It was so great to curate, interview and edit the catalog for the Alper Initiative for Washington Art (June 14 – August 10, 2025) the exhibition Intersections which brings together the poetic vision of Northern Virginia artist David A. Douglas, whose large-scale works blend drawing, painting, and photography to explore memory and place. Through landscapes and interior scenes glimpsed through windows, doors, and thresholds, Douglas invites viewers into layered environments that feel both deeply personal and universally familiar.

At the heart of Douglas’s work is a compelling question: Who are we, and how do we fit into the places we inhabit? His images reflect a deep engagement with the natural world, yet always with traces of human presence—benches, houses, clotheslines, and quiet figures—that hint at stories unfolding across time. These are not literal depictions of specific locations, but imaginative composites drawn from fragments of memory and observation. The result is a body of work that feels timeless, introspective, and emotionally resonant.

Ultimately, Intersections is an exploration of what it means to be a human being on this planet—connected to home, landscape, memory, and one another. The works ask gently profound questions: What makes a place meaningful? What does it mean to belong? What do we notice, and why? Through this exhibition, viewers are encouraged to slow down, reflect, and perhaps see themselves in a new way—not just in relation to the art, but in relation to their own lives, communities, and the world around them. Engaging, contemplative, and quietly powerful, Douglas’ art opens a space for wonder and self-inquiry. 

David A. Douglas and his family live in Alexandria, VA and Easton, MD. 

Look out for Gallery Talk – Intersections
Friday July 25, 2:00–3:00 p.m.

Anke Van Wagenberg, PhD, is Senior Curator & Head of International Collaborations at the American Federation of Arts in New York and lives in Talbot County, MD. 

It’s hard to say whether the current musicians who play under the celebrated banner of the Juilliard String Quartet are more in demand as virtuoso ensemble players or as elite teachers on the strings and chamber music faculties of their namesake Juilliard School.

Violinist/violist Catherine Cho, co-artistic director of the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival along with cellist Marcy Rosen, has been a member of Juilliard’s faculty since 1996, currently teaching in the school’s Chamber Music Community Engagement Seminar. So it was no stretch for her to recruit the Juilliard Fab Four – violinists Areta Zhulla and Ronald Copes, violist Molly Carr and cellist Astrid Schween – as guest artists for the 40th anniversary Chesapeake festival, concluding this week at the Ebenezer Theater.

Week 2 of the festival opened Thursday night with Mendelssohn’s String Quintet No. 1 in A Major performed with Cho on violin with a fellow Chesapeake Music regular, violist Daniel Phillips, along with three of the four Juilliard players – violinist Zhulla, violist Carr and cellist Scheen. If the five-string piece strikes you as exuberantly youthful, consider that Mendelssohn was not quite 20 when he composed it and completed a revision at 24. (His prolific career was cut short by premature death at age 38.)

Even with a melancholic opening, a quintet of strings can establish a vigorous chamber presence, which this one did with relish. A solo theme lyrically played by violinist Zhulla surrenders to a contrapuntal conversation involving all five strings punctuated by an energetically impatient staccato motif. The second movement, an intermezzo, suggests a hymn-like awakening that leads to a restless range of melodies ending with a lone pluck. The third movement scherzo introduces busy viola turns of phrasing by Carr and Phillips overtaken at a mercurial pace by all strings on hand and Schween’s declarative cello statement that sounds like authority or maybe a bit of rebellion. The final movement solves all that with confident notes by all five players, each striving for attention like a youngster eager to grow up.

Tara Helen O’Connor

Next up was Louise Farrenc’s Trio in E Minor for Flute, Cello and Piano with longtime Chesapeake Music regular Tara Helen O’Connor and festival co-artistic director Rosen, on flute and cello respectively, accompanied by pianist Wynona Wang.

Farrenc was quite the exception among female 19th-century musicians or composers who gained any attention at all. In 1843, she won the position of professor of piano at the Paris Conservatory, the only woman to do so in all that century – in part because she held the position for 30 years. She also, perhaps an even greater achievement, was to be recognized as a celebrated composer. Only American Amy Beach a few generations later came close to matching Farrenc’s success as a woman in classical music. Perhaps that’s why her 1861-62 trio is so ebulliently cheerful. Farenc was particularly prolific as a composer of chamber music. Her final piece – the one for flute, cello and piano – had very few precedents back then and even now.

