The sun hangs low over the ocean as the sky turns a delicate shade of peach. Walking over a sumptuous, immaculately kept lawn down to the water’s edge, I look back at what can only be described as the stateliest of mansions – with its Greek-style pillars, expansive veranda and Juliet balconies. Inside the ostentatious marble entrance, a deep-red carpet lines an enormous staircase and heavy chandeliers hang from gargantuan brass chains. This is The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island – improbably termed a ‘cottage’ by its original owners, the New York Vanderbilt family.
Newport: summer destination for the Gilded Age
Newport is chock full of such ‘cottages’, built by America’s wealthiest families as summer homes during the Gilded Age of the late-19th century. The beautiful seaside destination was the perfect spot for New York’s Fifth Avenue set to escape from the sweltering inland heat, and although these families spent just a few months each year in Newport, their summer homes were equipped with every mod con and luxury. Think Edith Wharton’s novel The Age of Innocence, whose high society cast of characters inhabits this world.
These days, Newport is still very much a holiday destination. Its harbours are lined with elegant yachts and sailboats, throngs of tourists walk among its generous range of shop, and any number of restaurants offer the region’s delicious lobster roll – though for freshly caught fare you can’t get better than the Newport Lobster Shack, whose unassuming exterior belies the quality of its food. For those with an interest in sport, the town has also hosted the International Tennis Hall of Fame since 1954, and the National Sailing Hall of Fame since 2019 – and the Newport Country Club was the site of golf’s first US Open in 1895.
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Newport: a home to classical music
Thanks to the Newport Preservation Society, 11 of the town’s cottages and gardens have been preserved as museums, complete with original furniture and finishings. These mansions also host year-round events staged by Newport Classical, founded in 1969 as the Rhode Island Arts Foundation – including an annual Music Festival in July, a year-long Chamber Series, free community concerts and an extensive Education and Engagement programme involving local schoolchildren.
Under the relatively recent leadership of executive director Gillian Friedman Fox, former director of Contemporary Programs for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Music Festival now commissions new music annually, while also honouring its more than 50-year legacy. Thus far, Fox has been very successful in commissioning works with ties to the community – a case in point was 2023’s world premiere, a piano quintet titled ‘The Gilded Age’ by Grammy- nominated violinist and composer Curtis Stewart, who coincidentally spent some years growing up in Newport and whose piece draws on the stories of those who worked at The Breakers.
‘We can’t just look backwards, but should embrace the future of the artform’
‘We want to commission new works, support living composers and to be a part of the narrative of the future of classical music,’ Fox told me. ‘That’s something that is incredibly important to me and I think should be important to all classical music organisations. We can’t just look backwards but instead should embrace the future of the artform.’
A successful Newport Classical Music Festival in 2023
The 2023 edition, which I attended in July, was exciting and dynamic. On my first evening at The Breakers, former Tchaikovsky Competition winner Zlatomir Fung treated us to fleet-footed accounts of the complete Bach Cello Suites, performed from memory with spoken introductions. The next morning, I headed to another cottage, The Elms, for ‘Classical Rivalries’, a highly energetic performed and spoken account of the ‘famous feud’ between Brahms and Liszt, featuring 2023’s Festival Artists – young musicians at the outset of their careers brought together annually by Newport Classical for an intense three-week period of music-making.
But it wasn’t all about the youngsters: there were also headline performances by pianist Hélène Grimaud in Brahms and Bach/Busoni – treading an astonishing line between passion and elegance – and by violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing in enchanting Norwegian trifles alongside Ravel’s epic Tzigane.
Newport's big plans for the future
It all pointed to a thriving musical community, generously supported by locals whose love of the arts equals their pride in the town’s elegant past. And with Fox’s bold new refresh, the next 50 years of Newport Classical look set to equal the success of the last.
The 2024 Newport Classical Music Festival runs from 4-21 July, and features Sphinx Virtuosi, Chanticleer, pianist Joyce Yang, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, the Lincoln Trio, PUBLIQuartet, and Sō Percussion with Caroline Shaw.
Further info: newportclassical.org
