Neighbor News
Charles Ives Music Festival Presents Summer Concerts
Featuring World-Class Musicians and American Classical Music
The Charles Ives Music Festival (CIMF) summer 2025 season is titled "Musical Echoes" — a nod to the signature style of Charles Ives and the way music can carry memory, meaning, and transformation across time. As CIMF Artistic Director Paul Frucht describes it, "Ives' music is filled with echoes — from another time, another place, or even another world."
This year's concerts feature music by renowned living American composers including Du Yun, Han Lash, Aaron Kernis, Nina C. Young, John Adams, Paul Frucht, and many more — performed alongside works by Brahms, Beethoven, and Vaughan Williams.
Performances will take place in Ridgefield, New Canaan, and Danbury and feature world-class CIMF artists from across the country, including from the New York Philharmonic, the Dallas Symphony, the Met Opera Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, Broadway and touring chamber ensembles.
PHANTOM
Sunday, July 27, 2025 - 4:00 PM - Lounsbury House, Ridgefield, CT
Emily Levin, harpist, CIMF Artist and principal harp of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra performs a hauntingly beautiful program of works for solo harp by Debussy, Britten, Liszt and living composers Jon Cziner, Han Lash, Du Yun, and Caroline Lizotte.
IN TIME
Thursday, July, 31, 2025 - 7:00 PM - Lund Hall at First Congregational Church, Ridgefield, CT
CIMF Artists pianist Mika Sasaki, violinists Julia Choi, George Meyer and Chelsea Starbuck Smith, violist Jacob Shack, cellists Mitch Lyon and Francesca McNeeley, and harpist Emily Levin perform chamber works inspired by stories that echo through time including selections by Aaron Kernis and Paul Frucht, as well as the iconic Piano Trio No. 1 by Johannes Brahms.
BETWEEN WORLDS
Tuesday, August 5, 2025 - 7:00 PM - Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
CIMF Artists violinists Julia Choi, George Meyer, Jeremías Sergiani-Velázquez and Chelsea Starbuck Smith, violists Leah Ferguson and Jacob Shack, cellists Mitch Lyon and Arianna Nelson and double bassist Jonathan Borden, directed by conductor Jacob Joyce, open the concert with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Vocalise and the first movement of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14. Also on the program are solo and chamber works by Nina C. Young and Aleksandra Vrebalov, and the CIMF Artist Chamber Orchestra, led by conductor Jacob Joyce, performs works by Paul Frucht and John Adams, all of which traverse multiple musical and emotional spaces.
LETTERS FROM HOME
Saturday, August 9, 2025 - 6:30 PM - Ives Concert Hall at WCSU, Danbury, CT
CIMF Artists violinists Julia Choi, George Meyer, Jeremías Sergiani-Velázquez and Chelsea Starbuck Smith, violists Leah Ferguson and Jacob Shack, cellists Mitch Lyon and Arianna Nelson, double bassist Jonathan Borden, flutist Kate Althen-Velázquez, clarinetist Graeme Steele Johnson, bassoonist Remy Taghavi and guest musicians, directed by Jacob Joyce, perform small ensemble and chamber orchestra works by 2022 composer-in-residence Jared Miller, Paul Frucht, Andrea Cassarubios, Ralph Vaughan Williams and call-for-scores winner Sam Wu.
For full concert schedule and tickets, click here:
https://www.charlesivesmusicfestival.org/upcoming-concerts
