The Norfolk Chamber Music Festival brings the world's top chamber musicians together to teach and perform at the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate in Connecticut's Litchfield Hills. More than 30 concerts and recitals will take place during the eight-week festival, which is now in its 58th year as a Yale program. The festival opens Friday, July 3, and runs through Saturday, Aug. 22.
Performances are held in the Music Shed, a cedar and redwood structure that is considered one of the nation's most perfect chamber music venues. Concert-goers can stroll the grounds of the 70-acre estate, visit its art gallery, picnic on the lawns and listen to music from the gazebo prior to performances.
Special events this year include an all-Gershwin weekend; "Wild Things," a musical rumpus for children and their families; and concerts featuring "Uncommon Women," "Fairy Tales" and Baroque music.
In addition to chamber ensembles of international repute, performers include many Yale faculty musicians. On this year's performance roster are flutists Ransom Wilson and Carol Wincenc; oboist Ronald Roseman; clarinetist David Krakauer; bassoonist Frank Morelli; horn player William Purvis; trumpeter Allan Dean; trombonist John Swallow; pianists Boris Berman, Robert Blocker, Gary Chapman, Claude Frank, Lilian Kallir, John O'Conor and Joan Panetti; harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper; violinists Syoko Aki, Erick Friedmann and Sidney Harth; violist Jesse Levine; cellist Ralph Kirshbaum; bassist Don Palma; baritone Richard Lalli; conductor Thomas Duffy; composers Martin Bresnick, Joan Panetti and Joan Tower; as well as Bang on a Can All-Stars, Borromeo String Quartet, Cassatt Quartet, Litchfield County Choral Union, New York Woodwind Quintet, Speculum Musicae, Tokyo String Quartet and Vermeer Quartet.
Evening performances begin at 8 p.m. and afternoon concerts take place at 3 p.m. Young Artists Recitals are generally offered on Thursday evenings at 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. Tickets are $9-$36; subscriptions and group rates are available. Children up to age 17 are admitted free when accompanied by an adult, and students ages 18-25 pay $5 with I.D. Admission to Young Artists Recitals is by donation. To order tickets, or for a concert schedule, call the festival office at (860) 542-3000.
The Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate is located on Route 272, just south of Route 44, in Norfolk, Connecticut.
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