Newport Classical Music Festival's 49th Season Features 56 Performances by 80 Artists

When it comes to covering a lot of ground, Newport's oldest and largest festival gets it done. The Newport Music Festival, now in its 49th season, will host 56 concerts in just over two weeks between July 7 and 23. From dusk to dawn, the festival, in partnership with the Preservation Society of Newport County, takes over the grand halls and lawns of many of the city's celebrated Gilded Age mansions - from The Breakers to The Elms, and Chateau-sur-Mer to Rosecliff, a backdrop as magical as the music itself.

This festival's special features include:

· A 14-concert series in which all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas will be performed - 7/7-21

· The return of Boston's premier chamber ensemble, A Far Cry, at The Breakers - 7/8

· Capricho Español, a grand gala at Rosecliff celebrating Spanish composer Enrique Granados - 7/13

· Annual Sunrise Concert at the Chinese Tea House - 7/14

· Beethoven's Wig, the festival's annual family concert, featuring award-winning pianist, raconteur and showman Richard Perlmutter, who breathes new life into classical music by singing witty lyrics set to masterpieces by Beethoven, Bach and Mozart - 7/14

· Opera Night with the Palm Beach Opera company - 7/15

· Pianist Richard Dowling celebrates the centennial of American composer Scott Joplin, "King of Ragtime Writers," offering a variety of Joplin's rags, waltzes, marches and cakewalks - 7/17

· "Synaesthesia," a unique collaboration from world-renowned visual artist Ima Montoya and cellist Asier Polo. Polo's performance of Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 will set the stage for Montoya's incredible art exhibition at the Newport Art Museum - 7/19

Capricho Español - Festival Gala ?July 13 at Rosecliff
As a prelude to the upcoming Golden Anniversary, Newport Musical Festival's annual gala, Capricho Español, features an evening of Spanish cuisine, music and flamenco in honor of the Spanish composer Enrique Granados. For more information and tickets, please visit www.newportmusic.org/gala-2017.

About the Newport Music Festival

The Newport Music Festival has played a significant cultural role in Rhode Island since its launch in 1968. In the years since, the festival has produced over 2000 concerts in a host of the Preservation Society of Newport County's renowned Newport Mansions, and in various venues throughout Newport. The festival stages have hosted over 1000 artists, and including 130 American debuts of artists that have gone on to make history.

Renowned for its daily diet of Romantic-era chamber performances, the last decade has brought a broadening of the festival's musical landscape. From Bach to Bernstein to world premieres by established and emerging composers, as well as rare discoveries of forgotten minor masterpieces, the festival offers something for everyone, even those just looking for a magical experience at the edge of the world. The complete festival schedule is now online, and tickets will go on sale May 15 via www.NewportMusic.org.