An assertive series of chords, principally played by flutist O’Connor, launches the first movement before introducing the minor-key theme shared by flute and cello, the latter played by Rosen, both with the aplomb of musicians who have performed together for decades. Together the three instruments play multiple roles as the cello doubles the piano’s bass line while Wang skillfully accompanies the flute in its upper register with her right-hand on the keyboard, leading to a sweepingly lyrical first movement denouement. The second movement feels as if someone in the trio would break out in song at any moment amid harmonic turns from dark to light, while the third movement scherzo offers with its return to the opening theme a chance for the players and audience alike to relax and sort of dance to the music in their seats. In the finale, Farenc’s lyricism sparkles with bright tones and light-hearted flavors that close out with an E-major boom of celebratory musical fireworks.

Following intermission, the Juilliard guest ensemble performed Bedrich Smetana’s concert headliner “From My Life,” also known as the String Quartet No. 1 in E-Minor. Molly Carr, in previewing for the audience the four movements of “From My Life,” said her instrument has been described as the “heart-renderer of doom.” Perhaps. But in this case it is Smetana’s own life story as represented in his famous string quartet that is heart-rending. Smetana himself called the first movement of his autobiographical piece a romantically inspired portrait of his youthful dream to be a great artist along with a darker foreboding of the then-unknown future.

The Juilliard violist who introduced the piece also opens it with a prominent solo soon supported as the other three players join in before a dramatic solo by Areta Zhulla in the first violin chair. The second movement, recalling his love of dance, is sketched out as a Czech polka that moves from the innocence of a 6-year-old to a party animal followed by a bit of swooning undercurrent on cello by Astrid Schween and concluding with hints of a troubled future, played on viola, of course. A romantic cello solo ushers in the third movement ode to the love of Smetana’s life, his wife. Sweepingly off-their-feet expressions of endearment are portrayed instrumentally, especially in the perfect syncopation of violinists Zhulla and Ronald Copes. The final movement opens with a joyful remembrance of his sheer joy for dance. But it all comes to a literally screeching halt as the sudden high-pitch E note reminds him of his loss of hearing two years before composing this masterpiece. The note reminded Smetana of his tinnitus, a ringing of the ears, that presaged his deterioration. Other somber viola notes of loss and regrets – syphilis ultimately caused his deafness – ends the piece with a single pluck of a single string.

There’s still more to come, with two nights of Chesapeake chamber concerts, Friday and Saturday, including more from the Juilliard String Quartet.

A sylvan serenade including actual songbirds tweeting, unrehearsed, with the human players who led a “Forest Music” concert spread out along a trail at Ridgely’s Adkins Arboretum. The musicians, participants in the National Music Festival in Chestertown through Saturday night, performed in a multi-disciplinary artistic event that also introduced 12 new outdoor sculptures by mid-Atlantic artists. Together they created a “Sensory Sensation” matinee on Thursday.

Melissa Burley’s “Optimistic Dwellings”

Crossing a pedestrian bridge near the start of a woodland trail, we were greeted by a pair of string solos performed by Peijun Xu and Harmony Grace, both “apprentices” – student performers in the annual festival based at Washington College. Xu played the Bach Suite No. 3 written for cello but played here on viola. A complex and demanding piece but easy to listen to with its vibrantly shifting tempos and key signatures, the suite was performed with a confident rigor by this accomplished apprentice. Grace followed with her violin solo interpretation of a Meditation from the opera Thais by Massenet. More subdued in tempo than the Bach suite, as you would expect for a meditation, Grace played it with a dignified solemnity in an operatically tragic and romantic vein.

We next encountered a set of familiar duets performed by mentors to the festival apprentices: Jennifer Parker Harley on flute and Jared Hauser, delivering lively selections from Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” deftly rearranged for oboe instead of the clarinet as originally composed. Taking a left off the main trail, we heard the unmistakable percussive notes of a xylophone thumped by an apprentice, Matthew Kerlach. He played new improvisations by a contemporary composer, Tyler Klein, a friend of the performer.

It was a long walk between musicians on the trails – and for good reason. The players were stationed at sufficient distances that you could barely, if at all, hear music emanating from one station to the next. In between, you could, and still can through September, 12 site-specific sculptures under the heading of “Artists in Dialogue with Landscape.” Among those we took in along the way was Melissa Burley’s “Optimistic Dwellings,” comprised of rocks covered on top with moss and pine twigs. Further on we puzzled over the title of Chris Combs’ “Board/Bits,” a series of bars on a wooden slab marking time incrementally in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and years. Another puzzler, mostly because it’s hard to distinguish one type of object from another, is Mark Robarge’s “Memory Returned Like Spring,” which challenges you to identify manmade objects apart from ones created by nature.

