At the beginning of each Seattle Chamber Music Concert a disembodied voice instructs audience members to not record or photograph the performance and asks people to turn down their hearing aids. For a variety of reasons it’s a request I find humorous. On the one hand I remember bearing witness to plenty of embarrassing episodes…

Jeremy Denk gave the concert of a lifetime on Saturday evening (July 18) as part of the recital series offered at the World Forestry Center as part of the Portland Piano International Summer Festival. This was a one of those rare performances that made this listener feel more alive, more aware, and more appreciative of…

The lawn was packed Friday night at Lakeside School, as people took advantage of yet another hot summer night to listen for free under the stars to the sixth Summer Festival concert of Seattle Chamber Music Society. There have been years when more nights were cool and wet than dry and warm, but not this…

Exemplary string players have rarely been in short supply at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, but in recent years they have become abundant, many brought to the festival by James Ehnes, a first-class violinist himself as well as associate artistic director of the festival. The names of the violinists roll off the tongue, including Stefan…

Every year, Seattle Chamber Music Society’s summer festival is a shining event in Seattle’s musical life. It would be hard these days to say it’s better than last year, or the year before, or the year before that, because the quality has been stellar for years now and it’s almost never that there is a…

Reviewing the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s summer festival is a difficult task. It is, I would say, the most reliable series of classical music performances in Seattle. The performers are top-notch, drawn from orchestras, universities, and solo rosters. They have to be this good, of course, because they are playing something different with a new,…

There was much to admire at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival Wednesday night at Lakeside School — from violiist Augustin Hadelich’s recital at the beginning of the evening to a luminous account of Dvorak’s “Dumky” Trio at the end. Born in Italy to German parents, Hadelich is making his festival debut this summer. He is…

There was so much enthusiasm Monday night at the opening of the Seattle Chamber Music Festival’s new season, it would have been hard to detect even a hint of unhappiness or regret. The festival, which opened its doors 28 years ago with a modest two-week festival — grown to six weeks in two venues in…