Newport Classical to Launch 2026-2027 Chamber Series With Twelve Concerts

 

Following its 57th annual summer festival, Newport Classical will present its sixth full-season Chamber Series held on select Fridays at 7:30pm, featuring twelve concerts held between September 2026 and June 2027, at the organization's home venue, Newport Classical Recital Hall.

Newport Classical's Chamber Series takes place at Newport Classical Recital Hall in downtown Newport, known for its striking architecture and excellent acoustics. The Chamber Series reaffirms Newport Classical's commitment to year-round classical music programming. Audiences are invited to enjoy performances by world-class classical musicians in a relaxed setting, with complimentary wine generously provided by Gold's Wine and Spirits served during intermission.

Newport Classical's Chamber Series opens this fall on September 18 with returning favorites Invoke, a multi-instrumental quartet encompassing traditions from across America, including bluegrass, Appalachian fiddle tunes, jazz, and minimalism, that Strings Magazine reports “cannot be contained by any one label.” Marking the nation's 250th anniversary, their program "American Voices" spotlights influential American composers including William Grant Still, Florence Price, and Duke Ellington alongside original works by the ensemble. On October 9, the rising Trio Azura, a recent Grand Prize and Gold Medal winner at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition that has been praised by Gramophone for “intelligence and imagination,” invites audiences to explore the world of the piano trio across eras from the Impressionist and Romantic works of Maurice Ravel and Felix Mendelssohn to the contemporary voice of Jennifer Higdon. The Boston-based Rasa String Quartet makes its Newport Classical debut on October 23 with "Portraits of an American Patchwork," a musical quilt that weaves together the cultural traditions that have shaped the nation's identity, spanning jazz, bluegrass, Latin pop, Indigenous traditions, global folk music, and classical favorites, including music by Billy Strayhorn, Shelley Washington, Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, William Grant Still, Hong Nan-pa, and Bad Bunny. Pianist Michael Leonardo Davidman, winner of the 2025 American Piano Awards and praised by Upstage for his “thunderous authority and loads of interpretive nuance,” makes his Newport debut on November 6 with a program of J.S. Bach, Franz Schubert, César Franck, and Franz Liszt. On November 20, Raphaël Feuillâtre, hailed as one of the leading classical guitarists of his generation, performs “Latin Passions,” a vibrant survey of Spanish and Latin American repertoire by Francisco Tárrega, Isaac Albéniz, Astor Piazzolla, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and more.

The Newport Classical Chamber Series continues in 2027 with cellist Sterling Elliott and pianist Elliot Wuu on January 29, in the sonatas of Maurice Ravel, Richard Strauss, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Elliott, a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, has been described by The Millbrook Independent as a cellist who has "risen beyond hopeful promise," while Wuu, a 2018 Gilmore Young Artist, is recognized for his “power, speed and finesse” (Tribune Star). On February 19, flutist Anna Urrey and harpist Kristi Shade perform a program of Nino Rota, Lili Boulanger, Jules Mouquet, Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, and Astor Piazzolla, exploring the coloristic possibilities of flute and harp across centuries and styles. Urrey has appeared at leading venues including Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, and National Sawdust. A sought-after collaborator, Shade has appeared with artists ranging from Andrea Bocelli and John Legend to Florence + The Machine. The Dorian Wind Quintet, praised by the Los Angeles Times for delivering “chamber music as it was meant to be,” performs on March 12 in “Preludes and Variations,” pairing J.S. Bach chorale arrangements with Antonín Dvořák's Wind Quintet, Op. 105 and a set of Anniversary Variations by Richard Rodney Bennett, George Perle, Billy Childs, Bruce Adolphe, and Lee Hoiby on a theme from a wind quintet by Antonin Reicha written specifically for the Dorian Wind Quintet to celebrate the ensemble's 40th anniversary.

Versatile artist Chelsea Guo, the first musician to win the Young Concert Artists auditions in both voice and piano, and hailed by Gramophone as “clearly a special talent,” takes the stage on April 9 in a program of Frédéric Chopin, Pauline Viardot, Johannes Brahms, and Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe, singing while accompanying herself on piano. On April 23, Newport Classical presents violinist Rubén Rengel and Friends, with pianist Gabriel Chakarji and percussionist Juan Diego Villalobos, who come together for an evening celebrating the music of Latin America, from their native Venezuela to the vibrant traditions displayed throughout the region. Rengel was the winner of the Robert F. Smith Prize at the 2018 Sphinx Competition, and has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and more. Accordionist Radu Ratoi, winner of the 2024 Young Concert Artists “Susan Wadsworth” International Auditions and recipient of Denmark's prestigious Léonie Sonning Talent Prize, has established himself as a pioneer in expanding the accordion's repertoire. He is joined by violinist Alexandra Tirsu, a 2021 ARD Competition prizewinner, on May 7 for a program of J.S. Bach, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Antonio Vivaldi, Astor Piazzolla, and more. The 2026-2027 Chamber Series concludes on June 4 with violinist Njioma Grevious, a Juilliard graduate and founding member of the Abeo Quartet, who appears regularly at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the Concertgebouw. In Newport, she presents a program featuring the music of J.S. Bach, Johannes Brahms, W.A. Mozart, Oliver Messiaen, Edvard Grieg, and Clarence Cameron White. Grevious has been praised for her “violin pyrotechnics” and “sheer intensity” by the Washington Classical Review.

As part of Newport Classical's desire to create connections between classical music, the artists who perform it, and the Newport community, all musicians performing on the Chamber Series will also go into the Newport-area public schools to perform for and speak with students, through Newport Classical's Music Enrichment and Engagement Initiative.

Single tickets start at $45 and packages are available. AARP members and their guests receive discounts on Chamber Series tickets and packages, and thanks to a generous grant from the Gruben Charitable Foundation, a limited number of free student tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

During the 2026-2027 season, Newport Classical will also present several free family-friendly Community Concerts at neighborhood-centered locations, generously sponsored by BankNewport, and holiday programs, which will be announced later this year. The 2027 Newport Classical Music Festival will take place from July 1-18, 2027.

Newport Classical 2026-2027 Chamber Series Schedule At-A-Glance:

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