Caramoor, a cultural arts destination located on a unique 80-plus-acre estate in Northern Westchester County, has announced its events for the 2023 summer season.
Caramoor’s curated concert season presents performers representing a vast array of backgrounds and lived experiences, including classical live performances, American roots, jazz, and more. The estate sits on beautiful grounds, including the historic Rosen House, a stunning mansion listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Edward J. Lewis III, Caramoor’s President and Chief Executive Officer, elaborated on the experiences one can have at the venue.
True to the vision of our founders, Caramoor is the place where you can be transformed by the convergence of an exciting and diverse mix of remarkable live music performances, stunning gardens and grounds, and the beauty of an art-filled historic home. The Caramoor experience leaves both the artist and audience refreshed and renewed and compels all to return again and again.
Edward J. Lewis III
There are five venues for performances, for more large-scale ones, those can go beneath the open-sided tent of the Venetian Theater surrounded by woods (cap: 1,220), while casual concerts on Friends Field offer a more relaxed vibe (cap: 1,000). More intimate settings include the outdoor Spanish Courtyard (cap: 388) and the Sunken Garden, the venue for Caramoor’s Music & Meditation series, classical guitar performances, and more. This summer, guests can attend intimate classical recitals in the Music Room, which was once the living room of Caramoor’s founders, Walter and Lucie Rosen (cap: 192).
The summer season runs from June 17-Aug. 18. Tony, Emmy, and Grammy Award–winning singer and actor Audra McDonald opens with an Opening Night Gala featuring classics from the Great American Songbook, led by her longtime musical director Andy Einhorn conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL).
Described as “one of the most versatile and galvanic ensembles in the U.S,” by WQXR, OSL returns twice this summer, first with passionate pianist Hélène Grimaud and conductor Lina González-Granado for a program of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Elegía Andina, Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G and Brahms’s Second Symphony on July 16. The next performance on Aug. 6 features MacArthur “genius grant”-winning cellist Alisa Weilerstein, along with conductor Roderick Cox, joining OSL for Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1, as well as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 and George Walker’s Lyric for Strings.
New Music
Brooklyn Rider performs its “Four Elements” program at Caramoor on June 23, exploring the elements (earth, air, water, and fire) as a metaphor for the complex inner world of the string quartet and the current health of planet Earth. The program also includes works by Shostakovich, Osvaldo Golijov, and a Suite of American Folk Songs, collected/transcribed by Ruth Crawford Seeger and arranged by Brooklyn Rider violinist Colin Jacobsen.
Caramoor’s 2022-23 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence (ESSQIR) is the Ivalas Quartet – with a mission to champion diverse voices and spotlight Black and indigenous composers. Their yearlong residency concludes with a performance on June 29, including the world premiere of a Caramoor commission by Derrick Skye, a composer with Ghanian, Nigerian, Native American, and British/Irish ancestry who believes music is a doorway into the understanding of other cultures. Also on the program are works by Jessie Montgomery, Carlos Simon, and Eleanor Alberga.
Hailed by The New York Times as “a lush, brooding celebration of noise,” Andy Akiho’s Grammy-nominated Seven Pillars comes to Caramoor on June 30, his most ambitious project to date. Performed by Sandbox Percussion, the evening-length work is the largest-scale chamber music work that Akiho has written and that Sandbox has commissioned, their ongoing collaboration on the piece has spanned the past eight years. There will be a 7:00 p.m. pre-concert talk with members of the ensemble.
The New York Times declared that “America’s most astonishing choir…” The Crossing, led by Donald Nally, “combines an embrace of the new, a social conscience, and fearless technique.” They will perform the New York premiere of Ted Hearne’s FARMING for free on July 9 in the Sunken Garden. There will also be a pre-concert talk with Hearne, Nally, and director Ashley Tata.
Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto and celebrated American composer and pianist Nico Muhly collaborate on an intimate evening of unexpected musical connections on July 27. They reunite in a different format the following night, when The Knights perform the New York premiere of Muhly’s violin concerto titled Shrink, with Kuusisto as soloist. The Knights are dedicated to transforming the orchestral experience and eliminating barriers between audience and music.
The rotating annual Sonic Innovations sound art exhibition is curated by Chicago-based sound artist and Northwestern University professor Stephan Moore. New this summer is Dyning in the Dovecote by Liz Phillips, an interactive sound installation where one can hear sounds of water, insects, dove calls and bird wings flicke, while underwater sound transducers create ripple patterns on the surface of the fountain. The official opening of Sonic Innovations and the grounds will take place at “Soundscapes” on June 4.
