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Manchester Music Festival Season 2025

July 10 – August 7, 2025

Journey II: Music and Storytelling

Continue the journey with Manchester Music Festival in 2025 when we explore “Music and Storytelling,” illuminating the profound connections between literature and music through works inspired by stories and poetry.

The Summer 2025 program will be announced in February 2025.

Join the mailing list for updates and announcements at CONTACT page.

Message from Our Artistic Director

Dear Friends, Old and New,

I want to say to all of you what a great honor it is to be appointed the new Artistic Director of the Manchester Music Festival.  My colleagues on the festival’s staff, the board of directors and I have worked tirelessly to create a memorable menu of musical delights for all of you for the 50th Anniversary in 2024.  The theme of the Festival will be called “The Romantic Journey”.  I have always thought of each program, and especially a series of thematically-linked concerts, as a kind of journey—one that both increases our knowledge and deepens our enjoyment of these great works of Art.  We will explore the definition and roots of Romanticism, and experience the passing of the romantic torch from Beethoven to Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms and onward to Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Dvořák, Respighi, and Barber. The journey will take us all the way to a newly commissioned work by Sarah Kirkland Snider, exploring romanticism from the viewpoint of today.  We will also have concerts featuring our Young Artists and a special program called “Given a Chance”—romantic works of composers who struggled to have their voices heard due to their gender and/or the color of their skin.  In addition, we will present two family concerts for children, informative and fun.  The opening program of the festival, performed by the Wu Han-Philip Setzer-David Finckel Trio, will consist of two monumental works that helped herald the new Romantic Era of the 19th Century:   Beethoven’s “Archduke” Trio, op. 97 and Schubert’s Eb Trio, op. 100.  The festival’s Grand Finale will feature the great American soprano, Christine Goerke, who had tremendous success as Brünnhilde in the most recent production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Met Opera.  We certainly hope you will join us next summer as audience members.  We cannot do this without your help.  I know I speak for everyone involved when I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your friendship and support.

2024 Festival Artists

2024 Young Artists Program

Updates