum Arts website
Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts presents Concert on the Lawn: Samara Joy
Presented in Collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center
Friday, August 4, at 8pm (Sold out, but there is a waitlist!)
With her newly released Verve Records debut, Linger Awhile, 23-year-old and two-time Grammy-winner and Purchase College alum Samara Joy makes her case to join the likes of Sarah, Ella, and Billie as the next mononymous jazz singing sensation recorded by the venerable label. Her rich and velvety yet precociously refined voice has perhaps cemented her status as the first Gen-Z jazz singing star. Joy’s Caramoor debut will introduce the audience to a slew of classic standards several times older than she is through her timeless, irresistible sound.
Please bring your own seating for this performance on Friends Field. Picnics are encouraged!
Visit Caramoor’s website to join the wait list for the Concert on the Lawn with Samara Joy
New York Opera Conservatory presents Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore (Elixir of Love)
Free concerts from 7-10pm
Wednesday, August 9 / Friday, August 11 / Saturday, August 12 / Sunday, August 13
Croton Free Library, 171 Cleveland Drive, Croton-on-Hudson, NY
The Taconic Opera summer program for emerging opera singers, New York Opera Conservatory (NYOC), offers you an opportunity to hear the upcoming generation of professional singers as they gain valuable experience perfecting their craft. Each event in the series will have a different cast, making every performance completely unique from all the others. Each performance includes the complete opera, sung in Italian, and is semi-staged (costumes, props).
Learn more on Taconic Opera’s website
Westchester County presents 2023 Cultural Heritage Celebrations
Sundays, noon-6pm
Kensico Dam Plaza, located at the north end of the Bronx River Parkway, in Valhalla, NY.
The series of ethnic festivals continues in August! Enjoy a multitude of cultures through music, dance, handicrafts, and food. The festivals will be held rain or shine. Seating is informal; bring blankets or folding chairs for seating on the lawn. No coolers will be allowed. Admission and parking are free.
August 6 – India
August 20 – Jewish
August 27 – Muslim Heritage
View the festival schedule and get more information on the Westchester Parks website
The Bard Music Festival presents “Vaughan Williams and His World”
August 4–13
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
The Bard Music Festival returns for its 33rd season with an exploration of the life and work of Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958), one of the greatest symphonists of the 20th century. With an oeuvre that ranges from songs and hymns to opera, film music, and full-scale orchestral and choral works and includes popular works such as the “Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis” and “The Lark Ascending” as well as scores of uncompromising modernity, Vaughan Williams’s voice defined an era.
Visit the Fisher Center website for tickets and more information
The Metropolitan Opera in association with PBS and The WNET Group presents
Great Performances at the Met: Falstaff
Premieres beginning Sunday, August 6, at 2pm on PBS (check local listings)
Verdi’s Shakespearean comedy features an ensemble cast in Robert Carsen’s staging, with baritone Michael Volle performing in his first Verdi role at the Met as the knight Falstaff, tormented by a trio of clever women who deliver his comeuppance. Reuniting after their acclaimed turns in the production’s 2019 run are soprano Ailyn Pérez as Alice Ford, soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano as Meg Page, and mezzo-soprano Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Mistress Quickly. Soprano Hera Hyesang Park and tenor Bogdan Volkov are the young couple Nannetta and Fenton, and Maestro Daniele Rustioni conducts. Ryan Speedo Green hosts.
Access Great Performances on PBS.org
The Aspen Music Festival and School presents Concert Livestreams
Concerts stream live, free, on the AMFS Virtual Stage.
Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra
Livestream on Wednesday, August 9, at 7pm
See the conducting stars of tomorrow in this engaging concert by the Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra, where student conductors rotate between conducting a movement of a work, or playing in the orchestra.
Mozart’s Idomeneo
Livestream on Thursday, August 17, at 9pm
World-renowned tenor Matthew Polenzani joins the talented artist-fellows of the Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS program in a striking performance of this rarely-performed work that showcases Mozart’s operatic genius at its most grand.
Final Sunday: Haydn’s Creation
Livestream on Sunday, August 20, at 6pm
Haydn’s exuberant and life-affirming oratorio, The Creation, tops off the summer’s theme “The Adoration of the Earth.”
Access the Aspen Music Festival Virtual Stage
Library of Congress presents 2023 National Book Festival
Saturday, August 12, 9am – 8pm
Join us in the nation’s capital at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, or, if you can’t join us in Washington, D.C. for a day of free talks and activities, several programs will be live-streamed, and video of all talks will be available online after the Festival concludes.
Access the National Book Festival online
Battery Dance presents the 42nd Annual Battery Dance Festival
Free Outdoor Performances and Livestreams
August 12-18, 7-9pm
Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City
The Battery Dance Festival is New York City’s longest-running free public dance festival. Each year, the Festival draws a combined audience of over 12,000 in-person and over 35,000 virtual viewers. All Festival performances will be live-streamed. Can’t watch it live? Don’t worry, you’ll be able to view the recorded performance for two weeks after the date of the performance. Check out the Festival website as the dates near to register for online access.
Access the Battery Dance Festival online
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Culture Picks celebrates the performing arts. In each post, PAC staff member Coni Guhl shines the spotlight on work by artists that you know and love from their appearances at The Purchase PAC, and offers recommendations about other performing arts events that you really should not miss. Experience them all!
All times are EDT unless otherwise noted.
Pictured: National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA) performs at Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas (c) Chris Lee
