Mostly Mozart at Midsummer — Three Nights, One Concerto, Infinite Possibilities
Mozart’s music has always felt startlingly modern to me. Its clean lines and daring harmonic turns laid the groundwork for the American voices I champion—Copland’s prairie‑wide chords, Gershwin’s jazz‑flecked riffs, Bernstein’s urban swagger. By opening my summer with Mozart, I’m reminding myself (and you) where that story begins: with imagination married to perfect craft.
This July the Midsummer Mozart Festival offers a rare chance to hear Mozart’s masterpiece—Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major—in three distinct acoustic worlds. Across the festival’s three nights the venue itself becomes a collaborator. On Friday, July 25, we’ll settle into Berkeley’s Art‑Deco City Club, an intimate jewel box where every breath of the orchestra feels like chamber music. Saturday, July 26, carries us north to Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma, where vineyard hills catch the concerto’s dancing rhythms as dusk settles in. Finally, on Sunday, July 27, we take the stage at Saratoga’s open‑air Mountain Winery Amphitheater—ten thousand seats beneath a canopy of stars—letting Mozart unfold on a truly symphonic scale.
I’ll join conductor Ryan Murray and an ensemble drawn from San Francisco Ballet and San Francisco Opera—musicians who live and breathe opera every day. That pedigree turns this Mozart concerto into an “aria without words,” letting us shape phrases as if trading dialogue on stage.Mozart would have wanted nothing less.
Why does this matter to my larger mission? Because the qualities we celebrate in Mozart—clarity, bold invention, emotional directness—are the same qualities that define great American music. By revisiting the source, I recharge the battery that powers everything from Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue to Copland’s Piano Concerto.
Bring a friend, choose your favorite setting, and hear how an environment can transform a familiar masterpiece. Seats are limited at each venue, so please grab your tickets soon.
Spotlight: Music Meets AI
Earlier this spring I traded the concert hall for the Moscone Center stage at World Summit AI USA in San Francisco. Standing before an audience of tech pioneers and futurists, I performed Hans Zimmer’s haunting “Cornfield Chase” from Interstellar—solo piano, no synths, no click track. The piece’s slowly expanding harmonies mirror the sense of wonder that drives both space exploration and artificial intelligence. I wanted to show that the emotional intelligence of music is every bit as vital as the algorithms shaping our future.
Sharing Zimmer’s score in that setting reminded me why I champion American music of every stripe: whether premiering new concertos, re-imagining film soundtracks, or exploring Mozart’s timeless clarity, my goal is the same—invite listeners to hear familiar sounds with fresh ears.
Upcoming Performances
July 25 — Berkeley City Club • Midsummer Mozart Festival — Mozart Concerto No. 23
July 26 — Buena Vista Winery, Sonoma • Midsummer Mozart Festival — Mozart Concerto No. 23
July 27 — Mountain Winery Amphitheater, Saratoga • Midsummer Mozart Festival — Mozart Concerto No. 23
August 17 — Merced Theatre • Merced Symphony Midsummer
October 4 — Herbst Theatre • San Francisco Philharmonic — Beethoven Triple Concerto
November 7-8 — James Dunn Theatre • Marin Symphony— Liszt Fantasie über ungarische Volksmelodien, S. 123 (Fantasia on Hungarian Folk Melodies) Followed by Liszt Totentanz: Paraphrase on Dies irae, S.126
