PUTNEY — On Friday, Yellow Barn celebrates the opening night of its 55th Summer Festival.
Spanning five weeks, the festival offers 20 concerts performed by new and returning members of Yellow Barn’s international family of musicians. New this year will be a children’s concert on July 18, a conversation about music with celebrated composer-in-residence Jörg Widmann, and a gala performance at the Retreat Farm on July 13.
Opening night begins with music by 18th-century composers Couperin and C.P.E. Bach, moves through performances of Debussy and Ives, plus a virtuosic work for solo double bass, and then concludes with J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. The weekend continues Saturday morning with a masterclass with longtime Yellow Barn pianist Gilbert Kalish, and an evening performance that includes Beethoven’s “Ghost” Piano Trio performed by Trio Venere. Based in Basel, Switzerland, Trio Venere is this year’s ensemble-in-residence at Yellow Barn. Also on Saturday night’s offerings are the world premiere of Ana Sokolovic’s “Looking at the Moon”, a work composed for and performed by the acclaimed soprano and Yellow Barn musician Lucy Shelton, and Sam Suggs’s Chuck Berry-inspired “Rollover LvB” for viola, harp, double bass, and percussion.
This season Jörg Widmann returns for his fourth summer as composer-in-residence at Yellow Barn. During his residency week (July 30 to Aug. 4), audiences will have the chance to hear the complete cycle of Widmann’s five “Beethoven” quartets, on programs that include many of his influences, including Beethoven’s Op.127 string quartet and Grosse Fuge. On July 29, Widmann will also present his highly popular and inspiring 90-minute talk, “Musikliebe”, a musical exploration and conversation for performers and listeners alike.
Continuing that theme, Yellow Barn is introducing side-by-side concerts this year. The musicians’ loft at Yellow Barn is a beloved element of the Big Barn, and one carried over from the original Yellow Barn performance barn. (Longtime audience members still reminisce about the musicians’ legs dangling from the loft of the old barn!) This year on Thursday nights audience members and musicians will sit side by side throughout the hall, with audience members welcome in the loft, and musicians in the hall. All Thursday night concerts are free at Yellow Barn, a tradition started last year in memory of beloved Putney resident and Yellow Barn advocate Eva Mondon.
Each year approximately 500 musicians audition for Yellow Barn in twelve cities across the United States, plus Canada, Europe, and the UK. 40 are selected to participate, together with 28 internationally renowned faculty members. Over five weeks they explore over 100 pieces of chamber music on campus and bring every piece to the Big Barn for a performance. A Yellow Barn participant once wrote of her experience at Yellow Barn:
“A passing suggestion lingers and blossoms into artistic inspiration, a lunchtime conversation leads to a deep friendship. Friends become colleagues, teachers become friends, bends in the road become clear paths. The spark of discovery, once renewed, remains fresh. In fact, looking back at the last six years of my life, nearly all of the most impactful elements had their origins in this place.”
Full programs are available online at yellowbarn.org. All concerts take place in the Big Barn, an accessible, 75-seat “jewel box” concert hall with comfortable seating and air conditioning. Ice cream and blueberries are served at intermission, just as they have been since Yellow Barn’s founding in 1969. For tickets and information, call 802-387-6637.
