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.