Meanwhile, you still have a couple of days to enjoy live music by mentors and apprentices alike in the final two days of the National Music Festival.

Chesapeake and National Music Fests
Week 2 opener: “From My Life” concert featuring the Juilliard String Quartet, Thursday night, Ebenezer Theater in Easton.
Upcoming: “Quartets Old and New,” Friday, June 13, and “Festival Finale,” Saturday, June 14, both at 7:30 p.m. chesapeakemusic.org

“Forest Music”: National Music Festival musicians, Thursday, Adkins Arboretum, Ridgely.
Upcoming: 3:30 p.m., Friday, June 13, Festival Brass Ensemble, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Chestertown; 7:30 p.m. Friday, Festival Symphony Orchestra, Brahms Symphony No. 1 and more. “My Harps Will Go On,” Eric Sabatino, and “Friends of Camilo Carrara,” 2 p.m. Saturday, June 14, Hotchkiss Recital Hall, and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Festival Symphony Orchestra finale, Stravinsky’s “Consecration of Spring,” a Mahler allegro and more, Washington College. nationalmusic.us

Steve Parks is a retired New York arts critic now living in Easton.

Columnist, author, and educator Laura Oliver will take to the Stoltz stage for a public reading from her collected writings. Since she started to write her Sunday column for the Spy Newspapers, Laura has developed an exceptional following of readers, always eager to read her humorous and sometimes heartbreaking musings on life.

As an award-winning developmental book editor and writing coach, Laura has taught writing at the University of Maryland and St. John’s College. She is the recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award in Fiction, a winner of an Anne Arundel County Arts Council Literary Arts Award, a two-time Glimmer Train Short Fiction finalist, and her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

She is also the author of “The Story Within: New Insights and Inspiration for Writers” (Penguin Random House), selected by “Poets and Writers Magazine” as one of the best writing books ever published.

Andrew C. Oliver will join Laura this evening. Andrew left home at the age of 17 to live on his own in New Zealand for the next decade. Many of his stories have been influenced by that experience as he absorbed the country’s unique beauty while working with international organizations, including Villa Maria Wines, North Sails NZ, and The Tauhara Otago Museum in Dunedin, New Zealand.

We asked Laura to share a preview of the evening reading here.

This video is approximately two minutes in length. For tickets, please go here.

Chesapeake Music is thrilled to welcome the illustrious Juilliard String Quartet during the second week of its June Chamber Music Festival.

Founded at The Juilliard School by then-president William Schuman and violin faculty member Robert Mann in 1946, the Juilliard String Quartet has received numerous awards, including four Grammys and membership in the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

From its beginnings, the Quartet has inspired audiences around the world. The ensemble performs riveting classic performances and also embraces the mission of championing new works. The result: each performance is a unique experience, showcasing the interpretation, commitment, and artistry of its four members.

Each year the Juilliard String Quartet continues its decades-old tradition of commissioning and performing world premieres. Recent commissioned premieres have included two works by celebrated German composer Jörg Widmann, inspired by Beethoven string quartets.

This past season, the Quartet went on a repeat tour with violinist Itzhak Perlman and pianists Emanuel Ax and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. It also collaborated with soprano Tony Arnold and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Other season activities included a world premiere of a new work entitled “Birds on the Moon” dedicated to the Quartet’s late former violist Roger Tapping, written by Iraqi-American composer Michelle Barzel Ross. The Quartet has also participated in tours across Europe and the U.S with concerts in London, Berlin, Salzburg, the Ravinia Festival, and New York’s Alice Tully Hall.

A facet of the Quartet’s decades-old legacy is a prolific and celebrated discography, with landmark recordings that continue to be rereleased by Sony Masterworks. The Quartet’s latest album on Sony, featuring works by Beethoven, Bartók, and Dvořák, was released to international acclaim with Strings Magazine calling it “a miracle of contrasting color.” The Quartet’s recordings of the Bartók and Schoenberg Quartets, as well as those of Debussy, Ravel, and Beethoven, have won Grammy Awards. In 2011, the Quartet became the first classical music ensemble to receive a lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

At the upcoming Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival, the Quartet will play Mendelssohn’s String Quintet No. 1 in A Major and Smetana’s String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor (“From My Life”) on June 12; Widmann’s String Quartet No. 8 (“Study on Beethoven III”) and Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130 and 133 on June 13; and Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (“Transfigured Night”) on June 14. For some selections, the Quartet will be joined by Chesapeake Music’s co-Artistic Directors—Catherine Cho and Marcy Rosen—and Daniel Phillips.

