Festival Napa Valley will return to the Wine Country this summer to celebrate its 20th anniversary season.
Running July 4-19, the festival’s lineup features such major names as soprano Renée Fleming, trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis, and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. In total, more than 200 artists will appear for concerts, dance performances, and special events at various venues throughout the famed Napa Valley.
“For 20 years, Festival Napa Valley has presented some of the world’s greatest artists on stages surrounded by the incomparable beauty of Napa Valley,” said Festival President & CEO Richard Walker. “This anniversary season honors that legacy while expanding our artistic reach and community impact.”
To kick off the season, Stephanie Childress will lead “Uytengsu Family Opening Night: From Beethoven to Getty to Dylan.” Young America, a six-movement cycle for chorus and orchestra by composer Gordon Getty, will be performed by the Young People’s Chorus of New York City. Attendees will also experience a new concerto by Michael Thurber, commissioned by Festival Napa Valley for the Grammy Award-winning string trio Time for Three.
Among the festival’s many highlights is a pair of world premieres: The Judgment of Paris is a new opera by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, to be conducted by Kent Nagano and directed by Jean-Romain Vesperini. John Corigliano’s The Red Violin: Suite for Two Violins and Orchestra will be performed during Fleming’s “Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene” — a multimedia concert that pairs music with a National Geographic film.
In support of education, wellness, and the arts, Marsalis will headline the “Arts for All Gala” at Nickel & Nickel Winery and Fleming will be the keynote speaker for the Festival’s Music & Wellness Summit.
Dance lovers won’t want to miss the annual Dance Gala, “A Night at the Ballet: From Swan Lake to The Stones.” Directed by Melanie Hamrick — founder of Live Arts Global and a former American Ballet Theatre dancer — this performance includes new choreography set to Getty’s “Ewig Du” and the Rolling Stones’s “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking.”
“Classical Cabaret” is a must for enthusiasts of the art song. In recital, soprano Lisa Delan — a Festival favorite — will bring the beauty of the repertoire to life with accompanist Kevin Korth. The festival also features “Maria Manetti Celebrates La Dolce Vita!” — an evening honoring the legendary Luciano Pavarotti, with winners of the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition backed by Festival Orchestra Napa.
Other special events include a screening of The Wizard of Oz with live orchestra accompaniment, a big band concert featuring the LMR Jazz Orchestra, a “Symphonic Finale” with JoAnn Falletta leading the Festival Orchestra Napa, and “Opera Scenes” with Manetti Shrem Opera Fellows.
The festival presents Festival Live! Concerts each day, free of charge, which include participants from the Frost School of Music at Festival Napa Valley’s Blackburn Music Academy and the Manetti Shrem Opera Program — both tuition-free summer training programs for young artists.
