The San Francisco Opera’s Opera in the Gardens
Photo: Marty Sohl/San Francisco Opera
Beginning with the summer of 1996 the MPF and the San Francisco Opera have invited residents and visitors to San Francisco to bring a picnic and enjoy the finest music performed by soloists and members of the San Francisco Opera. This free outdoor concert is mounted on the lawns of the Yerba Buena Gardens Esplanade where arias, ensembles, and orchestral music by Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, and Bizet are performed to the enchantment of all who attend. Join us and bring a picnic!
The Kennedy Center Program: Millennium Stage
Artwork: John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Performances on the Millennium Stage of the Kennedy Center in Washington feature an eclectic series of musical events, ranging from the National Symphony Orchestra performing classical music to a program of traditional and modern music of indigenous people of Alaska and everything in between.
Chicago Lyric Opera
On an early September evening, as many as 30,000 Chicago-area music lovers gather in Chicago's Grant Park to hear Stars of Lyric Opera performed at the city's Grant Park by the Opera's stars, chorus and orchestra. MPF has been a sponsor of the Lyric's annual free concerts since they started in 2002.
National Veterans Creative Arts Festival
MPF is proud to provide the orchestra for the annual National Veterans Creative Arts Festival, presented annually by the Veterans Administration. The Festival showcases and honors the unique, creative talents of our nation's hospitalized veterans. Regional competitions begin early in the year, and end with more than 200 finalists participating in the Festival, exhibiting their talents in both the performing and visual arts. The Festival is held in October of each year in a different city. As with all programs in which MPF participates, the public is admitted free to the both the stage performance and the crafts exhibit.
National Public Radio's Performance Today
"It was through the support of the MPF that National Public Radio was able, for the first time in 20 years, to share with the nation live recorded performances of the New York Philharmonic," said Benjamin Roe, Senior Producer of Music and Social Projects for NPR's Performance Today series. Due in part to MPF participation 217 member NPR stations have reached 1.6 million listeners with broadcasts of various symphonies throughout the country.
Black History Month concerts in Buffalo, New York
MPF has provided full funding for the Black History Month Concerts in Buffalo, where musicians of many ages and backgrounds perform concerts of jazz, rhythm and blues, be-bop, and soul music in inner-city schools that have lost their music programs.
Festival of American Folklife
This Festival is the Smithsonian's living museum of cultural heritage, and is performed outdoors on the National Mall in Washington, DC every summer for two weeks. The admission-free Festival annually attracts over one million visitors. MPF has supported the Festival since 1971, enabling musicians of diverse backgrounds and disciplines to present their traditional music to a broad public.
Saturday Night Bath Band Concerts
For the 18th consecutive year, MPF has provided funding for concerts by the Saturday Night Bath Band for at-risk and incarcerated youths. To date, SNB has given more than 400 concerts at local juvenile halls, continuation high schools and probation camps throughout Southern California, connecting directly with more than 13,000 young people.
Metropolitan Opera
In New York City's parks throughout the summer, tens of thousands of New York City residents and visitors enjoy both the natural beauty so hard to come by in big cities and the diverse and outstanding musical programs that enrich the season. Among these highlights at several parks—including the largest, Central Park—are the free concerts performed by the Metropolitan Opera, and sponsored by the MPF.
LA County Holiday Celebration
48th Annual L.A. County Holiday Celebration/photo: Ed Krieger
Music - song - dance. A free, six-hour holiday extravaganza, co-sponsored
by the Music Performance Fund in the beautiful Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of
the Music Center, is L.A. County's yearly gift to the people of Los Angeles.
The 2005 edition celebrated more than 40 musical ensembles, choirs, and
dance companies - about 1,500 performers in all - reflecting the geographic
and ethnic diversity that defines Los Angeles. The 46th Annual L.A. County
Holiday Celebration took place on Saturday, December 24 from 3:00 to 9:00
p.m. Patrons were welcome to come and go throughout the performance, and
the entire six hours was simulcast live on KCET (Channel 28). Highlights
from the 2004 live presentation were carried by PBS stations across the
United States on December 15.