July 14: Newport Classical Music Festival Presents Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers at The Breakers
Photo by David Zentz available in high resolution here.
Newport Classical Music Festival presents
An Evening with Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers
Sunday, July 14, 2024 at 8:00 PM
The Breakers | 44 Ochre Point Ave | Newport, RI
Tickets and Information
Watch Anne Akiko Meyers’ NPR Tiny Desk Concert
“Vigorous mastery, unflinching technical skills and stylish elegance” – Los Angeles Times
“...a national treasure. She is a musical wizard, with astonishing access to every kind of expressive color.” – The San Diego Union-Tribune
“violinist Anne Akiko Meyers is without doubt a rock star” – Salt Lake City Weekly
Newport, RI – Celebrating its 55th Anniversary, the 2024 Newport Classical Music Festival (July 4-21) presents revolutionary violinist Anne Akiko Meyers on Sunday, July 14, 2024 at 8:00pm at The Breakers (44 Ochre Point Ave). The GRAMMY®-nominated violinist is joined by the virtuosic pianist Max Levinson. For her Newport debut, Meyers brings an exquisite program of Corelli, Beethoven, and Morten Lauridsen, plus one of the first performances of a new work written for her by the iconic American composer Philip Glass, and a premiere of Arturo Márquez’s seductive Danzón No.2, arranged for Meyers by the composer, promising an unforgettable evening of music.
Anne Akiko Meyers is one of the world’s most esteemed violinists, admired for her purity of sound, poetic interpretations, gorgeous performances, and innovative programming. She has been called “the Wonder Woman of commissioning” by The Strad, and collaborates as muse and champion of many of today’s most-performed composers, creating a remarkable collection of new violin repertoire for future generations. Some of Meyers’ career highlights include a performance of the Barber Violin Concerto at the Australian Bicentennial Concert for an audience of 750,000 in Sydney Harbour; performances for the Emperor and Empress Akihito of Japan; for Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, in a Museumplein Concert with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; and the national anthem at T-Mobile Park in Seattle and Dodger Stadium.
Meyers’ first national television appearances were on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson at the age 11, followed by performances that include Evening At Pops with John Williams, CBS Sunday Morning, Great Performances, Countdown with Keith Olbermann (in a segment that was the third most popular story of that year), The Emmy Awards, and The View. John Williams personally chose Anne to perform Schindler’s List for a Great Performances PBS telecast and Arvo Pärt invited her to be his guest soloist at the opening ceremony concerts of his new center and concert hall in Estonia.
Outside of traditional classical, Meyers has collaborated with artists including jazz icons Chris Botti and Wynton Marsalis; avant-garde musician Ryuichi Sakamoto; electronic music pioneer Isao Tomita; pop-era act Il Divo; and singer Michael Bolton. Meyers received a GRAMMY® Award nomination for her live recording with Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A. Philharmonic of Arturo Márquez’s Fandango, a concerto for violin and orchestra written for her in 2021. The work has already been performed close to 30 times, and the recording is the latest of her more than 40 releases, which have become staples of classical music radio and streaming platforms.
Anne Akiko Meyers’ Newport Classical Music Festival concert on July 14 features Philip Glass’s New Chaconne for violin and piano, which she premiered this past February. The new piece was written specifically for her and is a testament to Meyers’ dedication to Glass, his indelible impact, and his musical legacy. In summer 2023, Meyers visited Philip Glass at his home in Manhattan, and in September 2023, Glass made the pilgrimage to hear her performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. It was this experience, new friendship and the simple joy of making music that sparked the creation of this work in which, as Richard Guérin explains in program notes, “the form itself became fodder for reinvention.”
In addition to Glass’s New Chaconne, Meyers’ Newport program showcases the nostalgia and jubilance of Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No. 2, a work Meyers fell in love with at first listen and which inspired Márquez to write Fandango. The poetic poignance of Morten Lauridsen’s Sure on This Shining Night and Dirait-On; Corelli’s Sonata in D minor Op. 5, No. 12 La Folia; and Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24, Spring complete the program.
Set against the picturesque backdrop of the City-by-the-Sea, the Newport Classical Music Festival presents 27 concerts held in 11 historic venues over 18 days from July 4-21, featuring a total of 120 musicians from around the world. Patrons can easily craft a Festival itinerary tailored to their preferences – be it the discovery of a new composer, the rhythm of percussion, or revisiting a beloved work with a fresh perspective. For 55 years, Newport Classical has been a beacon for artistry, drawing in countless concertgoers to revel in exceptional performances within unique and intimate settings.
