MARLBORO-This summer, Marlboro Music marks a rare milestone: 75 years of bringing together musicians in the hills of southern Vermont to collaborate, to listen deeply, and to share their devotion to chamber music.
The anniversary season runs July 18 through Aug. 16, under the artistic leadership of pianists Mitsuko Uchida and Jonathan Biss.
Marlboro Music was founded in 1951, in the aftermath of World War II, as an act of belief in the power of collaboration, in the necessity of listening, and in the idea that music could help heal a fractured world. Over seven decades, this commitment “has shaped generations of artists and left an indelible mark on musical life in the United States and beyond,” event promoters wrote in a news release.
“What began as an idealistic experiment — a community in which seasoned artists and outstanding emerging musicians could make music together as equals, with unlimited time and no commercial pressures — remains singular today,” said organizers.
Each summer, some 80 musicians from around the world gather on Marlboro’s campus for seven weeks of intensive rehearsal, study, and discovery. As the summer unfolds, groups that feel they have gotten to the very heart of the music present the results of their work to audiences during five weekends of concerts and open rehearsals.
Over the course of each summer, Marlboro artists form some 200 chamber music study groups, working through repertoire of their own choosing that spans the Baroque era to contemporary compositions. An ensemble might read through a piece once and move on, or it might spend several weeks exploring a single work in great depth.
There is no fixed agenda; the process is guided entirely by musical curiosity. However long they choose to explore a piece, each group works to achieve a collective understanding—seeking each day to get a little closer to revealing the inner truth of the music and the intentions of its composer.
Because Marlboro’s core mission is inquiry rather than performance, ensembles are presented in public only when the musicians themselves “feel they have achieved something special.” Fewer than a quarter of the works rehearsed each summer are ultimately performed on the concert stage; those that do embody the high standards and collaborative spirit that define all of the groups at Marlboro.
Concert programs are chosen by the artists each week and announced approximately one week before each performance.
More than a dozen first-year participants will join the Marlboro community this season, each selected through a rigorous winter audition process. They join returning emerging artists in their second or third seasons — all outstanding professionals at early stages of their careers — alongside a distinguished roster of senior artists: celebrated soloists, members of eminent chamber ensembles, and principal chairs of leading orchestras worldwide.
Among this summer’s participants are pianists Ieva Jokubaviciute, Juho Pohjonen, Cynthia Raim, and Ignat Solzhenitsyn, and current and past members of the Borromeo, Brentano, Cherubini, Doric, Elias, Guarneri, Jack, Juilliard, and Mendelssohn Quartets and the Gould Piano Trio.
Orchestral principals include violinist Meesun Hong Coleman (Mahler Chamber Orchestra), violist Beth Guterman Chu (Saint Louis Symphony), flutist Joshua Smith (Cleveland Orchestra), oboists Mary Lynch VanderKolk (Seattle Symphony) and Frank Rosenwein (Cleveland Orchestra), and bassoonist Guilhaume Santana (Mahler Chamber Orchestra).
The vocal program is led by mezzo-soprano Lydia Brown and soprano Anja Burmeister, with soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon and mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano returning as senior vocal artists.
Many of Marlboro’s senior artists — including Uchida and Biss — themselves spent formative early-career summers in Marlboro and have returned to share those experiences with new generations. This continuity of mentorship across generations is central to Marlboro’s method.
Marlboro’s composer-in-residence for 2026 is Marcos Balter. Organizers say the Brazilian-born composer’s work has been praised by the Chicago Tribune as “minutely crafted” and “utterly lovely.” Acclaimed for music that is at once emotionally visceral and intellectually complex, Balter describes his compositional approach as “resonant humanism” — placing human presence, vulnerability, and attentive listening at its center. Marlboro artists will explore and perform several of his chamber works over the course of the summer.
Tickets for the 2026 season are available at marlboromusic.org and through the Marlboro Box Office at 215-569-4690. Concert tickets are $20–$40. Performances take place on Marlboro’s campus in Persons Auditorium, 2472 South Rd., on Saturday evenings at 8 p.m., and Sunday afternoons at 2:30 p.m., with additional Friday evening performances on Aug. 7 and 14 at 8 p.m.
The Aug. 7 concert is the annual Marlboro Music Town Benefit Concert; all proceeds go directly to Marlboro town organizations. Open rehearsals begin this week, with schedules announced at the start of each week.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.