Welcome – From Artistic Director Philip Setzer

I am delighted and excited to share the Manchester Music Festival 2025 program with you! This season will be the second that I have programmed for the Festival as Artistic Director, and my enthusiasm for this summer’s music-making grows with each passing day!

With my eminent friends and colleagues, the amazing Young Artists—and, oh yes, myself—we will present a series of concerts and events with the theme and title “Music & Storytelling”. I have always been fascinated by the influence of words on music, and music on words. The most obvious examples are lyrics to songs and songs inspired by poetry. But there are many more ways these connections exist: opera, music written as background to drama, religious music, and musical works based on songs or stories as subtext for the music. The marriage of literature, storytelling, and music goes back as far as modern history has been recorded. For me, there is an interconnectedness among these elements that takes us on a journey, and the revelation of a journey is an amazing adventure, always!

The journey this year is expansive, taking us through music by Purcell, Handel, and Mendelssohn, as well as enduring chamber works by Bach, Mozart, Brahms, and Schumann. In the present day, the abiding influence of the writer will be well-represented when Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Powers joins composer Perry Goldstein and baritone Randall Scarlata for the song collection “Birding by Ear,” based on Powers’ poetry. Music by Beethoven, Janáček, and Ridout tell their own stories; and to conclude the Festival in momentous fashion, Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat—a masterpiece of musical storytelling—highlights the Grand Finale, and will feature Emmy Award-winning actor David Strathairn in the role of the Soldier, with soprano Christine Goerke returning to perform the Devil..

The musicians who will bring these works to life are the most accomplished on the concert stage today. Yet perhaps the most exciting advantage of being a MMF audience member is the opportunity to hear the stars of tomorrow. Each year, ten gifted young musicians immerse themselves in the MMF Young Artists Program, working side by side the guest artists featured on the season. These Young Artists are part of the fabric of everything we do, performing on the Thursday Nights Mainstage Concerts, as well as in the Young Artists Concerts and Young Artists on Tour series throughout the Festival. The Young Artists are a vital and invigorating component of Manchester Music Festival as we continue our journey into the future.

Please join us July 10 through August 7 for our 51st season! Thank you for your continued interest, support, and friendship, and I look forward to seeing you in Manchester this summer—on stage and in the community!

With all best wishes,

Philip Setzer
Artistic Director
Manchester Music Festival

Manchester Music Festival 2025 Guest Artists

Edward Arron, Cello
Michael Stephen Brown, Piano
Timothy Cobb, Contrabass
Scott Dixon, Contrabass
Emi Ferguson, Flute
James Glossman, Director
Chrstine Goerke, Soprano
Perry Goldstein, composer
Arthur Haas, Harpsichord
Alan Kay, Clarinet

Eduardo Leandro, Percussion
Anthony McGill, Clarinet
Marie Millard, Dancer
Paula Nassivera, Narrator
Paul Neubauer, Viola
Mathew Nienow, Trombone
Grace O'Connell, Trumpet
Sherezade Panthaki, Soprano
Jeewon Park, Piano
Bridget Piccirilli, Bassoon

Richard Powers, Author
Randall Scarlata, Baritone
Linda Setzer, Reader and Narrator
Philip Setzer, violin
Peter Sparling, Choreographer
David Strathairn, Actor
Gilles Vonsattel, Piano
Paul Watkins, Cello, Piano, and Conductor
MMF Young Artists