Highlights include Opening Night with the dynamic and inspiring Sphinx Virtuosi and cello soloist Thomas Mesa; the return to Newport of Chanticleer, Canadian Brass, and A Far Cry with special guests Kinan Azmeh and Dinuk Wijeratne; the Music Festival debut of the storied Handel and Haydn Society; two enchanting evenings with Tony Award-winning Broadway star Laura Benanti; plus performances by star pianists Lara Downes, Joyce Yang, Llewellyn Sánchez-Werner, Drew Petersen, and Daniel del Pino; and appearances by numerous celebrated chamber ensembles including the Isidore String Quartet; PUBLIQuartet; Duo Kayo; Lincoln Trio; Poulenc Trio with accordionist Hanzhi Wang; and Sō Percussion with vocalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw.
More about Anne Akiko Meyers:
Anne Akiko Meyers grew up in Southern California where she and her mother would travel eight hours round trip from the Mojave Desert to Pasadena for lessons with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the predecessor to the Colburn School of Performing Arts. She moved to New York at the age of 14 to study at The Juilliard School with legendary teacher, Dorothy DeLay, and with Masao Kawasaki and Felix Galimir; she signed with management at 16; and recorded her debut album of the Barber and Bruch Violin Concertos with the RPO at Abbey Road Studios at 18.
Since her teens, Anne Akiko Meyers has performed around the world as soloist with leading orchestras and in recital. She has worked closely with some of the most important composers of the last half century, including Arvo Pärt (Estonian Lullaby), Einojuhani Rautavaara (Fantasia, his final complete work), John Corigliano (cadenzas for the Beethoven Violin Concerto; Lullaby for Natalie), Arturo Márquez (Fandango), Michael Daugherty (Blue Electra), Mason Bates and Adam Schoenberg (violin concertos), Jakub Ciupiński, Jennifer Higdon, Samuel Jones, Morten Lauridsen, Wynton Marsalis, Akira Miyoshi, Gene Pritsker, Somei Satoh, and Joseph Schwantner, performing world premieres with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Nashville, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Seattle, Washington D.C., Helsinki, Hyogo, Leipzig, London, Lyon, and New Zealand.
Anne Akiko Meyers has received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Distinguished Alumna Award and an Honorary Doctorate from The Colburn School. She serves on the Board of Trustees of The Juilliard School and will be inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame this October, to be broadcast on Roku. She performs on Larsen Strings with the Ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù, dated 1741, considered by many to be the finest sounding violin in existence.
About Max Levinson:
Meyers is joined by pianist Max Levinson, first prize winner at the Dublin International Piano Competition (1997) and the first American to achieve this distinction. Levinson is also a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1999) and the Andrew Wolf Award (2005). He has performed as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Detroit Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Colorado Symphony, New World Symphony, Utah Symphony, Boston Pops, San Antonio Symphony, Louisville Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, as well as in recital at New York’s Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., London’s Wigmore Hall, Zürich’s Tonhalle, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, Jordan Hall in Boston, and throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.
About Newport Classical:
Newport Classical is a premier performing arts organization that welcomes people of every age, culture, and background to intimate, immersive musical experiences. The organization presents world-renowned and up-and-coming artistic talents at stunning, storied venues across Newport – an internationally sought-after cultural and recreational destination.
Originally founded in 1969 as Rhode Island Arts Foundation at Newport, Inc. and previously known as Newport Music Festival, Newport Classical has a rich legacy of musical curiosity having presented the American debuts of hundreds of international artists and is most well-known for hosting three weeks of concerts in the summer in the historic mansions throughout Newport and Aquidneck Island. In the 55 years since, Newport Classical has become the most active year-round presenter of music on Aquidneck Island, and an essential pillar of Rhode Island’s cultural landscape, welcoming thousands of patrons all year long.
Newport Classical invests in the future of classical music as a diverse, relevant, and ever-evolving art form through its four core programs – the one-of-a-kind Music Festival; the Chamber Series in the Newport Classical Recital Hall; the free, family-friendly Community Concerts Series; and the Music Education and Engagement Initiative that inspires students in local schools to become the arts advocates and music lovers of tomorrow. These programs illustrate the organization’s ongoing commitment to presenting “timeless music for today.”
In 2021, the organization launched a new commissioning initiative – each year, Newport Classical will commission a new work by a Black, Indigenous, person of color, or woman composer as a commitment to the future of classical music. To date, Newport Classical has commissioned and presented the world premiere of works by Stacy Garrop, Shawn Okpebholo, Curtis Stewart, and Clarice Assad.
For Newport Classical’s complete concert calendar, visit www.newportclassical.org/concerts