CONTINUED TRADITION
SPAC announces Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2023 Summer Season
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Saratoga Performing Arts Center welcomes the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center back to the Spa Little Theatre for its summer residency from June 11 to Aug. 20, 2023, marking the 10th anniversary of its collaboration with SPAC.
The six-concert summer season follows two previously announced performances on March 18 and May 13 by CMS, now a year-round presence in Saratoga Springs.
“Our 2023 season carries a celebratory theme across all of our residencies, but none more so than with the 10th anniversary of our partnership with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center,” said Elizabeth Sobol, president and CEO of Saratoga Performing Arts Center, in a press release. “Over the past decade, SPAC and CMS have cultivated a dedicated audience of chamber music devotees in Saratoga Springs and we are excited to continue the tradition not just every summer, but year-round as well.”
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s summer season opens with “From Classic to Modern,” showcasing works from Brahms and Beethoven to Bloch, Khachaturian and Milhaud on June 11, followed by “Great Quintets” of Mozart, Dohnányi and Dvo ák on June 18; “From Vienna to Paris” on July 16; a program from guest artists The Miró String Quartet on July 23; and “Spanish Journey” on Aug. 13. The season closes with “New Classics” on Aug. 20, which includes quintets by Bloch and Suk that CMS has ushered into the standard chamber repertoire.
Anchored by Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center artistic directors Wu Han (piano) and David Finckel (cello), this season’s guest artists also include violinists Arnaud Sussmann, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, Stella Chen, Danbi Um, Kristin Lee, and Aaron Boyd; violists Paul Neubauer, James Thompson, Molly Carr, and Matthew Lipman; cellist Sihao He, pianists Wu Qian, Juho Pohjonen, Soyeon Kate Lee; clarinetist Ricardo Morales, guitarist Jason Vieaux, soprano Rihab Chaieb, and The Miró Quartet.
“As we browsed through the six programs we have assembled for SPAC this summer, we were frankly astounded at how much more depth and vari
ety is there than we’d even thought,” the directors said in the release. “In the hands of twenty-six different performers, the music of nineteen composers from six distinct cultures will take our beloved SPAC listeners on a comprehensive chamber music journey.
“The diversity of instrumentation echoes these dimensions as well, from piano trios and string quartets to works with voice and guitar. Our residency also combines well-known repertoire by composers like Haydn and Mozart with that of composers making their CMS debuts at SPAC, such as the Swiss-American pioneer Ernest Bloch, with two works including his bracing Piano Quintet, which is quickly becoming a mainstay of the repertoire. And we take special pleasure in visiting SPAC in person on two occasions to perform once again in our favorite venue of the North, the acoustically superb Spa Little Theatre.”
The summer season follows two previously announced spring concerts offered by CMS. On March 18, soprano Jessica Rivera joins pianists Michael Stephen Brown and Gilles Vonsattell, cellist Nicholas Canellakis and percussionist Ian David Rosenbaum to present “Voices of the Americas,” a program celebrating the range of ideas, sounds and cultures that have inspired composers from the Americas in the 20th Century like Copland, Gershwin, Golijov and Villa-Lobos. On May 13, pianist Wu Han, violinist Arnaud Sussmann, and cellist David Finckel unite to perform works by Beethoven and Dvorák.
All summer 2023 CMS events will take place at the Spa Little Theatre, located at 19 Roosevelt Dr. in the Saratoga Spa State Park. There is one performance of each program at 3 p.m. Doors open at 2 p.m. and the house opens at 2:30 p.m.
Subscription packages to all six summer programs are available to purchase for $258 to $378 depending on seating location. Single performance tickets will be available to purchase beginning on March 2 for members (tiered by level) and March 9 for the general public, and will be $48 to $68 each.