The Quartet is in residence at The Juilliard School in New York City. Its current members are Areta Zhulla (violin), Ronald Copes (violin), Molly Carr (viola), and Astrid Schween (cello), all of whom are sought-after teachers on the string and chamber music faculties. The Quartet regularly offers classes and open rehearsals while on tour and hosts a five-day internationally recognized Juilliard String Quartet Seminar each May at The Juilliard School.

The members of the Quartet also have a history of supporting marginalized communities. One example is violist Molly Carr, who has been praised for her “intoxicating and ravishing performances.” Carr is Founder and Artistic Director of Project: Music Heals Us, an organization which brings free chamber music and interactive programming to those with limited access to the arts. She has stepped behind prison walls to witness “hardened criminals soften and weep at the sound of Beethoven’s string quartets.” Carr has also visited refugee camps to offer creative spaces for traumatized children to dance, sing, smile, and freely express themselves for the first time in years—an initiative for which she and her Duo partner Anna Petrova have been honored at the United Nations.

Chesapeake Music’s co-Artistic Director Catherine Cho shares, “The Juilliard Quartet is a beloved ensemble worldwide, and we are very grateful to have them share their music-making with us…they are all sincere musicians with a powerful sense of integrity.”

Tickets for the Festival concerts at The Ebenezer Theater in Easton are $70. Chesapeake Music also offers a limited number of free tickets for students, music educators, and Talbot County First Responders, as well as a “buy-one-get-one” option for first-time patrons of Chesapeake Music. Visit ChesapeakeMusic.org for tickets and more information.

Chesapeake Music, a treasured gem for Eastern Shore music lovers, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year with one of the best series of concerts to date—many of which are still to come.

Marcy Rosen, who co-founded Chesapeake Music along with J. Lawrie Bloom and is the current co-Artistic Director, explained that the theme of Reflection and Celebration was inspired by the connection created on the Eastern Shore over the last four decades among the music, artists, and audiences.

J. Lawrie Bloom, Marcy Rosen, and Sahun Sam Hong (left to right) performing at last year’s Festival

When Lawrie’s parents retired to St. Michaels in the late 1980’s, they found the area lacking in classical and chamber music. So, in 1986, Lawrie’s father, Ralph, along with Don Buxton, who would serve as the organization’s founding Executive Director, laid the groundwork for the first festival concert. Marcy had met Lawrie at summer camp and accompanied him at his college graduation recital. After that, Lawrie asked Marcy to join him at the opening Eastern Shore concert. They brought musicians from New York for that concert and almost every year since.

Over the years, the Festival gained notoriety and popularity. The number of artists invited each year has tripled, and the Festival has grown from one to six concerts over two weeks.

Reminiscing over the many wonderful memories Marcy has with Chesapeake Music, she said one of her favorite memories was when she returned to Easton after the pandemic. “Our first rehearsal was a life changing event. The love and respect we all feel for each other, and having not played together for all that time, it made so much sense to be together in Easton, where we have spent so many summers making music together.”

“Thanks to the Prager Family’s generosity, The Ebenezer Theater in the Prager Family Center for the Arts became Chesapeake Music’s performance home in 2021. This fantastic auditorium has focused even more attention on the Festival and has drawn new audience members and given the musicians a sense of belonging and cemented our place in the community,” Marcy proudly stated.

“Every Festival is different,” Marcy noted, “but the musicians’ host families play an enormous role in making our musicians feel comfortable and at home! I have had only three hosts in the 40 years I have been coming to the area, and I am incredibly grateful for the friendships that have formed.”

Marcy Rosen

Chesapeake Music’s educational programming is thriving again under the guidance of Catherine Cho, the other co-Artistic Director of Chesapeake Music. In addition to the Festival, Chesapeake Music now offers a series of Interlude Concerts throughout the year, further enhancing its presence in the community.

Marcy and Catherine both have the opportunity to work with “Rising Stars” in the music world. Catherine explained that “Rising Stars” are young artists who embody a unique voice, a centered and grounded sense of integrity and character, a strong connection to the truth in music, and an urge to communicate.”

