For a second year, the Richmond Chamber Players will not stage their Interludes series, a longtime summer staple of classical music in Richmond, in August.
Stephen Schmidt, the violist and artistic director of the ensemble, says that the ongoing covid-19 pandemic created uncertainties over securing a performance space, conforming to potential limitations on audience capacity, fundraising and other factors, leading the Chamber Players to forgo concerts this summer.
The Richmond Symphony has announced dates for its two popular holiday programs. The “Let It Snow!” pops program moves to a Thanksgiving weekend date, while the Richmond Symphony Chorus returns in excerpts of Handel’s “Messiah,” joining other baroque music in an early December program.
Both concerts will be staged at the Carpenter Theatre of Dominion Energy Center, Sixth and Grace streets.
The symphony is offering discounts for tickts purchased before Aug. 1.
For more information, call (800) 514-3849 (ETIX) or visit http://www.richmondsymphony.com
The symphony’s 2021 holiday concerts:
Nov. 27 (8 p.m.) – conductor & guest artists TBA. “Let It Snow!” Christmas carols, other holiday music TBA. $9-$82.
Dec. 4 (7:30 p.m.) – Chia-Hsuan Lin conducting, Richmond Symphony Chorus & soloists TBA. “A Baroque Holiday.” Handel: “Messiah” (excerpts), other baroque works TBA. $18-$54.
Louis Andriessen, the radical Dutch composer whose works both absorbed and confronted European classical traditions, has died at 82.
“In large-scale works his sound was typically strident and bold. His signature orchestration combined beefed-up woodwind and brass along with keyboards, electric guitars and clanging percussion. Most of all, he liked it loud,” The New York Times’ Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim writes in an obituary:
The Richmond Symphony’s Summer ChamberFest series, staged at 6:30 p.m. Thursdays in the Gottwald Playhouse of Dominion Energy Center, Sixth and Grace streets, presents clarinetist David Lemelin, violist Hyojoo Uh and pianist Russell Wilson playing Mozart’s Clarinet Trio in E flat major, K. 498 (“Kegelstatt”), Ravel’s “Menuet antique” and Rebecca Clarke’s Prelude, Allegro and Pastorale on July 8; violinists Adrian Pintea and Stacy Matthews, violist Stephen Schmidt and cellist Jason McComb in the Quartet No. 5 in G minor of Joseph Boulogne (Chevalier de Saint-Georges), Mendelssohn’s Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 44, and Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte on July 15; trumpeter Anthony Limoncelli, French horn player Dominic Rotella and trombonist Evan Williams in works by Mozart, Poulenc and others on July 22; and violinist Ellen Cockerham Riccio and pianist Daniel Stipe in Astor Piazzolla’s “Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas” (“The Four Season of Buenos Aires”) and Juan Pablo Contreras’ “Diálogos” on July 29. Series tickets: $75; single tickets: $25. Details: (804) 788-1212; http://www.richmondsymphony.com
The Virginia Symphony Orchestra will perform in a free “Concert in the Park” at 6 p.m. July 25 at Town Point Park, 113 Waterside Drive on the downtown Norfolk waterfront. Conductor and program to be announced. Details: (757) 892-6366; http://virginiasymphony.org
The Garth Newel Music Center, 403 Garth Newel Lane in Hot Springs, presents the Garth Newel Piano Quartet – violinist Teresa Ling, violist Rachel Yonan, cellist Isaac Melamed and pianist Jeannette Fang – in “Remembrance of Things Past,” with Beethoven’s Piano Quartet in E flat major, WoO 36, and Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in G minor, Op. 45, at 3 p.m. July 10 and 17; “Homage,” with Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60, and the premiere of Robert Merfield’s Fantasy (“In Homage”) at 3 p.m. July 11 and 18; “Collideoscope,” with Saint-Saëns’ Piano Quartet No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 41, and the premiere of Jordan Kuspa’s “Collideoscope,” 3 p.m. July 24; and Fellowship Chamber Concert I, with Garth Newel’s Emerging Artists Fellows playing Lera Auerbach’s Piano Trio No. 1, Jordan Kuspa’s “Hat Trick” and Beethoven’s Quartet in C major, Op. 59, No. 3 (“Razumovsky”), 3 p.m. July 25. Tickets: $25 (concert only); $50-$80 (concert with food or food and drink); $10 (access to online stream). Details: (540) 839-5018; http://garthnewel.org
At Wolf Trap, the national park for the performing arts, 1645 Trap Road in Fairfax County: Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” starring Thomas Glass in the title role, Jonathan Bryan as Anthony Hope, Shannon Jennings as the Beggar Woman and Lucy Barker, Megan Esther Grey as Nellie Lovett, Nicholas Newton as Judge Turpin, Wayde Odle as Beadle Bamford, Alexandra Nowakowski as Johanna Barker, Conor McDonald as Tobias Ragg and Christopher Bozeka as Adolfo Pirelli, with Roberto Kalb conducting the National Symphony Orchestra, at 8 p.m. July 2-3. Tickets: $42-$97. . . . Jonathon Heyward conducts the National Symphony, in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major and, with violinist Francesca Dego, the Violin Concerto No. 2 in A major of Joseph Boulogne (Chevalier de Saint-Georges), 8 p.m. July 8. Tickets: $32-$72. . . . Christopher Allen conducts the National Symphony, with alumni and current artists of Wolf Trap Opera, in “STARias,” a program marking the opera troupe’s 50th anniversary, including excerpts of operas by Verdi, Gounod, Puccini and others, 8 p.m. July 23. Tickets: $37-$72. . . . Broadway star Norm Lewis joins the National Symphony in songs from favorite musicals, 8 p.m. July 30-31. Tickets: $37-$127. Details: (703) 255-1868; http://wolftrap.org
Letter V 