Manchester Music Festival

WELCOME TO THE MANCHESTER MUSIC FESTIVAL
YOUNG ARTISTS PROGRAM!
We look forward to receiving your application!

Program Dates: July 6 – August 7, 2025
Arrival Date: July 6 | Departure Date: August 8
Manchester, Vermont

Application Fee: $85
Application Fee-Extended Deadline: $105

Applications Open: December 4, 2024
Application Deadline: January 15, 2025
Extended Deadline: February 15, 2025

About the Manchester Music Festival Young Artists Program
Visit the MMF Website Here

The Manchester Music Festival (MMF) Young Artists Program is a full-scholarship, five-week intensive chamber music program for exceptional string players and pianists, ages 18 - 26. Led by MMF Artistic Director and violinist Philip Setzer, the Young Artists Program is held annually in scenic Manchester, Vermont. In 2025, the Young Artists Program will take place from July 6 to August 7, concurrently with the Manchester Music Festival summer concert series. Young Artists receive daily coaching sessions by a faculty composed of acclaimed musicians performing on the Festival mainstage; and prepare for 8 -10 public performances, both in Young Artists ensembles and alongside the guest artists in Festival concerts.

The primary focus of the Young Artists Program is to intensively study and perform chamber music at a high level under the mentorship of the distinguished guest faculty. During the course of the five-week program, students will study several chamber masterworks and perform solo repertoire, as well as music in ensembles ranging from duos to octets. The repertoire studied spans the centuries, from Baroque to contemporary.

Each MMF Young Artist receives a scholarship that provides full tuition, free accommodations, and a $100 weekly stipend. Students are responsible for their own meals and for travel to and from Manchester. Local transportation within Manchester is provided, as needed.

Scholarships are made possible by the generous contributions of individual sponsors and endowments; and all of the Young Artists meet socially with YA patrons during their stay in Manchester.

 2025 Faculty

 A partial list of guest artists and faculty in Summer 2025 includes:

Philip Setzer, violin / Artistic Director, Manchester Music Festival / Distinguished Professor, Stony Brook University / Artistic Director, String Chamber Music, Cleveland Institute of Music / Director, Shouse Institute / Founding member, Emerson String Quartet
Michael Stephen Brown, piano, composer / Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Jeewon Park, piano / co-Artistic Director, Performing Artists in Residence, Clark Art Institute /
Caramoor International Music Festival
Gilles Vonsattel, piano / Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center / Bard College Conservatory of Music / UMass, Amherst
Paul Neubauer, viola / Former Principal, NY Philharmonic / Chamber Music Society of
Lincoln Center / The Juilliard School / Mannes College of Music
Ed Arron, cello / co-Artistic Director, Performing Artists in Residence, Clark Art Institute / Ehnes String Quartet
Paul Watkins, cello, piano, conductor / Artistic Director, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival / Emerson String Quartet
Arthur Haas, harpsichord / Aulos Ensemble / Empire Viols / Yale School of Music
Emi Ferguson, flute / Principal, Handel + Haydn Society / The Juilliard School
Timothy Cobb, bass / Principal, New York Philharmonic
Scott Dixon, bass / Cleveland Orchestra / International Contemporary Ensemble / Cleveland Institute of Music / Oberlin Conservatory
Sherezade Panthaki, soprano / Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble / Mount Holyoke College

MMF Young Artists Concerts, July 20 and August 3, 2025 will feature works based on poems, songs, and religious references and may include:

• Brahms / Violin and Piano Sonata in G major
• Brahms / String Sextet in G major
• Mendelssohn / String Quartet in A minor, op. 13 “Is it True?”
• Liszt / “Liebestraum” (“Dream of Love”)
• Beethoven / Slow movement of the String Quartet, op. 18, no. 1 (based on tomb scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet)
• Brahms, Dietrich, and Schumann / FAE Sonata

MMF Young Artists Concerto Concerts, July 13 and/or July 27, 2025
Special programs in which each of the Young Artists play a movement of a concerto or a concerto-like solo piece, possibly with piano, chamber, or strings accompaniment, and may include:

• Chopin / Concerti
• Mozart / Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K. 414
• Bach / Double Concerto for two violins
• Mozart / Symphonia Concertante for violin and viola
• Chausson / Poéme for solo violin, string quartet, and piano
• Ravel / Tzigane
• Stamitz / Viola Concerto
• Haydn / Cello concerti
• Shostakovich / Cello Concerto

MMF Young Artists will perform in Festival subscription concerts with guest artists, July 10, 17, 24, and 31; and Aug. 7. Main stage summer subscription concert repertoire for Young Artists includes:

• Bach / Brandenburg Concerto No. 5
• Purcell / Songs “The Plaint”: “O let me weep!”
• Purcell / Song “Hither This Way”
• Handel / Song “Sweet Bird”
• Mendelssohn / Octet for Strings, op. 20
• Janáček / String Quartet No. 1 “Kreutzer Sonata”
• Schumann / Piano Quintet in Eb, op. 44
• Prokofiev / Overture on Hebrew Themes for Clarinet, Strings, and Piano, op. 34
• Mozart / Clarinet Quintet, K. 581
• Wenzel Müller / Song “Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu”
• Beethoven/ Variations for Piano Trio “Kakadu”, op. 121a
• Schubert / Song “Die Forelle” (“The Trout”)
• Schubert / “Trout” Quintet (“Die Forelle”), D. 667, op. 114
• Mozart / “Ave Verum Corpus” for strings and piano, four hands (K. 618)

REQUIRED AUDITION MATERIAL (PLEASE SEND VIDEO RECORDING)

 STRINGS

• The exposition of a concerto movement with orchestra or piano accompaniment
• One movement of solo Bach
• One other work or movement of the applicant’s choosing, e.g., a sonata movement (with piano preferred).

PIANO

• One movement of a classical sonata, plus either:
• Option A: One virtuosic etude and a short 19th-century work of the applicant’s choosing -OR-
• Option B: One substantial 19th-century work containing comparable virtuosity to Option A.

Philip Setzer, Artistic Director: A founding member of the nine-time Grammy Award-winning Emerson String Quartet, violinist Philip Setzer was appointed Artistic Director of the Manchester Music Festival and Young Artists Program in 2024. In addition to his critically acclaimed performances on the world’s top concert stages, Setzer is a respected educator, mentor, and coach, having trained scores of musicians throughout his notable career. Setzer serves as Distinguished Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at Stony Brook University, Visiting Professor of Violin and Artistic Director of String Chamber Music at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Director of the Shouse Institute of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival.