Tickets for Valley Classical Concerts 2026-27 season are now on sale — just click the “Tickets” tab above! Meanwhile, here’s How We’re Spending Our Summer Vacation!
(Andrea Bonsignore, David and Roberta Gang, Marsha and the late Bill Harbison, Linda and Zeke Hecker, Peter Jones, Rick Ranti, Mike Sorrell, and Rick Teller contributed to this article.)
It’s easy to contemplate a long, quiet summer. Wait . . . Quiet? Some of us find such a concept unthinkable. We need live music, most of it possibly classical. Happily, we live within driving distance of a remarkable wealth of unique summer music festivals.
The biggest and, having been around since 1934, second-most venerable music venue (see South Mountain, below) is, of course, Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass. (June 30-September 6; https://www.bso.org/tanglewood) Offerings run the gamut from the Boston Symphony and marvelous chamber music through a pantheon of popular and jazz artists.
VCC Board member Rick Ranti writes, “My father was born near Tanglewood. As a student there I met two oboists whom I later married, Andrea and my late wife Laura, and I spent 34 wonderful years playing bassoon with the BSO. Tanglewood is deep in my heart and happens to be the preeminent summer festival of the world. There is no other. The students are fantastic, they fire up the BSO to play its best, every great soloist wants to perform there, and as a listener, how can you beat sitting under the stars listening to one fine program after another?” Andrea reached out to BSO General Manager Tyler Rand to find ways to make Tanglewood concert attendance more accessible and affordable for those in the VCC community. This summer you can get lawn tickets with a “Buy one, get one free” deal, or purchase reserved seating in the shed at 40% off. Just enter the discount code “VCCO” on the seat selection page at https://www.bso.org. (Note: offer not available August 7-9 or August 15.)
In contrast, the Sevenars Music Festival (Sundays, July 12-August 16, South Worthington, MA, https://www.sevenars.org/) is intimate. Founded in 1968 by pianists Robert and Rolande Schrade, the name evokes the family, which included five pianist children, all with names beginning with “R.” Cute trivia? No, much more. Their daughter, pianist Rorianne Schrade, still manages the series (She’ll be handing off to niece Lynell James next year), which brings in top-flight chamber and jazz musicians from the Northeast and beyond. This summer’s lineup includes the Champlain Trio and pianists Paul-André Bempéchat and Junwen Liang, and in celebration of the nation’s 250th, much of this year’s music is by American composers. It’s wildly informal; loyal audience members bring baked goods for intermission, the performers chat with the audience, and the hall itself is a fascinating museum of three generations of family music-making.
Mohawk Trail Concerts (Saturdays, June 13-July 18, https://www.mohawktrailconcerts.org/) are also in a tiny venue, the Federated Church in Charlemont, Mass. Upcoming artists include cellist Matt Haimowitz and pianist Sahun Sam Hong. The acoustics are perfect. And the light is almost indescribably gorgeous when the late-afternoon sun hits the stained glass in the nave – six 1910 Tiffany-style (possibly real Tiffany?) windows.
There is simply no other venue quite like the Yellow Barn Festival in Putney, VT (July 10-August 8; https://www.yellowbarn.org/) where an international gathering of 80 young professional musicians and a few veteran teachers and soloists (Donald Weilerstein, Lucy Shelton, Gilbert Kalish, and more) play in an intimate, 160-seat hall literally and lovingly hand-made by a longtime supporter. It’s like having a string quartet in your living room. There’s a tremendous amount of recent music and, significantly, revivals of avant-garde pieces from 40 or 50 years ago. It is fascinating to hear authoritative performances of work considered cutting-edge a generation or two back – George Crumb, for example – and explore what holds up and what doesn’t. And prepare to be thrilled by performances of Romantic and Classical standards, played and coached by a combination of old pros and twenty-somethings who, perhaps, hadn’t met a month ago, but who sound like they’ve played together for years, and who leave every bit of it on the stage.
In Marlboro, VT, not far from Putney, one finds the Marlboro Music Festival (July 18-August 16; https://www.marlboromusic.org/). Like Yellow Barn, it is a gathering of young and venerable professionals. Currently thriving under the leadership of Mitsuko Uchida and Jonathan Biss, the focus here is much more on the standard repertoire. Rehearsal time is practically unlimited. Works are announced for public performance only a few days before each concert. Yet, they frequently sell out a large hall – that’s how good it is! There are also frequent open rehearsals that are free and generally illuminating. All is announced on their website every week. Rick Teller’s idea of a perfect summer day may be an afternoon rehearsal at Marlboro followed by an evening at Yellow Barn.
