ORGANIZATION
The Newport Music Festival (NMF) celebrated its highly successful 50th Anniversary in 2018. Since its launch in 1969, NMF has played a significant role in the cultural life of Rhode Island. Over the years, the Festival has produced more than 2,000 classical chamber music concerts in many of the Preservation Society of Newport County’s renowned historic mansions and in various venues throughout Newport. NMF has presented more than 1,000 artists, including 130 American debuts of artists who have gone on to make musical history.
The last decade has brought a broadening of the Festival’s musical landscape. From Bach to Bernstein to world premieres by established and emerging composers, opera, and the American songbook, the Festival continues to offer a range of stellar classical performances in one of America’s most beautiful coastal cities.
The May 2017 arrival of Pamela A. Pantos as NMF’s new Executive Director heralded a new era for the organization, characterized by an intense focus on artistic excellence, greater depth and breadth of repertory, and new initiatives in outreach and education. Energized and revitalized by a change in leadership, rebranding, and the critically acclaimed 50th Anniversary Season, NMF is poised upon an upward trajectory of growth as it enters its sixth decade in the Newport community.
