Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival’s Annual Benefit At Atlantic Golf Club

Marking its 43rd season, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival held its annual benefit on Saturday, July 25, at the Atlantic Golf Club in Bridgehampton. After cocktails on the grounds, flutist and BCMF Founder and Artistic Director Marya Martin, joined by nine additional artists, performed a program of Baroque music by Vivaldi, C.P.E. Bach, and Jean-Féry Rebel. Dinner followed, hosted by BCMF Board Chairman Kenneth S. Davidson.

The musicians performing were Marya Martin, flute; Benjamin Baker, William Hagen, Ani Kavafian, Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, violin; Natalie Loughran, viola; Brannon Cho, Joshua McClendon, cello; Donald Palma, bass; and Leon Schelhase, harpsichord.

On July 18, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival launched its 43rd season of 13 concerts through August 16, offering some of the world’s finest musicians performing a lively range of repertoire old and new – as has been its hallmark. This year’s event, titled How Sweet the Sound, encompasses themes both vast and personal: the nation’s 250th birthday and the 50th anniversary of the arrival in America of BCMF founder and artistic director Marya Martin. 

From Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland to Jennifer Higdon and Steven Banks, whose BCMF-commissioned work inspired by Nina Simone will have its New York premiere, the American composers and their music on the programs represent the festival’s tribute to, in Marya’s words, “the open spirit of the country that allowed me, and so many other artists from all different backgrounds to follow their passions and thrive.”

“This festival is my baby, so I have always taken a nurturing approach to its growth and had my share of parental anxiety,” said Marya Martin. “But it has gone from strength to strength, and I now feel that we, the musicians, the audiences, and the community have become a family… even a bedrock!”

In the four decades plus since its founding in 1984, Bridgehampton Chamber Music, the longest-running classical music festival on Long Island, 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.

Visit bcmf.org.