History of The
Newport Music Festival
The
Newport Music Festival was founded in 1969 as an attempt by the
Metropolitan Opera to establish a summer season in Newport, much like
the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood. However, outdoor opera is not a
natural for Newport—the fog rolled in, the sopranos couldn’t sing, and
an instrument literally fell apart on stage.
What did
happen, however, is that a few far-sighted, creative persons visited
Newport’s extraordinary mansions and realized the possibility of
performing chamber music in the kind of grand rooms for which that
music had originally been written. The early Festival utilized many
members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and was the forerunner of
the Romantic revival, so popular now worldwide.
Approaching its 35rd season, the Newport Music Festival
still offers music of the Romantic era—roughly 1825-1900—but in recent
years it has expanded the dates and now presents a wide spectrum, from
Bach to Berio. The Festival has had dozens of world premieres of
contemporary composers as well as rare discoveries of forgotten minor
masterpieces. For instance, the Festival presented the world premiere
of a four-hand Andante Cantabile by Claude Debussy, found in
manuscript at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, and an unknown
Prelude of Rachmaninoff found at the Library of Congress in
Washington.
General
Director Dr. Mark P. Malkovich, III enters his 30th season
with the Festival. Under his leadership, the Festival has become
world renowned for presenting young international artists in their
North American debuts, and for providing the showcase for emerging
American artists. Over one hundred thrity North American debuts have
placed the Newport Music Festival in the forefront of international
presenting organizations—the list is an impressive one, indeed.
Andrei Gavrilov, gold medalist of the famed Tchaikovsky Competition
has been called the successor to Horowitz; his first appearance in
America was in Newport in 1976 and then not again for nine years.
Pianist Bella Davidovich was heard in Newport before her heralded
Carnegie Hall debut in 1979; her renowned son, violinist Dmitry
Sitkovetsky, was also first heard in Newport. In 1992, Russian
violinist Ilya Kaler, gold medalist of the three most prestigious
competitions, made his North American debut. Valery Afanassiev and
Ekaterina Novitskaya, both gold medalists of the prestigious Queen
Elisabeth of Belgium Competition, had their first American appearances
in Newport. The young Greek pianist Dimitris Sgouros made his North
American recital debut here in 1982 at the age of twelve. Italian
pianists Andrea Lucchesini and Pietro De Maria, French violinists
Augustin Dumay and Raphael Oleg, and pianists Jean-Philippe Collard,
François-René Duchable and Alain Jacquon all had their starts in
Newport. And most recently, Latvian soprano Inessa Galante made her
American debut to rave reviews. The long list of American artists is
equally as impressive, with over one hundred fifty young emerging
artists making their debuts in Newport.
The
Newport Music Festival presents sixty-four concerts each season for
seventeen days in mid-July and remains, as headlined by the late
Bernard Levin of the London Times, “Newport—the most festive of
festivals.” Dates for Festival 2003 are July 11-29, with three
American debuts and several Festival debuts scheduled, a star-studded
return of former debut artists, and many unique events, including a
series of “Chopiniads,” featuring the complete chamber music output of
Polish composer Frédéric François Chopin.
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