Check out these classical music events happening around Vancouver this summer.
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In summer, classical music offerings change dramatically: free outdoor events and festivals of various sorts populate our precious sunny days, not to mention the occasional one-offs.
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Here are some highlights to consider:
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The biggest summer initiative is Early Music Vancouver’s annual festival, which kicks off July 31 with a performance of Monteverdi’s Orfeo and ends Aug. 10 with a Vivaldi program led by baroque violinist extraordinaire Rachel Podger.
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In between there are eight more events, some small, some a bit esoteric, but all a welcome departure for listeners who want to hear informed performances of music from the Renaissance through the early 19th century.
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Sun Spots
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Both our major home-team organizations have rung down the curtain on their 2025-26 seasons, but offer popular summer projects.
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The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra boasts one of the most wildly popular events, its annual Symphony at Sunset concert. You’ve no doubt seen pictures from previous years: a heady mix of happy crowds, hardworking instrumentalists, West End towers and the ocean.
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This year the event moves just a bit east, to David Lam Park, July 11 at 8 p.m.
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A week later comes Symphony in the Park on Saturday, July 18, at 7:30 p.m., a more pastoral proposition held on the Great Lawn of Burnaby’s Shadbolt Centre on the north shore of Deer Lake.
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Both programs offer substantial hits from the John Williams’ playlist, leavened with more traditional repertoire.
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Music director Otto Tausk conducts in town; Trevor Wilson’s on the podium in Burnaby.
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On July 19, also at Deer Lake, opera fans get a free taste of what’s going to be on offer next season from Vancouver Opera through selections from Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Puccini’s Tosca, and Verdi’s La Traviata, with other samples from Italian repertoire to round out the free concert. VO music director Jacques Lacombe conducts.
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Pre-concert celebrations onstage from 5:15 p.m.; concert proper begins at 7:30 p.m.
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A now traditional bit of summer fun with the VSO are movie nights in the very old-Hollywood Orpheum Theatre.
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There are three popular choices this July. Jurassic Park, with one of the fabled Williams’ scores, launches the miniseries July 9-10. Next up is Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in Concert on July 16-17. The series winds down with The Lion King Live in Concert on July 24-25. All performances start at 7 p.m., except for a Lion King matinee, 2 p.m. on July 25.
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Minded for a bit of musical travel? There are plenty of options in nearby Washington state, but if you prefer all-Canadian events, there’s the Cascade Peaks Chamber Festival, June 19-21, at the RockRidge Canyon Resort near Princeton.
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Or, there’s chamber music at the Victoria Summer Music Festival, going strong for 30 years, and running this summer from July 24 to Aug. 9. Concerts are on the leafy grounds of the University of Victoria, in the fine Phillip T. Young Recital Hall.
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Finally, and with the disclaimer that many of us have mixed feelings about music competitions, there is a June 14 event at the Annex with two back-to-back gala concerts featuring an impressive array of B.C. winners of the Canadian Music Competition: 2 p.m., for instrumentalists and singers; 4 p.m. for keyboard.
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