Baroque Music: Caccini’s Alcina, Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Ruckus
Caramoor welcomes the Boston Early Music Festival production of Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina, the first known opera by a female composer, to the Venetian Theater on June 25. Co-music directors Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs and director Gilbert Blin lead a stellar cast of Baroque soloists including mezzo-soprano Mireille Lebel, tenor Colin Balzer, and mezzo-soprano Virginia Warnken Kelsey. July 7 brings Baroque supergroup Ruckus, with soloists Rachell Ellen Wong– the only early music artist ever to win the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant – on violin and Emi Ferguson on flute.
On July 23, another Baroque opera graces the stage, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, with the original 1718 version of Handel’s Acis and Galatea, one of the composer’s most popular dramatic works, led by Richard Egarr. There will be a pre-concert lecture with MIT professor emeritus and Handel scholar Ellen T. Harris.
Chamber music and recitals
July 13 has Davóne Tines at the intimate Spanish Courtyard with a program of spiritual and intellectual exploration titled Recital No 1: Mass, with pianist Adam Nielsen, featuring works by Caroline Shaw, J.S. Bach, Tyshawn Sorey, Margaret Bonds, and Julius Eastman. Austin-based, internationally celebrated Miró Quartet, formed in 1995 and one of Caramoor’s earliest quartets-in-residence, performs as well.
The Dover Quartet returns with classical saxophonist, composer, and 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant winner Steven Banks, performing Banks’s recent quintet Cries, Sighs, and Dreams. July 20 brings pianist-composer Conrad Tao, performing a collaborative event with choreographer-dancer Caleb Teicher titled “Counterpoint.” It is a dynamic interplay of piano and tap dance that includes works by J.S. Bach, Brahms, Mozart, Gershwin, Ravel, Schoenberg, and more.
Pianist Garrick Ohlsson, who 53 years later remains the only American to have ever won the Chopin International Piano Competition, performs an all-Chopin recital in the Venetian Theater on July 30. This summer, Tengyue Zhang – who received First Prize in the 2017 Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) International Concert Artists Competition, plays music by J.S. Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, Albéniz, Rameau, and more at the Sunken Garden on Aug. 3.
A new series debuting this summer, Recitals in the Music Room comprises hour-long programs on Saturdays in the late afternoon. Alexander Hersh is joined by pianist Christopher Goodpasture for the first concert on July 8, including works by Debussy, Paul Wiancko, Webern, Mendelssohn, and Sollima. Chinese pianist Zhu Wang, winner of the 2020 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, will perform the music of Schumann, Beethoven, Stravinsky, William Grant Still, and Zhang Zhao on Aug. 5.
Jazz Festival and Events
Caramoor’s annual Jazz Festival returns on July 22, presented in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center and headlined by six-time Grammy-winning vocalist and MacArthur Grant recipient Cécile McLorin Salvant. Caramoor’s second Hot Jazz Age Frolic, featuring the 17-piece Eyal Vilner Big Band, takes place in the Friends Field tent on June 18. Two-time Grammy winner Samara Joy performs on Aug. 4.
Broadway/Pops: Over the Rainbow: The Music of Harold Arlen
Stage, jazz, and television artist Aisha de Haas, celebrated vocalist Mikaela Bennett, and Broadway actors and singers Nicholas Ward and Julie Benko join multi-faceted, Tony Award-winning orchestrator and musical director Ted Sperling for “Over the Rainbow,” an all-Harold Arlen evening in the Venetian Theater. Composer of over 500 songs, Arlen collaborated with some of the 20th century’s most notable lyricists on songs including “Over the Rainbow,” “Stormy Weather,” “Get Happy,” and more. The event takes place on July 8.
To celebrate Independence Day, Curt Ebersole and the Westchester Symphonic Winds return to Caramoor on July 2 for their annual Pops & Patriots concert. There will be guest vocalists and more performing patriotic tunes.
American Roots: Brandy Clark, Mary Chapin Carpenter & more
Caramoor’s American Roots Music Festival, an all-day celebration of the best in Americana, blues, folk, and bluegrass, returns on June 24. Headlining the festival this summer is acclaimed singer/songwriter and ten-time Grammy nominee Brandy Clark. Her songs have been recorded by the likes of George Strait, Carly Pearce with Patty Loveless, Toby Keith, Reba McEntire, Sheryl Crow, and many others, and she co-wrote the score for the new Broadway musical Shucked. Daytime artists for the American Roots Music Festival include Sunny War, Miko Marks, and the Mike Block Trio, with more artists to be announced soon.
