Past Events › Chamber music

Autorickshaw meets the Penderecki String Quartet in an east-west musical masala that explores the exotic melodies and rhythms of India united with the endless possibilities of western harmony.

An annual feature of the Chamberfest summer music festival, Rising Stars showcases the region’s finest emerging talent.

Canadian bright light Sarah Slean is a four-time JUNO- and two-time GEMINI-nominated performer, and a CSA-winning composer with 25 years of wide-ranging experience in music.

Aline’s étoile magique has really captured my attention… It’s intelligent, soulful, exploratory, and above all – fun! For those with curious ears, this music is for you. – Mark Fewer (violinist)

Duo Concertante celebrates women composers with a programme including three works commissioned by the duo: Ottawa’s Kelly-Marie Murphy’s “Dance Me to your Beauty with a Burning Violin,” Jocelyn Morlock’s “Petrichor,” and Dawn Avery’s “Iotsistokwaronion.”

The Nicole Senécal Emerging Artist Award recognizes an exceptional graduating student from the University of Ottawa’s School of Music on the cusp of a professional career.

The Canadian National Brass Project is true Canadiana. Drawing from the title chairs of fifteen North American orchestras and under the artistic leadership of Canada’s premiere horn soloist James Sommerville, this special collaboration shines a light on Canada’s foremost players and composers.

Montreal’s Space Time Continuo invites us to travel down below the treble clef and to venture beyond Pachelbel’s Canon in D!

This concert features the Thalea String Quartet, who will bring their tight-knit energy and passion to this captivating concert for kids.

Chamberfest favourite Mark Fewer returns with a lush and passionate program including Ernest Chausson’s Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet, and a newly commissioned work from Yellowknife’s award-winning contemporary composer Carmen Braden.

Free noon-hour concerts featuring Chamber Music Institute Fellows at Heliconian Hall.

Chamberfest welcomes CBC’s Tom Allen and friends to the stage for “JS Bach’s Long Walk in the Snow,” a narrated performance accompanied by music.

urprisingly, the phrase “New Music” was first introduced in the early 1930s by Viennese composers Arnold Schonberg and Anton Webern, but we have always been delighted – and sometimes challenged – by new developments in art music.

Superstar pianist Hinrich Alpers returns to Chamberfest twice for the thrilling culmination of his Beethoven solo piano sonata cycle.

Attention string quartet lovers and musical thrill seekers: this concert is for you!

Chamberfest is proud to present the launch of Nonlinear, a duo debut album of original compositions by two of Ottawa’s favourite jazz pianists!

Free noon-hour concerts featuring Chamber Music Institute Fellows at Heliconian Hall.

500 years after Da Vinci’s death, Constantinople presents a musical reconstruction of Da Vinci’s Bridge, creating – with music – the bridge Leonardo Da Vinci designed for the city of Constantinople that was never built.

In recent years Beth has emerged as one of the world’s leading cellists in the klezmer genre, blending cantorial-esque fiddle techniques with a classical cello background to create a new voice for traditional Ashkenazi Jewish music.

Chamberfest will be hosting a masterclass led by pianist David Braid in partnership with the Steinway Piano Gallery Ottawa. This masterclass is open to the public, but registration is required.

Longtime Chamberfest friends and collaborators, the Gryphon Trio celebrates 30 years together with a pearl of a program.

Montreal string nonet collectif9 presents Rituæls, a grand, deliberate artistic ceremony of a concert bringing together works dating from the Middle Ages to the 21st century with music by Hildegard von Bingen, Arvo Pärt, Michael Tippett, Nicole Lizée, Bryce Dessner, and Jocelyn Morlock. Throughout the show, the musicians occupy several spaces in a way that echoes the grandeur and the depth of the pieces on the program.

Free noon-hour concerts featuring Chamber Music Institute Fellows at Heliconian Hall.

No stranger to Chamberfest and Ottawa’s music community, Trio INK is the NAC Orchestra’s concertmaster Yosuke Kawasaki (violin) and friends Wolfram Knesset (cello) and Vadim Serbryany (piano). Join us for a gorgeous lunch-time concert including recently-departed Jocelyn Morlock’s Asylum, Rebecca Clarke’s lush Piano Trio, and Dvorak’s Piano Trio in F Minor.

Back from Vienna, Chamberfest is delighted to welcome home one of Ottawa’s own international superstars, Wallis Giunta.

Love, rage, heartbreak, and joy come alive in this song cycle that pulls inspiration from ancient folk melodies of Sweden, Turkey, Ireland, Asia and more.

Come enjoy the electric energy of a Celtic kitchen party with your kids. We’ll keep you on your feet — you may even learn a step or two! This toe-tapping, hand-clapping, singalong experience is fun for the whole family!

Chamberfest is excited to present this unique, multi-disciplined, all-Canadian event. Combining martial arts with music, prize-winning Tai Chi Chuan players Jonathan Krehm, David Robert, and Evonne Tan join Ottawa’s Ironwood Quartet in an ode to both the Chinese martial art, and to Canadian artistry.

New Music Now: Mashup features 21st-century works for strings, sonic experiments for harp and electronics, and brand-new works commissioned by Chamberfest, including Marie Claire Saindon’s Ferme les Yeux, all brought to life by Ottawa’s favourite new music performers and Chamberfest Artist in Residence Nadia Sirota. It’s new, it’s fresh – be the first to hear it!

Join Canada’s next generation of Baroque all-stars for an evening of fresh and lively takes on old favourites and lesser-known treasures of the Baroque world.

Ottawa fiddler Anna Ludlow hails from Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and has been rocking the Canadian Celtic and folk scene for the past 2 decades.

