FESTIVAL PLANS: Metropolitan Opera baritone Will Liverman, who just won a Grammy Award, is among the performers coming to the 2023 Princeton Festival on the grounds of Morven. (Photo by Adam Ewing)

The Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) has announced plans for the 2023 Princeton Festival, the majority of which takes place June 9-25 in the tented pavilion built seasonally on the grounds of Morven Museum & Garden.

Events range from a Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville to independent tributes honoring Aretha Franklin and Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay elected officials in the U.S., plus orchestral concerts, chamber music and dance, a Juneteenth celebration, a Family Day, and performances by ensembles and three 2023 Grammy Award winners.

“We wanted to create a Festival that was fun, yet relevant — connecting with new audiences through music, dance, and theater — proving that age-old art forms can be fresh and full of meaning for today’s arts lovers,” said Music Director Rossen Milanov.

Milanov conducts the opera, which is sung in the original Italian with English subtitles, and starring Festival opera veterans Kelly Guerra as Rosina and Nicholas Nestorak as Count Almaviva. Anchoring the Festival is Andrew Lippa’s theatrical oratorio I Am Harvey Milk, which celebrates the life of the first openly gay man to hold public office in California. Lippa, the show’s creator, will conduct, and Adam Kantor and Scarlett Strallen sing the roles of Harvey and Soprano, respectively.

Opening weekend features a Friday night performance by the 2023 Grammy Award-winning trio Time For Three. Saturday evening’s Aretha: A Tribute stars vocalists Capathia Jenkins and Ryan Shaw with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Devlin, and is followed Sunday by a piano recital featuring Christopher Taylor.

Later in the Festival, Broadway’s Next Hit Musical offers an evening of improv as audience members come up with ideas for a hit Broadway tune to be converted into an instant show by a quick-witted cast. Marking Juneteenth, a celebration is planned with community events and a song recital by Metropolitan Opera star baritone and 2023 Grammy Award winner Will Liverman.

Also scheduled are a collaboration of the 2023 Grammy Award-winning Attacca Quartet with American Repertory Ballet, concerts with The Claremont Trio and Boyd Meets Girl, and Baroque music with The Sebastians at Trinity Church. Mazel Tov Cocktail Party, conceived and created by clarinetist David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg, is described as a “good vibes explosion.” The Festival culminates with a Family Day with fun-filled activities leading up to a production of Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf featuring Really Inventive Stuff’s Michael Boudewyns.

2023 Princeton Festival tickets are available now, and range in price from $10 – $125. While most performances take place at Morven Museum & Garden, some are located inside at Trinity Church. For dates, times, program information, and tickets, visit princetonsymphony.org/festival.