CONFLUENCE: OUR SHARED VOICES Festival to Open at Chamber Music Northwest

Chamber Music Northwest will host its 56th annual summer festival from June 25 to July 19 at concert venues throughout Portland, Oregon. Themed CONFLUENCE: Our Shared Voices, the 2026 festival will present music to transcend cultural, geographical, and political borders and celebrate a range of musical traditions that have shaped chamber music today. CMNW will host more than 70 of the world and region's finest chamber musicians—from piano and voice to winds and strings—as they converge on Portland to bring dozens of classic, new, beloved, and rarely performed masterpieces of boundless variety to life. 

In addition to presenting concerts in large halls, CMNW offers a new music series in smaller venues and noontime Protégé Spotlight Recitals, as well as free outdoor community concerts, educational opportunities, and masterclasses. Early in the festival, CMNW will once again host the Young Artist Institute (launched in 2022) an intensive education program for 16 talented string players from around the world, ages 14–18. These young musicians will be featured in free showcases and perform throughout the community.

2026 Summer Festival Highlights

• Historic and 21st-century masterpieces by J. S. Bach, Lembit Beecher, Leonard Bernstein, Brahms, Dvořák, George Gershwin, Kodály, Mozart, Maurice Ravel, Robert Schumann, Tchaikovsky, and Heitor Villa-Lobos.
• Performances by the greatest chamber musicians in the world, including violinist Jennifer Frautschi, cellist Clive Greensmith, clarinetists David Shifrin and Anthony McGill, flutist Tara Helen O'Connor, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, and 2022 Protégé Ensemble Viano Quartet.
• This year boasts three one-night-only special events: “modern-day Mozart” Kit Armstrong returns, mandolin master Chris Thile performs a handpicked program, and CMNW will remount George Takei‘s and Kenji Bunch's epic Lost Freedom: A Memory for a larger audience.
• Oregon Bach Festival presents Bach's soaring and celebratory Cantatas 201 and 207.
• CMNW's visionary Protégé Project introduces bright stars cellist Jonah Ellsworth and violist Samuel Rosenthal.
• Captivating world premieres by some of America's most exciting emerging composers including Steven Banks, Reena Esmail, and Donghoon Shin, plus recently written works that energize the New@Night series.