Preview: What I'm Looking Forward To This Summer | #1Summer50Concerts

I've spent the last few months sifting through calendars and articles in hopes of even finding 50 concerts to go to this summer. Most big cities' classical music scenes dry up in the summer as orchestras take up residency at festivals in the quaint countryside. I'm glad to say, though, that NYC's summer music scene is active as always. Here are a few things I'm looking forward to seeing this summer:

• The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra's annual two-concert series at Carnegie Hall, led this year by music director Yannick Nézét-Seguin. The first concert is a program of Ravel, Dutilleux, and Debussy with soprano Isabel Leonard (June 3); the second is Mahler's Rückert-Lieder with Met regular Elīna Garanča paired with Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 (June 14)

• The premiere of David Lang's opera prisoner of the state, directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer and performed by a cast of New York opera regulars accompanied by the New York Philharmonic (June 6-8, David Geffen Hall)

• Avant-garde vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth's premiere of Bryce Dessner and Korde Arrington Tuttle's piece Triptych, based on photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe (June 6-8, Brooklyn Academy of Music)

• Mitsuko Uchida's rescheduled all-Schubert Carnegie Hall program (June 16)

• Three-time Tony Award-nominee Dave Malloy's new musical Octet, inspired by internet comment boards and scored for eight solo a cappella voices (through June 16, Signature Theater)

• Orchestra of St. Luke's Bach celebration, which includes a program of Bach's orchestral music (June 13, Zankel Hall @ Carnegie Hall), a performance of the Goldberg Variations by French harpsichordist Pierre Hantaï (June 19, DiMenna Center), and OSL music director Bernard Labadie's own orchestration of the Goldberg Variations (June 20, Zankel Hall @ Carnegie Hall)

• The free Naumburg Orchestral Concert series at the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center, which includes performances by New-York based ensemble The Knights (June 17), the Venice Baroque Orchestra (July 10), Boston-based string orchestra A Far Cry (July 18), the Orchestra of St. Luke's (July 30), and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (Aug 6)

• The three NYC performances of Will Crutchfield's period bel-canto opera and oratorio festival Teatro Nuovo: a double bill of Donizetti's rarely-heard Symphony in E minor and Rossini's Stabat mater (June 27, Church of the Heavenly Rest), followed by Rossini's La gazza ladra (July 17, Rose Theater @ Jazz at Lincoln Center) and Bellini's La straniera (July 18, Rose Theater @ Jazz at Lincoln Center)

• Celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, including the New York City Opera's premiere of Iain Bell's Stonewall (June 21-28, Rose Theater @ Jazz at Lincoln Center), as well as the LGBT-themed New York Festival of Song (June 11 and 25, LGBT Center)

• Jazz club residencies by Joey Alexander (June 6-9, Blue Note), Brad Mehldau (June 18-23, Village Vanguard), The Bad Plus (July 25-30, Jazz Standard), Billy Childs (July 11-14, Jazz Standard), Vijay Iyer (July 16-21, Village Vanguard), and so many more!

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I hope you're as excited as I am!