On Aug. 5, Mary Chapin Carpenter performs her most recent album The Diry and the Stars. She is the winner of five Grammy Awards, two CMA Awards and is one of only 15 women inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
This summer, six Roots and world music concerts are held for the Concerts on the Lawn series, happening at Friends Field. The series opens on June 22 with a nod to Juneteenth featuring the Harlem Gospel Travelers. Closing out the Caramoor season and Concerts on the Lawn on Aug. 18 is Chicago-based singer/songwriter Neal Francis, whose new album In Plain Sight is a “must hear” according to Rolling Stone.
Global Music: Oumou Sangaré, Arooj Aftab, DakhaBrakha & more
Plena Libre are multi-Grammy-nominated masters of the traditional Puerto Rican plena and bomba styles, fusing well-loved traditions with modern Afro-Caribbean influences. On July 1, they will be performing at Caramoor. With roots in Ukrainian folklore and music filtered through punk, cabaret, rock, and hip-hop, DakhaBrakha is an award-winning quartet from Kyiv. On July 14 they will combine various instruments from multiple countries and powerful vocals to create an evening of “ethnic chaos” and national pride.
Grammy Award-winner Oumou Sangaré mixes traditional African percussion, distinctive vocals, and progressive social criticism, returning to the Venetian Theater at Caramoor after 12 years on July 15. She will perform a program that ranges from traditional Wassoulou music to contemporary African sounds, as well as songs from her recent critically acclaimed album, Timbuktu.
Brooklyn-based singer and composer Arooj Aftab, the first Pakistani woman to win a Grammy, brings her new project “Love in Exile” to Friends Field on July 29 with two of her most trusted collaborators, pianist Vijay Iyer and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily. The New York Times said: “Her voice is contemplative, breathy and relaxed, with the intimacy of indie-pop and jazz though she occasionally uses the microtonal embellishments of classical South Asian singing.”
Brooklyn-based electronic indie band Balún fuses Caribbean rhythms, Dembow (old-school reggaeton), intelligent dance music (IDM), and dreamy dance-pop tunes with the traditional sounds of their Puerto Rican homeland. On Aug. 11, they will be performing “music that you can sleep to while dancing.” Aug. 16 brings what NPR describes as “a sonic experience of epic proportions” in the form of composer, bandleader, and bassist Michael Olatuja, blending the sounds of Lagos, Nigeria (his hometown), London (his birthplace), and New York (his current home).
Music and Meditation in the Garden
Promoting mindful listening, the Music & Meditation in the Garden series on three Saturday mornings in July in the Sunken Garden comprises a meditation led by Jennifer Llewelyn followed by a performance. The first event on July 1 features the duo of violinist and ERS alum Tessa Larkand bassist Michael Thurber, member of Stephen Colbert’s house band.
Next on July 15 is Celtic harpist Maeve Gilchrist, whose music has been described by the Irish Times as “buoyant, sprightly, and utterly beguiling” performing with guitarist Kyle Sanna. The series concludes with a string quartet performance from the Harlem Chamber Players on July 29.
Children’s Programming
Caramoor also mentors young professional musicians and provides music-centered educational programs for young children. One of Caramoor’s new ventures this summer is devoted to its youngest demographic: children ages 2–6 and their guardians. On Friday mornings at 11 a.m., the series Concerts for Little Ones, featuring world-class artists, will invite children to sing and dance to diverse styles of music. On July 7, the Musiquita program is presented by husband-and-wife team Blanca Cecilia González and Jesse Elder, who playfully explore Spanish and English music and song.
On June 18, a family concert with the Eyal Vilner Swing Band called “Gotta Swing!” will explore the history of jazz with dancers Nathan Bugh, Gaby Cook, Jennifer Jones, and Ray Davis.
Bassoonist Alexander Davis, one of Caramoor’s teaching artists, brings along some friends on July 14 to give a guided tour of his unique woodwind instrument. Finally, on July 21 two-time Grammy-nominated trumpeter Alphonso Horne brings the series to a close with the irresistible rhythms and energy of New Orleans jazz.
For more information on Caramoor’s 2023 summer season events and to purchase tickets, go here.
