Chamber music inspiring 30,000 people in Portland

The 51^st annual Summer Festival opened this week with an astounding performance featuring Chamber Music Northwest’s new Artistic Directors, Gloria Chien and Soovin Kim, with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra. The joy on the faces of the artists, (who were not masked) was amplified by the shouts and thunderous applause of the socially-distanced and masked audience. .July 1, 2021 marked the first concert before a live audience for both audience and musicians since COVID shut down concert halls across the world—and as the program unfolded, it was quickly evident how much had  been missing during the past 16 months. The magic of music, the interaction between musicians and audience, the sheer joy of music-making—was electrifying. The audience members received the gift of music as a soothing balm, both comforting and invigorating them after the losses suffered during the pandemic. By the end of the concert, the smiles on the musicians’ faces were as wide as their bows. Words fail to capture why this shared music-making experience was so very powerful…and perhaps one of the most eloquent moments of the evening was when the musicians stood quietly, instruments in hand, and softly hummed a Bach chorale. No words…just music.

THIS is what Chamber Music Northwest is all about. We take our mission, to inspire our community through concerts and events celebrating the richness and diversity of chamber music, performed by artists of the highest caliber, presenting our community with exceptional opportunities for enjoyment, education, and reflection, to heart. Even as COVID restrictions are lifting, CMNW is mindful of the safety and comfort level of all, and is limiting audience sizes, requiring masks indoors, limiting social interaction. But there was no stopping the hugs, the smiles, and the sheer exuberance of friends seeing each other in person after so many months of isolation. The Summer Festival has become more than just a concert series—it is a forum for reconnecting, for healing, and for emerging from the pandemic nightmare.

This summer, CMNW is offering four weeks of amazing concerts, free community concerts, open rehearsals, master classes, and as many “in-person” music education experiences as possible. Mindful that with limited house sizes, approximately half to two-thirds of our regular audience will not be able to attend in person, CMNW is recording all of the concerts and will also present the entire festival for people to view AT-HOME. Master classes and Musical Conversations are also being recorded and can be viewed on the cmnw.org website, now forming our growing resource library of educational programs.

We have a special ask of GlobalGiving donors during this period: please help us cover the additional expense of recording, editing, and producing these high-quality programs so that the music can truly be accessible to all. With limited income from ticket sales this summer, and the additional expense of video production (a new area of expertise that CMNW has developed over the past year), the organization needs to raise $50,000 for this unbudgeted, but important, expense, to make the music accessible to all.

We look forward to our 2021-22 season, beginning this fall, with live concerts every month, and education programs resuming in the schools. Highlights of the 21-22 season include the world renowned Brentano Quartet as our artists-in-residence, Alisa Weilerstein presenting Bach’s complete works for solo cello, clarinetist and Artistic Director Emeritus David Shifrin performing with the Miró Quartet, and the Imani Winds performing new works by African-American and Latinx composers from the Pacific Northwest.

We invite you to join us on this extraordinary journey. Your support means that the music that is reopening our world through the magic of live performances is also available to anyone, anywhere, with just a click on the internet. Thank you.

Links:

• Chamber Music Northwest 2021 Summer Festival
• 2021 Summer Festival Program Book