Media Releases

Festival Napa Valley Announces 16th Summer Season, July 15-24, 2022

10 Best Days of Summer to feature Trisha Yearwood, Joshua Bell, Larisa Martínez, the Brubeck Brothers Quartet, Tessa Lark, the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, a “Tchaikovsky to Rolling Stones”   dance gala, Donizetti’s “L’elisir d’amore”, and more

Festival Napa Valley welcomes audiences to its summer 2022 season, July 15-24, with a wide spectrum of programs from symphonic concerts, opera, dance, and the visual arts, to chamber music, jazz, wine tastings, and concerts for families with young children.

“The performances at Festival Napa Valley this summer illuminate the importance of the arts in today’s world,” said Festival President & CEO Richard Walker. “Our mission is more vital than ever.”

“We are dedicating the 2022 season to the sounds of America. From Copland and Bernstein to jazz, swing, Broadway, bluegrass and country, this is the music that celebrates our common heritage,” added Robin Baggett, Chairman of the Festival’s Board of Directors.

Furthering the Festival’s commitment to making the arts accessible to all, admission to daytime concerts is free, including the daily Festival Live! series at CIA at COPIA, the popular Bouchaine Young Artist Series, and the family-friendly Novack Concerts for Kids.

This summer marks the fifth year of the Blackburn Music Academy, the Festival’s immersive summer conservatory for emerging professional instrumentalists, and the second year of the Manetti Shrem Opera Program, a comprehensive celebration of the vocal arts including a summer conservatory providing advanced study and performance opportunities to rising opera singers. It is also the second year of a partnership with the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, with Frost faculty and students playing a lead role in the Festival’s academy, symphonic, and chamber music programs.

This summer Festival Napa Valley inaugurates its newest award, the Maria Manetti Shrem Daniel Brewbaker Prize, awarded annually to a composer whose works will be performed as part of the summer season. The 2022 Prize is awarded posthumously to Daniel Brewbaker, the noted American composer who passed away in 2017.

FESTIVAL NAPA VALLEY 2022 PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS:

- Opening Night at Charles Krug with conductor Carlo Ponti leading Festival Orchestra Napa in Dvorak’s New World Symphony and Daniel Brewbaker’s Cello Concerto with soloist Sophia Bacelar

- Three-time Grammy Award-winning superstar Trisha Yearwood headlines the Arts for All Gala at Nickel & Nickel benefiting arts education and the Festival’s community programs

- Taste of Napa, Festival Napa Valley’s signature celebration of food, wine and music, returns to The Meritage Resort and Spa with  more than 70 participating wineries,  craft breweries and food purveyors 

- The world premiere of Polaris: A Juneteenth Anthem by prizewinning composer Nia Imani Franklin, with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City led by Francisco J. Núñez in a concert that also features soprano Mikayla Sager, tenor Mario Chang, baritone Lester Lynch, and Gordon Getty’s Young America  

- Violinist Tessa Lark, recipient of the Festival’s 2022 Khaledi Prize for Innovation and Excellence in Classical Music, and soprano Alexandra Armantrading in a program at Mont La Salle Chapel that includes the premiere of three art songs by Jake Heggie, Jack Perla, and Luna Pearl Woolf set to poetry by Lisa Delan

- Tchaikovsky in America, commemorating Tchaikovsky’s 1891 visit to the US for the opening of Carnegie Hall, with conductor Constantine Orbelian leading Festival Orchestra Napa and violinist Tessa Lark 

- 2022 Joel Revzen Conducting Fellow Michelle Di Russo leading Festival Orchestra Napa in Ansel Adams: America by Chris and Dave Brubeck, followed by a performance by the Brubeck Brothers Quartet, in an Olivia Decker Power of Music Series concert

- The 2022 Manetti Shrem Opera: Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore directed by Jean-Romain Vesperini with Gemma New conducting Festival Orchestra Napa, sopranos Andriana Chuchman and Mikayla Sager, and tenor Mario Chang, with participants from the Manetti Shrem Summer Vocal Conservatory

- A Night at the Ballet: From Tchaikovsky to The Rolling Stones dance gala

- Voice and the Violin, featuring violinist Joshua Bell and soprano Larisa Martínez in a program of masterworks arranged for voice, violin, and orchestra

- Amaryn Olmeda (violin), Jordan Bak (viola) and Tabea Debus (recorder) star in the 2022 Bouchaine Young Artist Series

- Michelle Di Russo conducts Festival Orchestra Napa in Copland’s Rodeo¸ Brewbaker’s Blue Fire, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade to close out the 2022 summer season  

Festival Napa Valley 2022 Venues and Event Hosts include Alpha Omega, Bardessono, Beringer Vineyards, Cardinale, Castello di Amorosa, Charles Krug, The CIA at Copia, Far Niente, Frank Family Vineyards, Four Seasons Resort & Residences Napa Valley, HALL Napa Valley, Harbison Estate, Hess Persson Estates, Mont La Salle Chapel, Napa Valley College, Nickel & Nickel, Quintessa, Stull Residence, Tamber Bey Vineyards, The Meritage Resort and Spa, Trinchero Napa Valley, and Wheeler Farms, with additional venues to be announced.

Performances are held outdoors on the Festival Napa Valley Stage at Charles Krug in St. Helena, the Jackson Family Wines Amphitheater at the Culinary Institute of America at Copia in Napa, and at wineries, estates and other venues throughout Napa Valley. Concert tickets are priced from free to $35. A limited number of Patron Passes are available providing access to special events including Vintner’s Luncheons, Patron Dinners, and the Arts for All Gala. Passes for Taste of Napa are available for $150, and $295 for the Reserve Lounge. To view the full schedule and purchase tickets and passes, visit FestivalNapaValley.org