For Immediate Release

The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival announces its summer music festival, exploring the interconnectivity of art.

DETROIT (March 5, 2024) – For 30 years, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival has thrown a two-week-long celebration filled with concerts, community events, coaching sessions, and more. The 2024 Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival will continue this tradition, taking place June 8 to June 22 at venues across Southeast Michigan.

This year, the Festival is centered around the theme of “Creative Connections,” exploring the overlap across genres, periods, composers and art forms. Curated by Artistic Director Paul Watkins, the festival will include a variety of collaborations with local and international artists.

Musicians at this year’s Festival range from Grammy Award winners to Avery Grant recipients, who have performed in some of the world’s most recognizable venues, such as Carnegie Hall and London’s Wigmore Hall. Highlights from this season include:

• A fusion of classical and jazz music with Claude Bolling’s “Suite for Cello and Piano Trio.” The piece will be performed by Watkins and pianist Alvin Waddles.
• The return of the Tasting Note series at Mongers’ Provisions, an intimate concert experience with a companion tasting and wine and cheese.
• Several commissions, including a new piece by the Festival’s Stone Composer Fellow, Em Singleton. The Festival will also feature a new work by Kyle Rivera, which was co-commissioned with Chamber Music Northwest and the Seattle Chamber Music Society. Additionally, the Festival will present a work by Marc Neikrug, which was co-commissioned with Chamber Music Northwest and Music from Angel Fire.
• Children’s concerts at Bloomfield Township Public Library

“In a festival which spans works from Bach to the present day, we will hear how composers and performers have reached across generations and even centuries to fuel and enrich their creativity,” Watkins said.

The cover art for the 2024 Festival was designed by Detroit visual artist Sabrina Nelson. Titled “Sound Medicine,” it explores the connectedness and healing nature of both visual and musical arts.

The Festival includes multiple community endeavors, including workshops with elementary-aged students at Accent Pontiac. During the Festival, Accent Pontiac will also host their bucket band workshop for the community at the Bloomfield Township Public Library. This workshop will include percussion lessons using drumsticks and buckets.

Artistic Encounters offer patrons the opportunity to watch live coaching sessions for our Shouse Institute artists. The Shouse Institute is an opportunity for early-career ensembles to perform alongside and receive public and private coaching sessions from more established artists. Public coachings are free to attend, providing an educational experience for both Shouse ensembles and attendees.

Tickets to the Festival will go on sale March 25.

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About the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival 

The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival was born in 1994 of a remarkable relationship between religious and cultural institutions. A secular event, the Festival is sponsored by three religious institutions (representing Catholic, Jewish and Protestant faiths) and Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings, a prominent musical ensemble that is an administrative partner for the Festival. Traditionally, for two weeks each June, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival presents more than 20 concerts in southeastern Michigan. Many of these performances occur in the venues of the Festival’s sponsors — St. Hugo of the Hills Catholic Church, Temple Beth El and Kirk in the Hills.