The Castleton Festival, in its first season since the death of its founding maestro, Lorin Maazel, will
present Charles Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette,” Maurice Ravel’s “L’heure espagnole”(“The Spanish Hour”), Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” and premiere performances of Derrick Wang’s comic opera “Scalia/Ginsburg.”
The 2015 festival, staged at Castleton Farms in Rappahanock County, VA, and now under the artistic direction of Dietlinde Turban Maazel, the conductor’s widow, will run from July 2 to Aug. 2.
Its lengthened season accommodates a new Castleton Jazz Academy, a residential program for high-school musicians, hosted by Wynton Marsalis and run in conjunction with Jazz at Lincoln Center, the New York performance troupe founded in 1987 by Marsalis.
The jazz academy, one of the last initiatives of Lorin Maazel for the festival, will run from July 19 to Aug. 2, with four concerts on the schedule.
Fabio Luisi, principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, will lead a July 19 concert featuring opera highlights. Rafael Payare, a Castleton alumnus who has been named the festival’s principal conductor, and Salvatore Percaccio will share conducting duties for the operas and other concerts.
Also on the schedule are chamber-music and vocal recitals, and Castleton’s popular bluegrass and “All-American Band” concerts during the July 4 weekend.
The festival, founded in 2009, brings more than 200 young musicians and theatrical artists to the Maazel family’s 600-acre estate in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Performances are staged in the 650-seat Festival Theatre and 140-seat Theatre House.
Tickets for the 2015 festival go on sale on Jan. 5. The Castleton box-office number is (866) 974-0767.
For a complete schedule, ticket prices and availability and other information, visit the festival’s website, www.castletonfestival.org