Legendary Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux is “among the elite of today’s classical guitarists” (Gramophone) and is perhaps “the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation” (NPR). From New York’s Lincoln Center to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Seoul Arts Center, Jason Vieaux has cemented his reputation as an artist of brilliance and uncompromised mastery.

Legendary Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux is “among the elite of today’s classical guitarists” (Gramophone) and is perhaps “the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation” (NPR). From New York’s Lincoln Center to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Seoul Arts Center, Jason Vieaux has cemented his reputation as an artist of brilliance and uncompromised mastery.

With more than a dozen albums and a thousand appearances worldwide behind them, this milestone concert marks the final touring season for the Lafayette String Quartet.

This…collaboration between an Early Music folk fusion trio from Canada and a Swedish singer…immediately has the appeal of the unusual. (Issue 131, The Living Tradition)

Chamberfest presents Starry Night with the Ottawa-based SHHH!! Ensemble. Describing their show as an “experience” (more so than a “contemporary music recital”), pianist Edana Higham and percussionist Zac Pulak explore a dreamscape full of natural and supernatural mysteries with a programme featuring new music commissioned for their project.

For one night only, Ottawa’s darling piano virtuoso Angela Hewitt returns to Chamberfest ready to wow. As “one of those rare musicians who … get something into their heads and hearts and find it at their fingertips instantaneously,” (The New York Times) Angela Hewitt is pure expressive joy.

This performance features the lively voices of Emili Losier and Phillip Klaassen, accompanied by pianist Jenna Richards. From musical theatre to operetta, this interactive concert experience will feature love songs, duets, and comedic acts, and is open to all.

Welcome to our musical salon! The salon was the original house concert – the cultural happening of Schubert’s time – where like-minded people gathered to perform and savour new music and to discuss art, ideas, and politics.

Another Chamberfest debut! America’s premier low-voice a cappella ensemble, now in its 27th season, journeys north for an evening of song.

Award-winning Canadian pianist Katherine Dowling brings The Elegy Project to Chamberfest, delivering a solo piano performance of musical meditations on mourning, loss, grief – and life and love.

Praised for their “huge range of dynamics, massive sound and spontaneity,” (American Record Guide) the young Vianos won First Prize at the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition and are the current Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet-in-Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Known for their onstage charisma and camaraderie, Ottawa’s Lara Deutsch (flute) and Adam Cicchillitti (guitar) began performing together in 2019 after discovering their mutual love for the music of Piazzolla.

Chamberfest 2023 is closing with a bang, Chamberfest style! We’re rounding up some of the world’s finest chamber musicians for a mashup concert, featuring performances by star-studded Chamberfest Artists-in-Residence Lauren Anker, Bryan Cheng, Philip Chiu, Chamberfest Artistic Director Carissa Klopoushak, Emily Kruspe, Sean Rice, and special guest violist Nadia Sirota.

Payadora is a contemporary chamber music ensemble that performs Argentinian/Uruguayan tango and folk music and original compositions inspired by that tradition.

Four Juno Winners, Mark Fewer, violin, Angela Park, piano, James Campbell, clarinet and Thomas Wiebe, cello collaborate for the first time to present Messaien's Quartet For the End of Time. Written while inside a German prisoner of war camp, it is considered one of the most spiritually moving works ever written.

We kick off the festival with the Dior Quartet, one of Canada’s finest young string quartets and recent semi-finalists of the prestigious Banff International String Quartet Competition.

Chamber music is a beautiful parallel to what makes our community so great. Everyone is a leader and a follower that contributes and listens.

Through Amici’s 35 years of presenting chamber music concerts, we have come across a few pieces which can be lovingly referred to as “Gems”; music which is equally enjoyed by the performers as much as the audience.

The musicians of the Fauré Quartett are pioneers in many ways. After they met during their studies in 1995 in Karlsruhe for the 150th anniversary of Gabriel Fauré, they realized that this combination offered new insights into undiscovered repertoire.

Chamber Chorus, Soprano-Alto Chorus, Tenor-Bass Chorus
Lori Dolloff, Thomas Burton, conductors

Enjoy a night filled with drama and emotion with this dual program, balancing tradition and renewal.

This string quartet of three Danes and one Norwegian will perform Schubert’s String Quartet No. 15 as well as a new composition by Bent Sørensen inspired by the Schubert Quartet.

The Tesla Quartet is known the world over for their “superb capacity to find the inner heart of everything they play, regardless of era, style, or technical demand” (The International Review of Music).

Under a moonlit sky, where shadows dance and dreams take flight, immerse yourself in an enchanting evening of nocturnal melodies.

In a programme created to showcase the varied colours and combinations of wind instruments, audiences will experience centuries of repertoire.

String students from The Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists come together as the Academy Chamber Orchestra to perform a special concert.

Violinist Isabelle Faust, cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, and pianist Alexander Melnikov take us on a fascinating journey through a thrilling repertory of piano trio ‘hits,’- including the “Ghost” and “Dumky” ‘hits’ by Beethoven, Brahms, and Elliott Carter.

Violinist, Nikki Chooi, Concertmaster of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, is the guest artist for a program drawn from Eastern European composers and folkloric inspirations. The Ensemble of Joaquin Valdepeñas, clarinet, David Hetherington, cello, and Serouj Kradjian, piano, perform pieces by Liszt, Monti, Kodaly, Bruch, and Bartok in a lively program. Bohemian passions and virtuosic masters are the themes of the evening.

Chamber ensembles from the Glenn Gould School perform before a celebrated jury, competing for over $11,000 in awards.

Dominic Desautels, clarinet, with Jean-Philippe Sylvestre, piano, and Zsófia Stefán, bassoon

Solo and chamber works are performed by young artists on the cusp of major careers, who are enrolled in The Rebanks Family Fellowship and International Performance Residency Program at The Glenn Gould School.