Berkshire High Peaks Festival

Close Encounters with Music brings back the Berkshire High Peaks Festival, live and in person, July 21 to 30 at the Berkshire School in Sheffield.

At the core of the festival, 40 international students gather for intensive study, perform in ensembles and meet for discussions and workshops by prominent composers, international experts and notable figures in the music world.

The ten-day festival, directed by Close Encounters With Music’s artistic director and internationally acclaimed cellist Yehuda Hanani, presents “Moonlight Sonatas” concerts, lectures, and master classes open to the public – this year free to all.

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Public events include …

Moonlight Sonatas concert — July 21 at 7:30 p.m.

Russian art and culture after Mariupol talk — July 23 at 4 p.m.

Moonlight Sonatas concert — July 24 at 7:30 p.m.

Stage Fright and memory talk — July 26 at 1 p.m.

Opera talk with Jay Lessenger — July 26 at 7 p.m.

Moonlight Sonatas concert — July 27, 28 and 30 at 7:30 p.m.

Master classes with music faculty including:

• Violinists Irina Muresanu (University of Maryland) and Peter Zazofsky (Boston University)
• Violists Daniel Panner (Mannes School) and Michael Strauss (Dana School of Music, Youngstown State University)
• Pianists Annie Brooks (Wingate University), Gila Goldstein (Longy School of Music) and Alexander Shtarkman (Peabody Conservatory)
• Soprano Danielle Talamantes (Metropolitan Opera) and bass baritone Kerry Wilkerson (George Mason University)
• Cellists Yehuda Hanani (Mannes School), Jeffrey Zeigler (Director of Mannes Prep; former member of Kronos Quartet); Diego Fainguersch (Institute of Art at the Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires); and Sae Rom Kwon (Kang-Nam University, Korea)
• Guitarist Eliot Fisk (New England Conservatory)