Thomas Hampson returns to the Verbier Festival this month for several concerts, events and talks. On Monday, July 26 at 14:30 CEST, Hampson leads a masterclass with singers from the Academy’s Atelier Lyrique at the Centre Culturel du Hameau. Mr. Hampson will work with a fabulous roster of artists, including sopranos Erika Baikoff & Sylvia D’Eramo, bass Edward Jowle, tenor Sungho Kim, baritones Stephen Marsh & Alexander York, and bass-baritone Jean-Philippe Mc Clish.

On Wednesday, July 28 at 14:30 CEST, the festival presents “VF Talks – Panorama / Hope / Hampson.” Thomas Hampson and violinist Daniel Hope join together to discuss some of the most famous film music of the 20th century, written by composers who fled fascist persecution and settled in Los Angeles. Hope will present his extensive research on this period in a Mainstage concert on 30 July, featuring Hampson and a chamber quartet. This event will be streamed live on July 28 at 14:30 CEST / 8:30 ET via IDAGIO’s Global Concert Hall and Facebook page, and the Verbier Festival Facebook page.

The mainstage concert, titled “Escape to Paradise, Los Angeles 1943”, will occur on Friday, July 30, at 20:00 CEST. Hampson will share the stage with a top-notch chamber group, including Daniel Hope, violist Lawrence Power, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, double bass Stéphane Logerot, and pianist Julien Quentin. Concert description provided by the Verbier Festival:

“Escape to Paradise, Los Angeles 1943 brings to life, through the twin lenses of words and music, an extraordinary creative flowering driven by one of history’s darkest periods. Daniel Hope’s brilliant research, recording and writing, alongside the expert curation and interpretation of Thomas Hampson, the eminent “ambassador of American Song” and founder of the Song of America series, weave together the works and thoughts of cultural and scientific giants such as Irving Berlin and Arnold Schoenberg, Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington, Thomas Mann and Edward R. Murrow, and Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer into a unique tapestry of soaring melody and heart-rending verbal images depicting humanity at its best and worst. This unique evening creates a vivid portrait of the most remarkable diaspora of talent the world has seen.”

Photo credit: Frances Marshall