Agata Popęda here, nervously scrolling through the online Carmel Bach Festival 2026 program to see which concerts are already sold out and how to choose among those still available.
The festival kicks off officially on Saturday, July 11—with the 2.5-hour-long program, Haydn The Seasons. The program includes “Muohta: Language of Snow,” a composition by Norwegian Nils Henrik Asheim, with 18 snow-related words in the Sami language as lyrics, and wraps up on Saturday, July 25. But there are concerts to consider before, starting as early as tomorrow, Wednesday, July 1.
In the Stacks, a free series that brings CBF to libraries, usually wind and string ensembles, starts as soon as 3pm tomorrow, Wednesday, July 1 in El Gabilan Library, 1400 N. Main St., Salinas, followed by a 3pm concert on Friday, July 3 at the Monterey Public Library, 625 Pacific St. It continues 3pm on Sunday, July 5 in the Marina Library, 190 Seaside Circle.
It’s your chance not only to listen to world-class chamber music for free, but also meet the musicians who will perform at the 89th Carmel Bach Festival—its theme this year is “The Sound of Nature.”
There are two more pre-festival concerts you can try to catch. Counter tenor Reginald Mobley will give an hour-long recital, Sons of England, at 7:30pm on Monday, July 6 at All Saints' Episcopal Church in Carmel—tickets ($45) are still available.
“He has such a beautiful voice,” Carmel Bach Festival Executive Director Nathan Lutz says. “He'll be one of the four vocal soloists as well.”
Mobley will sing 16th and 17th century English compositions by Henry Purcell and John Dowland and many by 18th century composer Charles Ignatius Sancho, who was born on a slave ship.
The second pre-festival event is called Classical Cabaret, which will take place at 7:30pm on Wednesday, July 8 at Sunset Center Studio 105, the center’s smaller venue. Among the composers being performed there, we’ll find Paquito D’Rivera and Dmitri Shostakovich, and also a Broadway jazz standard by Youmans and Caesar.
Don’t forget to read the cover story on the Carmel Bach Festival coming out in the July 9 issue of the Weekly.
(1) comment
Seaside Library also has an In The Stacks event on Tuesday, July 21 at 3pm.
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