Chamber Music Northwest: 2025 Summer Festival – Echoes of Bach

2025 Summer Festival

ECHOES OF BACH inspiring through time…

Join Chamber Music Northwest for a Bach-inspired Summer Festival that features a few of his most dazzling works alongside dozens of other masterpieces by composers from Bach’s era to today—all echoing his timeless brilliance! More than 70 of the most exceptional chamber musicians from our region and around the world will be featured—from piano and strings to voice and even electronics.

Our 55th Summer Festival, Echoes of Bach, illuminates how the music of yesterday and today has continually drawn inspiration from and built upon Bach’s revolutionary ideas and sound—from Mozart and Brahms, Mendelssohn and Messiaen, to composers creating today’s chamber music. This summer, the festival will spotlight how virtually every composer has continued to explore and experiment with Bach’s groundbreaking musical forms and innovations—even those living composers we hear today in contemporary romantic and classical to jazz and popular music.

Look forward to these festival highlights:

• A first-ever, festive Festival Kick-off double-header featuring all six of Bach’s glorious Brandenburg Concertos, along with Bach-inspired works by Gabriella Smith and Caroline Shaw.
• Masterpieces by Brahms, Felix Mendelssohn, Mozart, Dvořák, Schubert, Messiaen, Rossini and more that echo Bach’s influence across the history of music.
• CMNW hosts Oregon Bach Festival’s performance of Bach’s monumental Mass in B Minor.
• Internationally renowned pianist Kit Armstrong scales the Everest-like peak of the complete Goldberg Variations!
• Performances by the greatest chamber musicians on the planet—including violinist Leila Josefowicz, cellist Paul Watkins, clarinetist David Shifrin, flutists Tara Helen O’Connor and Emi Ferguson, 2025 Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, and the astounding, multi-talented Baroque & modern international sensation Shunske Sato.
• The 15th Anniversary of CMNW’s visionary Protégé Project featuring many of its brightest rising stars: Benjamin Beilman, Zlatomir Fung, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, Viano and Opus13 Quartets, Nina Bernat, and more.
• Exciting World Premieres by some of America’s most innovative young composer voices including Kian Ravaei, Alistair Coleman, Sean Shepherd, and Ethan Soledad, plus our exciting New@Night series.

For more information, including full schedule and tickets, visit cmnw.org.

All Classical Radio is proud to be a sponsor of this year’s free community concerts.

COMMUNITY CONCERTS

Fri, June 20 @ 12 pm | Young Artist Institute Showcase • The Old Church
Fri, June 27 @ 12 pm | Young Artist Institute Showcase • Sanctuary Hall, First Congregational UCC
Sun, June 29 @ 2 pm | Young Artist Institute Showcase • Kaul Auditorium
Thurs, July 3 @ 7 pm | Young Artist Institute • Shipstad Field, University of Portland *
Sat, July 5 @ 7 pm | Young Artist Institute Final Showcase • Kaul Auditorium
Fri, July 11 @ 7 pm | Opus13 • Chehalem Cultural Center Lajoie Theatre
Canceled due to heat: Tues, July 15 @ 7 pm | Isabelle Durrenberger (violin) & Ryota Yamazaki (piano) • North Clackamas Park *
Fri, July 25 @ 7 pm | Columbia River Brass Quintet • Vancouver Arts Hub *
* Outdoor Concert with SoundsTruck NW