Summer Festivals Are Around the Corner

CIM faculty and students are gearing up for performance-packed summers at music festivals around the globe. Summer festivals are a staple in the classical music world for both musicians and concert-goers, offering young artists a chance to study with new teachers and guest performers, and attendees to sit on picnic blankets while watching top-tier orchestras perform in outdoor amphitheaters. From the Swiss Alps to the Colorado Rockies, you can find CIM faculty and students just about everywhere this summer!

The concept of the summer music festival is not a new one. Europe has a long tradition of summer festivals dating back to the 17th century. The BBC Proms, “the Proms,” for short, an eight-week summer festival held in Royal Albert Hall in London, was founded in 1895 and will be celebrating its 121st year this summer. Others, like the Three Choirs Festival England, celebrated its 300th anniversary last year. Not as old, but containing very deep cultural roots, are some of the top festivals in the U.S. Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, opened as the Berkshire Music Center in the 1940s. At the opening then-director Serge Koussevitzky gave a powerful speech about the importance of continuing to perform music during a time of war in Europe.

Several CIM faculty members are founders, chairs and directors of their own festivals. Antonio Pompa-Baldi, piano faculty at CIM, founded his own summer festival in Todi, Italy, where renowned guest artists and rigorous musical instruction goes hand in hand with the breathtaking vistas of centuries-old architecture cascading along the mountainsides.

Learn more about all the festivals our students and faculty will be attending this summer in CIM’s Notes magazine, hitting mailboxes in June. And for armchair travelers, don’t forget to check out the hashtag #CIMSummer2016 for updates, photos and videos from the CIM community around the world!