The 2025 Spring Arts Preview: Our picks in Music

The Atlanta Baroque Orchestra’s performances of Monteverdi Vespers at The Cathedral of St. Philip in Buckhead March 28 and March 29 will be a rare opportunity to see a towering, early baroque work that, unlike Bach’s Passions or Handel’s oratorios, was forgotten for centuries, re-emerging in the 1930s. Guest artists playing period instruments such as the cornetto, sackbut (trombone) and recorder will join the orchestra and multiple choirs in the work described as having “compositional brilliance, originality and ravishing beauty.”  The Cathedral has acoustics and aesthetics similar to the venues in Europe for which the work was originally written.

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The Atlanta Opera’s decision to perform all four operas in Wagner’s Ring cycle was both daring and a heavy lift. So far, it’s been a huge success. April 26 through May 4 at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, the company will perform the third opera, the five-hour Siegfried. Yes, that’s five hours. But if the previous productions are any indication, powerful performances by renowned singers and brilliant set designs will help those hours fly by. And then there’s the theme, which we could all use right now: Love, courage and wisdom triumph over unfettered power. Greer Grimsley once again portrays Wotan, with tenor Stefan Vinke as Siegfried and Lise Lindstrom as Brünnhilde.

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The lineup for the 2025 Atlanta Jazz Festival has yet to be announced, but this free event on Memorial Day weekend in Piedmont Park is always a high point in the city’s summer music calendar. Expect artists both local and global, with sounds ranging from straight ahead jazz to hip-hop and more — May 24 through May 26 at Piedmont Park. Here are photos from last year’s festival.

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We’ve been talking about him all season: Beethoven. Nathalie Stutzmann and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra continue their Beethoven marathon this spring with Symphonies 6 and 8 February 27-through March 1; Symphonies 4 and 7 March 6 through March 9 and his Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano on April 3 and April 4. On May 8 through May 11, the orchestra and Atlanta Symphony Chorus will attack the composer’s Missa solemnis, a massive work that has been described as “almost too big for the concert hall, too dramatic for the church and notoriously difficult for the singers.”

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More Music Highlights . . .

• Kevn Kinney, Lenny Kaye and Peter Buck will play two shows on February 26 at Eddie’s Attic.

• The Taylor Roberts Quartet at Eddie’s Attic. Guitarist Taylor Roberts’ influences include jazz, R&B, classic rock and pop. Kevin Bales, Billy Thornton and Terreon Gully join for a complete quartet. February 27.

• Sounds of Sanctuary: A CTS Evening of Song and Storytelling, celebrates Black, indigenous and immigrant composers and musicians at First Presbyterian Church on March 8.

• Atlanta Braves organist Matthew Kaminski and his quartet play at All Saints’ Episcopal Church on March 14.

• Atlanta Master Chorale: Pathways will be at the Schwartz Center March 14 and March 15.

• Classical pianist Elisabeth Brauss makes her Spivey Hall debut on March 15.

• On March 17, Matteo Bocelli, Andrea’s son, brings his classical crossover to Symphony Hall.

• Jae Hong Park, winner of the 2021 Busoni International Piano Competition, joins the ASO under the baton of Robert Spano on March 27 and March 29.

• Jazz vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater stops off at the Rialto Center for the Arts on March 29.

• Angelique Kidjo brings her African Symphony to Symphony Hall on March 30. Expect musical homages to Fela Kuti, Youssou N’Dour, Burna Boy and more.

• The SweetWater 420 Fest will be at Pullman Yards April 18 through April 20.

• On May 2, the Atlanta Master Chorale performs Mozart’s Requiem and more at the Schwartz Center.

• Rapper Post Malone’s BIG ASS Stadium Tour stops off at the Mercedes Benz Stadium May 11 with special guests Jelly Roll and Sierra Ferrell.

More 2025 Spring Picks