Watermelon Wednesdays (July 1 and ongoing into the fall; https://www.watermelonwednesdays.com/) offer an eclectic assortment of music in all genres at the West Whately (Mass.) Chapel and in the Whately Town Hall, mostly on Wednesdays and usually with watermelon at the intermission. Paul Newlin is founder and emcee. This summer’s lineup includes the Skye Consort, Beppe Gambetta, and Tony Trischka. In the past few years, the Chiara Quartet, the RASA String Quartet, Matt Haimovitz, the Tannahill Weavers, Solomiya Ivakhiv and Steve Beck, and the Parker String Quartet have played in the near-perfect acoustics of the Chapel. Recently, Paul expanded the schedule from the summer to occasional events throughout the year.
We’d also like to give a shout-out to our friends at the Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity (Florence, MA; https://bombyx.live/events/), who present cutting-edge music in every imaginable genre throughout the year. This summer’s offerings include the avant-garde Ecce Ensemble, the Peaceful Forest Japanese Taiko drummers, the Irish fiddle ensemble The Bow Tides, and much more.
The Norfolk Chamber Music Festival (July 3-August 22, Norfolk, CT; https://norfolkmusic.org/), home of the Yale Summer School of Music, performs in a beautiful Music Shed in northwestern Connecticut. (It really isn’t much farther away than Tanglewood!) 2026 artists include the Brentano and Shanghai Quartets, violinist Augustin Hadelich, pianist Melvin Chen, and more. Performances by Norfolk’s very talented students are free. Andrea Bonsignore adds, “I attended this festival many years ago in a summer sandwiched between an Oberlin graduation and the start of a principal oboe job in the Alabama Symphony. Having grown up in the Midwest, this was my first experience living in New England, and I was utterly charmed by the sights of the Housatonic River and the tolling bells of nearby churches (cue Charles Ives’ Three Places in New England).”
Monadnock Music, (June 2-August 15, https://www.monadnockmusic.org) presents chamber music and more in halls and churches in or near Peterborough, NH. Their artistic director is cellist Rafael Popper-Keizer, of A Far Cry, the Boston Modern Orchestra, and more. Highlights this summer include a musical setting of The Wind in the Willows for kids, chamber music by many of Boston’s best freelance musicians, and an opera gala.
The Apple Hill Chamber Music Center (Nelson, NH, June 23-August 25, https://applehill.org/) presents chamber music by the Apple Hill Quartet and a distinguished summer faculty, in a truly rustic setting deep in the woods, side-by-side with an intensive summer chamber music workshop for teens and adults. If you’re a “serious amateur” player and you’d enjoy a couple of weeks of intensive coaching by top professionals, or if your happiest summers were spent at Greenwood or Interlochen 30 years ago, this could be the music camp experience for you!
Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival (June 29-August 1, Colchester, VT and vicinity, https://gmcmf.org/) Headed for the North Country? The Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival is a cornucopia of concerts, lectures, master classes, and an intensive chamber music workshop for young people. Our good friend, Amherst’s Amanda Stenroos, manages the whole thing, which in 2026 includes residencies by the Balourdet and Verona Quartets (where have you heard them lately?), Ani Kavafian, and Astrid Schween.
Last, but scarcely least, we have South Mountain Concerts, in Pittsfield, MA (September 6-October 11, https://www.southmountainconcerts.org/) The beauty of the place is unique: a 500-seat acoustically superb concert hall tucked in a forest, built in 1918 and used exclusively for this series. This summer brings five world-class ensembles, including the Brentano, Takács, and Viano Quartets and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, plus Schubert piano trios played by newly appointed artistic directors Wu Han and David Finckel (with Benjamin Beilman). The timing couldn’t be better, either: five Sundays during the “shoulder season” between the summer festivals and VCC’s season opener on October 10.
Sure, you could stay home and watch Gilligan’s Island reruns. But think of what you’re missing! We hope we’ll see you at many of these concerts!