The festival starts tonight and continues through July 23. You can find concert listings at newportclassical.org.
James Baumgartner: Could you tell me a little bit about the Newport Classical Music Festival?
Gillian Friedman Fox: Really interesting history actually, having originally been founded also by George Wein, who founded Newport Jazz [Festival] and Newport Folk [Festival], because of his love of opera. But they quickly found out that producing full stage operas, you know, with Metropolitan Opera singers and set designers, here in Newport was completely cost prohibitive. And the local community really rallied around the idea of kind of scaling that down into chamber music, which is how the festival became what it is today.
[music: Aizuri Quartet performs String Quartet No. 1 by Robert Schumann]
Baumgartner: The Aizuri Quartet is performing on Friday, July 7. What can you tell me about that concert?
Friedman Fox: For those who’ve been following the Aizuri quartet, they’ve been together for I believe, over 10 years, really pushing the boundaries of the string quartet repertoire and bringing really high energy performance. They’re doing one of my favorite things, which is to perform both a piece by Clara Schumann and Robert Schumann on the same program. I think it’s such a beautiful way to showcase female composers and the ways in which they had a huge influence, even if they weren’t famous in their own time.
[music: Aizuri Quartet performs “Ich Stand in Dunkeln Träumen” by Clara Schumann]
Friedman Fox: It’s gonna be a great one. And at the end of the day, any concert at The Breakers is a one-of-a-kind experience.
[music: Cantus performs Finlandia by Jean Sibelius]
Baumgartner: Another concert that caught my eye is Cantus, performing Saturday, July 8. An all low-voice choir, just an amazing sound. How do you describe it?
Friedman Fox: I think there’s just a warmth and richness in their performance that is best heard live. And that is saying something, because their recordings are incredible.
Baumgartner: And looking at the program that Cantus is performing, I see a pretty wide variety. I see some contemporary composers, I see Saint-Saëns, Sibelius and Simon & Garfunkel.
Friedman Fox: That’s right, absolutely. I think it’s a really fun way to bring their style and their harmony and the closeness of their voices and their incredible skill to some modern, you know, some modern works – or really, you know, pop tunes at the end of the day, which I think is really fun.
[music: Cantus performing “There’s a Meeting Here Tonight” by Bob Gibson]
Baumgartner: I’m really interested in the free outdoor concerts that you have. How did that come about? And how are those going?
Friedman Fox: [I] believe very strongly in the idea of, if you want to engage new audiences and introduce new audiences to your concert offerings – especially classical music, which has such a stigma and for so many people feels maybe unwelcoming in its nature – to make it welcoming, you have to bring it to them. Instead of saying “come to us,” we’ll come to you. And so we identified Miantonomi Park as the home of the concert series initially, which continues to kind of be the core of our series. It’s the biggest park on Aquidneck Island. It is so beautiful, has a fascinating history.
Baumgartner: It’s also kind of away from the tourist area of Newport, which is interesting.
Friedman Fox: That’s exactly right. It’s in the heart of the North End. And this was really intentional. The North End truly is where Newporters live, in many ways. It’s where the year-round residents live. I think a lot of people who aren’t from Aquidneck Island or don’t come here often just see the tourist areas, they see Thames and America’s Cup and Memorial and Bellevue and the mansions. They don’t see the, you know, tens of thousands of people who live here all year round who call Newport home. And so those are the people that we were looking to interact with and engage during this concert series. And we’re just trying to show how classical music can be relevant to everyone’s lives so everyone can enjoy it. And it’s been a really fun experience.
[music: “Simple Symphony Mvt II” by Benjamin Britten]
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