Add this to your Liszt of summer fun
Siletz Bay Music Festival will return this August with its largest season yet, bringing 11 days of chamber music, jazz and orchestral performances to venues in Lincoln City and Newport.
Running Thursday, Aug. 13, through Sunday, Aug. 23, the festival features 12 concerts performed by nearly 60 musicians from around the world. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Mei-Ting Sun and Executive Director Daniel Pack, the 2026 season combines beloved masterworks, rarely performed works and contemporary compositions in a celebration of classical and jazz traditions.
Sun opens the festival with "Dreams of Childhood: The Musical Reflections of a New Father," featuring Mozart's "12 Variations on 'Ah, vous dirai-je maman,'" Schumann's "Kinderszenen," Villa-Lobos's "A próle do bebê," Debussy's "Children's Corner" and Prokofiev's "Sonata No. 7."
Other chamber concerts include "Triumph Over Melancholy," featuring works by Hindemith, Beethoven and Reinecke; "Romance at the Bay," a sonata program with music by Bowen, Fauré and Rachmaninoff; and "Coastal Crosswinds," highlighting works by Rózsa, Bloch, Bernstein, Beethoven and Milhaud. Audiences will also hear Shulamit Ran's "Mirage," Brahms' "Piano Trio in C minor" and Mendelssohn's celebrated "Octet" during the program "Sweet and Spicy."
The festival's free chamber concert, "A Musical Gift," includes works by Ravel, Ives, Muczynski and Brahms. Another free event, the family concert at Schooner Creek Discovery Park, features Francis Poulenc's "The Story of Babar the Little Elephant" arranged for wind quintet and narrator.
Jazz fans can enjoy "Welcome to the Club," a concert celebrating the centennial of Miles Davis and John Coltrane with performances led by Portland trumpeter Noah Simpson. The annual benefit concert will feature the popular R&B and dance band Soul Proprietors.
The final weekend shifts to full orchestra performances under the direction of conductor Johann Stuckenbruck. "A Night at the Symphony" features Webern's "Im Sommerwind," Wagner's "Five Wesendonck Lieder," Bach's "Ricercar" from "The Musical Offering" and Beethoven's "Symphony No. 8." The closing concert, "Sounds of America," includes Bernstein's "Overture to Candide," Dohnányi's "Variations on a Nursery Song," Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate's "Chokfi" and Copland's "Lincoln Portrait," narrated by Newport Symphony Executive Director Dan Howard.
The nonprofit Siletz Bay Music Festival was founded to bring multi-genre, world-class music performed by outstanding musicians to the Central Oregon Coast, reaching across race, culture, age, and socioeconomic barriers to provide extraordinary musical and educational experiences.
Festival performances take place at the Lincoln City Cultural Center, Congregational Church of Lincoln City, Pacific Maritime Heritage Center, Schooner Creek Discovery Park and Taft 7-12 School. Tickets, festival packages and a complete schedule are available at siletzbaymusic.org.