Lincoln Center And WQXR Team Up For The 'Mostly Mozart Festival'

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — In-person live music is still on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Lincoln Center is teaming up with WQXR radio station to make sure its annual Mostly Mozart Festival still takes place in 2020.

The festival will be reimagined as a weeklong digital event aired on WQXR-FM radio station, with performances, archival content, retrospectives, conversations, and more.

WQXR is available on air at 105.9FM for listeners in the New York and the tri-state area, and you can also stream the festival on WQXR.org.

The digital festival will begin on Monday, Aug. 10, and last until Saturday, Aug. 16.

The festival first took place in 1966, and has become a summertime tradition for many New Yorkers in the more than 50 years since.

Additionally, the festival in 2020 will open with "Mostly Mozart Across the boroughs," a series of pop-up concerts at secret locations across the five boroughs. You can stream these performances on Lincoln Center's Facebook Page throughout the day on Monday.

Here are the scheduled performers for the different pop-up concerts:

• Manhattan: Curtis J. Stewart (violin)
• The Bronx: Anthony McGill (clarinet)
• Queens: Sugar Vendil (piano)
• Brooklyn: Mazz Swift (violin)
• Staten Island: The Villalobos Brothers (Mexican ensemble)

The centerpiece of the festival is a radio documentary about the opera "Blue," which is set to air on Aug. 14 at 8 p.m.

"WQXR is proud to collaborate with Lincoln Center to bring audiences the iconic Mostly Mozart Festival at a time when we need the uplift, reflection and connection that music and the arts can provide," said Matt Abramovitz, Vice President of Programming at WQXR, in a news release.

The Upper West Side's Lincoln Center is also excited to put on its festival despite the unique conditions.

"While gathering together for live performances remains on pause during the global pandemic, we are delighted to be partnering with WQXR to reimagine this New York City summer staple for the current time, sharing and celebrating Mozart's innovative spirit, creativity, and joy through the radio airwaves," said Hanako Yamaguchi, Director of Music Programming at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, in the same news release.

Here are additional highlights for the upcoming festival:

A Little Night Music (Aug. 10-15, 11 p.m.)

• "Intimate late-night concert broadcasts featuring archival concert performances from the Mostly Mozart Festival series of the same name, as well as recordings from several chamber musicians, soloists and other artists who would have appeared in person this summer. Hosted by Helga Davis nightly at 11 p.m. ET (Aug. 10 - 15) and featuring the radio premiere of a new recording of an excerpt from The Black Clown, a music-theater piece adapted from Langston Hughes’ poem, created by Davóne Tines, Michael Schachter, and Zack Winokur, which had its New York Premiere at the Mostly Mozart Festival in 2019."

Black Experience in the Concert Hall: The Mozart Effect (Aug. 13, 7 p.m.)

• "WQXR’s Terrance McKnight hosts a conversation with Black classical musicians about their relationship to Mozart’s music, bringing awareness to their experiences in the industry, and looking towards the future of classical music. Guests include violinist Sanford Allen, the first Black instrumentalist in the New York Philharmonic; genre-defying vocalist and conductor Bobby McFerrin; vocalist Julia Bullock; tenor Lawrence Brownlee; and Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra cellist Alvin McCall."

Joseph Boulogne: The Chevalier of Music and Revolution (Aug. 12, 8 p.m.)

• "A retrospective of the largely untold story of the extraordinary African-French composer and violinist Joseph Boulogne (“Chevalier de Saint-Georges”), whose artistic excellence and virtuosity matched any of his contemporaries, Haydn and Mozart among them, and whom John Adams referred to as the most accomplished man in all of Europe in riding, shooting, fencing, dancing and music."

Camp Wolfgang for Kids (Aug. 13, 11 a.m.)

• "A one-day virtual event for young children with concerts, Pop-Up Classrooms, crafts, and more, presented in partnership with Lincoln Center Education."

Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin shares his favorite Mozart performances (Aug. 16, 12 p.m.)

• Nezet-Seguin talks about Mozart's influence on his life on WQXR’s Sunday noontime show, “This Week with Yannick.”

You can find the full schedule for the Mostly Mozart Festival here.