Now part of Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City, the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center comes to David Geffen Hall’s Wu Tsai Theater for an exciting season that comprises 7 programs of 13 concerts (July 20–
August 10). Jonathon Heyward, in his inaugural year as the orchestra’s Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director, is happy to continue the tradition of summer music making at Lincoln Center. “This orchestra’s history is one I admire greatly, both from the perspective of its place in the hearts of so many New Yorkers who have found classical music through its summer performances and the incredible joy, care, and skill the musicians bring to the stage,“ he says.

Bringing together music familiar and unfamiliar, the orchestra’s programs feature beloved works by Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven alongside new works that include co-commissions and even a world premiere. Heyward explains, “I believe strongly in respecting the traditions of classical music while reimagining the future, and this season embodies that."

First up is a July 20 preview concert that audience members will be able to curate themselves, choosing from a menu of works to be performed during the summer to create a “new” symphony that Heyward will conduct. Titled Symphony of Choice, that concert will be followed by an opening night program pairing Beethoven’s blissful “Pastoral” Symphony with the North American premiere of City of Floating
Sounds, a meditative work by Chinese composer Huang Ruo that uses technology to allow the audience to hear segments of it before entering the hall to hear the full live performance (July 23 and 24).

For the Avery Fisher Legacy Concert in which Benjamin Beilman is the soloist in Brahms’ Violin Concerto, Kazem Abdullah also conducts Stravinsky’s Pulcinella as well as Quapaw-Cherokee composer Louis W. Ballard’s Incident at Wounded Knee (July 26 and 27).

Other 21st-century music to be heard this summer include Peter Lieberson’s 2005 Neruda Songs, which will be sung by mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges (July 30 and 31); Caroline Shaw’s 2011 Entr’acte (August 6 and 7); and British-Guyanese composer Hannah Kendall’s He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing, which has its world premiere on the orchestra’s final program, led by Heyward (August 9 and 10).

The final concerts also demonstrate the healing power of music. Presented in partnership with a series of panels with the Jameel Arts and Health Lab in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), the program is anchored by Symphony No. 2 by Robert Schumann, whose compositions helped him deal with mental health difficulties. Two works by J.S. Bach round out the final program, highlighting the role Bach’s music played during Schumann’s period of hospitalization, and an immersive AR installation by artist Sophie Kahn in the David Geffen Hall lobby explores further connections between Bach and Schumann.

This summer’s concerts also give the Festival Orchestra’s musicians their own moments in the spotlight. Principal oboist Ryan Roberts will be the soloist in Vaughan Williams’ Oboe Concerto (August 6 and 7), while concertmaster Ruggero Allifranchini and principal second violinist Laura Frautschi are the soloists in the Sinfonia concertante in G, No. 2, by Joseph Bologne—a composer born in the French colony of Guadeloupe who was a contemporary of Mozart—in a program led by guest conductor Jeannette Sorrell that includes other Mozart and Bologne works and features soprano Sonya Headlam (August 2 and 3).

Violinist Frautschi enjoys exploring less familiar repertoire. “I’ve been very excited to see the Festival Orchestra embrace an expansion of the historically designated classical canon,” she says.“I’m looking forward to digging into Bologne’s Sinfonia concertante because it gives an opportunity to explore a different voice from a period historically dominated by Mozart. Pairing their works will be a fascinating way to contextualize these significant artists.” Heyward looks forward to the music he and the orchestra members will perform this summer. “Collaborating with them the past two summers has been thrilling and I know this summer will be even more so,” he says. “I am grateful to these phenomenal musicians and the audiences we’re looking forward to welcoming this summer.”