When asked what’s in store for the future of the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival, Catherine explained that she would “like to broaden the reach of the Festival and draw in audiences from across the entire Eastern Shore and beyond, including an international audience via an online streaming platform.”

When developing the Festival program, Marcy and Catherine strive for a diverse repertoire that reflects many aspects of the human experience and an array of perspectives. “The programs are created with input from our artists,” Marcy explains. “For instance, the Opening Night program began with Robert McDonald, Catherine Cho and me deciding on which Trio we would like to play this summer. It is a long tradition. We chose Brahms Trio No. 2 in C Major—one of the true masterpieces of the repertoire. We also wanted to feature both our new young violist Zhanbo Zheng and festival founder Lawrie Bloom. It was my decision to ask them to play Schumann’s Märchenerzählungen (“Fairy Tales”) for clarinet, viola and piano which also includes our new pianist, Albert Cano Smit.”

This year’s Festival program includes the works of Boccherini, Schumann, Beach, Brahms, Beethoven, Chaminade, Dvorak, Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Farrenc, Smetana, Mozart, Widmann, Bonis, Schoenberg, and Fauré.

Week One artists June 6, 7, and 8, include Catherine Cho, violin and viola; Todd Phillips, violin; Carmit Zori, violin; Zhanbo Zheng, viola; Marcy Rosen, cello; Sterling Elliott, cello; Peggy Pearson, oboe; J. Lawrie Bloom, clarinet; Robert McDonald, piano; and Albert Cano Smit, piano.

Week Two artists June 12, 13, and 14, include Catherine Cho, violin and viola; Daniel Phillips, violin and viola; Marcy Rosen, cello; Tara Helen O’Connor, flute; and Wynona Wang, piano.

Plus, a particularly exciting addition to this year’s program is The Juilliard Quartet, perhaps the most renowned quartet in the world. Its current members are Areta Zhulla, violin; Ronald Copes, violin; Molly Carr, viola; and Astrid Schween, cello.

“I find that The Juilliard Quartet reflects an incredible sense of creative energy in all their endeavors, and I am thrilled that they will share their musicianship with our Eastern Shore audiences,” Catherine explained.

In addition to being co-Artistic Directors of Chesapeake Music, Marcy Rosen is a professor of cello at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and Catherine Cho is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and serves as Artistic Director of the Starling-DeLay Symposium.

Tickets for the Festival concerts at The Ebenezer Theater in Easton are $70. Chesapeake Music also offers a limited number of free tickets for students, music educators, and Talbot County First Responders, as well as a “buy-one-get-one” option for first-time patrons of Chesapeake Music. Visit ChesapeakeMusic.org for tickets and more information.

CAPTIONS AND CREDITS:

IMAGE 1: Catherine Cho, co-Artistic Director of Chesapeake Music performing at last year’s Festival. Photo by Mark Nelson Photography.

IMAGE 2: Marcy Rosen, co-Artistic Director of Chesapeake Music performing at last year’s Festival. Photo by Mark Nelson Photography.

IMAGE 3: J. Lawrie Bloom, Marcy Rosen, and Sahun Sam Hong (left to right) performing at last year’s Festival. Photo by Cal Jackson Photography.

 Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival Schedule

June 6–14, 2025

June 6 – 7:30 p.m.
Opening Extravaganza!

June 7 – 7:30 p.m.
Hope and Drama

June 8 – 5:00 p.m.
Masters at Work

June 12 – 7:30 p.m.
From My Life

June 13 – 7:30 p.m.
Quartets Old and New

June 14 – 7:30 p.m.
Festival Finale

2 Free and Open Rehearsals: June 4 and June 11 at 10:00 a.m.

From June 1-14, Chestertown’s renowned National Music Festival will bring together almost 30 esteemed mentors and 100 promising apprentices, presenting over 30 events, ranging from majestic symphonies to intimate chamber music, pre-concert talks, and master classes, plus dozens of free open rehearsals. Mentors are professional musicians who teach and perform all over the country and the world; apprentices are young professional musicians on the cusp of their careers. Festival musicians come to Chestertown each season from about a dozen countries and 30 US states.

This year’s mentors will include Yoshiaki Horiguchi (bass) and Diana Loomer (percussion), who are both alumni of the Festival, and several mentors who have been with the Festival since its inception in 2011: Dana Goode (violin), Jared Hauser (oboe), Jeff Keesecker (bassoon), Tom Parchman (clarinet), and Jennifer Parker-Harley (flute).

