Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival Commences

The Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival has been bringing classical music to our neck of the woods since 1979. This year’s festival kicks off on Tuesday, Aug. 3 with “In Celebration of Our Audience.” The concert — featuring artistic directors Jon Manasse, clarinet, and Jon Nakamatsu, piano — will take place at Cotuit Center for the Arts and include music by Brahms, Gerald Finzi, Chopin, and Carl Maria von Weber. For Covid safety, there will be two one-hour performances at 5 and 7:30 p.m. — this will be true of most of this summer’s festival concerts.

Coming up next week: The two Jons join the Escher Quartet for music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Schumann on Aug. 6 at the First Congregational Church in Wellfleet. Then, the Escher Quartet combines forces with pianist Brian Zeger on Aug. 10 for a program of Beethoven and Dvořák at Cotuit Center for the Arts. Finally, Imani Winds performs pieces by Valerie Coleman, Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Reena Esmail — first as part of a free concert at the Salt Pond Visitor Center in Eastham on Aug. 12, then at the First Congregational Church in Wellfleet on Aug. 13. Tickets are $40 per concert at capecodchambermusic.org.