{"id":42012,"date":"2024-04-24T17:06:46","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T15:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/068d7eb0-64e2-4db1-8b8e-561c2319b4af"},"modified":"2024-04-24T17:40:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T15:40:05","slug":"27-best-classical-music-festivals-in-usa-and-canada-2024","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/27-best-classical-music-festivals-in-usa-and-canada-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"27 best classical music festivals in USA and Canada 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By <\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 24 April 2024 at 15:06 PM<\/p>

\n\n

It\u2019s that time of year again\u2026 Spring has finally sprung, and along with the promised sunshine we welcome a brand-new season of glorious summer music. This year, festivals around the world have pulled out all the stops to offer a wonderful range of repertoire, from the crowd-pleasing to the obscure, featuring an even more dazzling line-up of artists.\u00a0Elsewhere we run through the UK’s best festivals for 2024<\/a><\/strong>, plus the major events in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and the rest of the world. But below, we have the USA and Canada’s very best classical music festivals for 2024. Happy reading!<\/p>

Charlotte Smith Editor<\/i> <\/p>

Best US classical music festivals in 2024<\/h2>

Here are the best classical music festivals across the States for 2024, broken down month by month.<\/p>

Best US classical music festivals: May 2024<\/h3>

Bang on a Can<\/strong><\/h4>

Brooklyn, NYC, 3-5 May<\/em>bangonacan.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>

Before August\u2019s eclectic Long Weekend and July\u2019s Summer Festival, there\u2019s the small matter of a May prequel \u2013 Bang on a Can\u2019s Brooklyn bonanza of some 60 concerts of new and newish music. Corralled into three exuberant days, premieres world, US and New York come thick and fast. <\/p>

Included are the Soundwalk Collective with Patti Smith, Anna Meredith\u2019s Nuc<\/em> and, performed by Ensemble Klang, Peter Adriaansz\u2019s Environments<\/em>. But contemporary classics are not airbrushed. The Ligeti Quartet salutes its namesake<\/a><\/strong>; the music of Steve Reich<\/a><\/strong> re-echoes; and Ekmeles illuminates David Lang\u2019s The Little Match\u00a0Girl Passion<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>

May Festival<\/strong><\/h4>

Cincinnati, OH, 17-25 May<\/em>mayfestival.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>

It\u2019s all change in Cincinnati. Last year\u2019s 150th-birthday celebrations concluded, the choralfest steps out with a new festival director at the helm. Pulitzer-Prize-winning co-founder of Bang on a Can, Julia Wolfe curates a series bookended by Haydn<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s The Creation<\/a><\/strong><\/em> and Faur\u00e9<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Requiem<\/a><\/strong>. In between, the world premiere of her own All that Breathes<\/em> spearheads a mini-Wolfe retrospective including the oratorio Anthracite Fields<\/em> and Her Story<\/em>.<\/p>

  • Haydn’s The Creation<\/em>: the best recordings<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>

    Spoleto Festival USA<\/strong><\/h4>

    Charleston, SC, 22 May-9 June<\/em>spoletousa.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>

    Composer Gian Carlo Menotti had an eye for old world charm \u2013 and looking to establish an American equivalent to his Italian Festival of Two Worlds, in Charleston he found it in spades. A man of the musical theatre to his fingertips, he\u2019d applaud Spoleto 2024\u2019s curtain-up: the world premiere of Layale Caker\u2019s new opera Ruinous Gods<\/em>. In part drawing on Greek mythology, it neatly complements another festival premiere reinterpreting Virgil\u2019s Aeneid<\/em>. <\/p>