Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival Announces Its 25th Anniversary Season, with New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia and Dallas Symphony Orchestras in Residence

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From the heart of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival announces its 25th anniversary season, which runs for seven weeks from June 25 to August 4. Celebrated pianist Anne-Marie McDermott returns for a second term as artistic director, and once again the Vail Music Festival boasts not one but three world-class resident orchestras: the New York Philharmonic, returning under music director Alan Gilbert for its tenth summer; The Philadelphia Orchestra, whose new music director designate Yannick Nézet-Séguin makes his Vail Music Festival debut; and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and its music director, Jaap van Zweden, Musical America’s Conductor of the Year 2012.

Programming highlights for this landmark season include numerous Festival premieres; multi-event immersions in the art of Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Gershwin; a series juxtaposing time-honored classics with trailblazing new music; plus chamber music, jazz, and pops galore. New York’s Gabriel Kahane returns for an encore performance of his 2011 Festival commission, while the Cantus Vocal Ensemble and Jasper String Quartet serve as 2012’s Young-Professionals-in-Residence. An impressive guest-star roster presents more than 30 soloists, including pianists Yefim Bronfman, Kirill Gerstein, and Benjamin Grosvenor; violinists Joshua Bell, James Ehnes, and Jennifer Koh; cellist Alisa Weilerstein; vocalists Susanna Phillips, Curtis Stigers, and Tracy Dahl; and electric guitarist/composer Steven Mackey. Ensembles include the Calder Quartet, Tiempo Libre, and Opus One, and guest conductors number Andrey Boreyko, Stéphane Denève, Bramwell Tovey, and Jeff Tyzik among them. As before, chamber concerts will be held in the intimate Vail Mountain School and Vilar Performing Arts Center in Beaver Creek, while large-scale concerts take place in Vail’s spectacular Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, which accommodates 1,260 guests in covered seating and an additional 1,300 on the expansive grassy hillside, with its breathtaking view of the Rocky Mountains.

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