On Friday, June 6, National Music Festival Artistic Director and co-founder Richard Rosenberg conducts the Festival Symphony Orchestra in a program of movie music, starting with Paul Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which was famously used in the Walt Disney movie Fantasia. Violin mentor Emma McGrath, who travels from Hobart, Tasmania for her second season with the National Music Festival, will be the soloist in Korngold’s sumptuous Violin Concerto, which incorporates music from several of his film scores for Errol Flynn “swashbucklers,” including The Prince and the Pauper, Anthony Adverse, and more. The second half of the program features exhilarating music from the Star Wars movies by the legendary John Williams.

Several mentors and two apprentices will be featured as concerto soloists during the Festival. Saxophonist Laura Ramsay, a student at the University of Michigan, was selected through a highly competitive application process to attend the Festival as a saxophone apprentice and will perform on June 7 as the soloist in Jaques Ibert’s jazzy and tuneful 1930s Concertino da Camera.

Also on the June 7 concert is Frank Martin’s Concerto for Seven Wind Instruments. Trumpet apprentice Brandon Hebert of Louisiana has been awarded the opportunity to perform as a soloist alongside mentors Jennifer Parker-Harley (flute), Jared Hauser (oboe), Thomas Parchman (clarinet), Jeffrey Keesecker (bassoon), Michelle Stebleton (horn), and Michael Kris (trombone).

The guest conductor for the June 7 orchestra program will Matthew Kraemer, who serves as Music Director of the Louisiana Philharmonic in New Orleans, as well as the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra.

Concert schedules, tickets, and Festival Passes are available on the Festival’s website, nationalmusic.us.

Highlights of the much-anticipated 13th season include:

• Music from the cinema, including John William’s riveting score from three Star Wars flicks, as well as a short, long-lost 1907 Pathé film about a jilted pig in a tuxedo;
• Monumental symphonic works, including Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Brahms’ Symphony 1, and Hindemith’s Symphonie: Mathis der Maler;
• Concerto performances featuring mentors and apprentices; in addition to those mentioned above, on June 13, mentors Elizabeth Adams (violin), Joseph Gotoff (cello), and Minji Nam (piano) will be the soloists for Beethoven’s lighthearted Triple Concerto on June 13;
• Chamber music by Haydn, Korngold, Milhaud, and Stravinsky (his 1920 “Ragtime”), among others;
• A free Family Concert featuring woodwind instruments and followed by an Instrument Petting Zoo;
• Forest Music, a unique performance art event in collaboration with Adkins Arboretum (tickets available at adkinsarboretum.org).

“Whatever your musical palate, we have events you will love,” said Festival Artistic Director Richard Rosenberg. “In addition to our huge flagship orchestra concerts, try our free ‘Lunchtime Chamber Bites,’ our special Family Concert, or our Market Music in Fountain Park and enjoy!”

Lunchtime Chamber Bites are short, free concerts featuring performances and discussion with the artists. The Family Concert and Market Music concerts are also free, as are several other events. All rehearsals are free and open to the public; families with children are especially welcome at rehearsals! Attending open rehearsals is a wonderful way to introduce young children, (and even their grandparents) to concert music.

Venues for concerts and rehearsals range from local churches to Washington College to the Kent Cultural Alliance’s Raimond Cultural Center, and more. Concert and rehearsal schedules are available on the Festival’s website, nationalmusic.us.

For our talented, competitively selected apprentices, the National Music Festival advances the lives and careers of these promising musicians by providing access to world-class mentors and performance opportunities. Apprentices attend the Festival on scholarship, completely free of charge. The Festival is truly a community effort: Chestertown area residents open their homes as host families for apprentices and mentors, Emmanuel Church in downtown Chestertown provides free lunches for the musicians each weekday, and many local restaurants offer discounts to musicians. A few more host families are still needed; please email info@na’onalmusic.us for more information.

Visit the Festival’s website for the complete 2025 Festival concert schedule and repertoire and to purchase tickets or Festival Passes: nationalmusic.us. A number of concerts are free, as are all rehearsals.

The National Music Festival is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council (msac.org), Kent Cultural Alliance (kentculture.org), Mid-Shore Community Foundation (mscf.org), The Peoples Bank (pbkc.com), and by tax-deductible contributions from music lovers. For more information about the Festival, visit the website at nationalmusic.us or contact  (443)480-0221.