IN BETWEEN LINES Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival 2025 In July
Eleven concerts, from July 19 to August 17, feature works from Baroque to contemporary sparked by poetry and language.
By: A.A. Cristi May. 19, 2025
The theme of Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival 2025, the 42nd season of Long Island's longest-running classical music festival, is “In Between Lines: A summer of music inspired by literature.” Eleven concerts, from July 19 to August 17, feature works from Baroque to contemporary sparked by poetry and language, performed by some of the best chamber musicians in the world.
The festival theme is explored in such works as Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words for piano; Telemann's “Gulliver's Travels” Suite for Two Violins; Robert Beaser's The Old Men Admiring Themselves in Water, inspired by a Yeats poem, for flute and piano; John Metcalf's Not the Stillness, inspired by a line from T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano; and Schubert's “Trout” Quintet, an extrapolation of one of the composer's own songs. Other festival highlights include such audience favorites as Schumann's Piano Quintet, Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, piano quartets by Beethoven and Brahms, and selections from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons paired with those from Astor Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, and works by living composers Eve Beglarian, Philip Glass, Osvaldo Golijov, Douglas Mews, Paul Moravec, Nico Muhly, Michael Torke, and Huw Watkins.
Two works will have world premiere performances this summer: a BCM-commissioned piece by Lowell Liebermann for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, and Paul Moravec's Meditation for flute and piano, written for BCM Artistic Director Marya Martin. Rising star bass-baritone Joseph Parrish – the one featured singer this summer – brings the festival theme into focus with a set of art songs on the opening concert.
Based at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, the festival also includes such annual events as the Wm. Brian Little Concert, preceded by wine and hors d'oeuvres, in the Channing Sculpture Garden; a wine reception and concert in the gallery of the Madoo Conservancy in Sagaponack; and a benefit concert and dinner at the Atlantic Golf Club.
As always, the festival's roster of artists comprises one of the best multi-generational groups of chamber musicians to be found anywhere. Led by flutist and festival founder Marya Martin, this summer's BCM musicians are James Austin Smith, oboe; Tommaso Lonquich and Osmo Vänskä, clarinet; David Byrd-Marrow, horn*; Kate Arndt, Stella Chen, Paul Huang, Ani Kavafian, Erin Keefe, Kristin Lee, David McCarroll, Julian Rhee*, Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, and Kevin Zhou, violin; Matthew Lipman, Natalie Loughran, Cynthia Phelps, Masumi Per Rostad, and Cong Wu, viola; Carter Brey, Brannon Cho, Mihai Marica, and Tommy Mesa*, cello; Nina Bernat and Donald Palma, bass; Francesco Barfoed*, Michael Stephen Brown, David Fung, Albert Cano Smit, Gilles Vonsattel, Orion Weiss, and Shai Wosner, piano; Kenneth Weiss, harpsichord; Ian David Rosenbaum, percussion; and Joseph Parrish, voice. (Those marked with an asterisk are making their BCM debuts.)
Bridgehampton Chamber Music
“This longtime East End festival, directed by the flutist Marya Martin, has flourished by offering concerts both effervescent and distinguished,” said The New Yorker. In the four decades since its founding in 1984, Bridgehampton Chamber Music has become known for presenting a broad range of music performed by some of the best musicians in the world in one of the most beautiful seaside settings on the East Coast. With autumn and spring mini-series joining the summer festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music now offers programs almost year-round.
BCM Festival: Usually comprising around a dozen events over four weeks, the summer festival has developed a loyal core audience among local residents and summer visitors since it began with four artists in two concerts in the intimate setting of the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church. The festival is still based in the graceful 1842 church – which boasts glowing acoustics – and has expanded to include other special event venues, including the Channing Sculpture Garden and Atlantic Golf Club in Bridgehampton, and the Madoo Conservatory in Sagaponack.
BCM Records: In 2012, BCM launched its own record label, BCMF Records. Signifying the festival's commitment to American composers, the label's first recording was BCMF Premieres, a disc of contemporary American music. The label's current discography of 12 releases includes music by Bruce Adolphe, Robert Beaser, Leon Kirchner, Howard Shore, Paul Moravec, Kevin Puts, and Elizabeth Brown, as well as Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, and more.
BCM Spring: Convinced that there were music lovers looking for more opportunities to hear excellent chamber music year-round, BCM introduced its Spring series in 2015, and in 2017 expanded it from two concerts to three.
BCM Autumn: This three-concert series was launched in the fall of 2021.
Bridgehampton Chamber Music has a wide variety of performance videos and online programs from past seasons posted on its website and YouTube channel.
Marya Martin
Internationally acclaimed flutist Marya Martin enjoys a musical career of remarkable breadth and achievement. Gracefully balancing the roles of chamber musician, festival director, soloist, teacher, and supporter of musical institutions, she has performed throughout the world in such halls as London's Royal Albert Hall and Wigmore Hall, Sydney Opera House, Casals Hall in Tokyo, and other international venues.
A native of New Zealand, Ms. Martin studied at Yale University, and shortly thereafter moved to Paris to study with flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal. After winning top prizes in the Naumburg, Munich International, and Jean-Pierre Rampal International competitions, and the Concert Artists Guild and Young Concert Artists International Auditions—all within a two-year period—she returned to the U.S. and has since appeared as a soloist with major orchestras and at leading festivals and chamber music series throughout the country.
In 2006 she received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Auckland, and in 2011 received the Ian Mininberg Distinguished Service Award from Yale University. Committed to expanding the flute repertoire, she has commissioned more than 20 new works. She most recently commissioned eight works for flute and piano comprising Eight Visions, an anthology published by Theodore Presser, and recorded them for the Naxos label. In 2011, Albany Records released Marya Martin Plays Eric Ewazen. Ms. Martin has been a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music since 1996.
Comments
Videos