NORFOLK — The Virginia Arts Festival opens its 29th season this week with a lineup spanning chamber music, jazz, rock and film-in-concert performances across Hampton Roads, as the organization continues its growth into a major regional presenter on the Mid-Atlantic arts calendar.
Founded in 1997, the festival presents more than 250 performances annually and draws an estimated 110,000 attendees each season, according to organizers.
The season opens June 3 with the Orava Quartet, an Australian string ensemble known for its high-energy performances, appearing at Norfolk’s Robin Hixon Theater alongside pianist Olga Kern, the festival’s chamber music director. The group performs again June 4 at the William & Mary Concert Hall in Williamsburg. Tickets for both performances are $35-$45.
On June 4, the Grammy Award-winning jazz vocal ensemble New York Voices performs at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts in Virginia Beach as part of its farewell tour after more than three decades together. Tickets range from about $45 to $85.
The festival’s Coffee Concert series continues June 5 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Portsmouth with a morning performance by the Orava Quartet followed by a casual audience reception. Tickets are $25.
Cowboy Junkies perform June 7 at Perry Pavilion in Norfolk in a concert marking the Canadian band’s 40th anniversary. Tickets range from about $55 to $95. The group is best known for its 1988 breakthrough album The Trinity Session and continues to tour and record, including recent work such as Such Ferocious Beauty.
Next week’s schedule includes a chamber trio featuring violinist Alexandre Da Costa, cellist Tommy Mesa and Kern, with tickets ranging from about $45 to $85; mandolinist Chris Thile, with tickets from about $55 to $95; and a live orchestral screening of Top Gun: Maverick with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra at Chrysler Hall, with tickets ranging from $35 to $110.
Tickets and full schedule information are available at vafest.org.
