Past Events

Join Kelly Hall-Tompkins, Jennifer Frautschi (violin), Barry Shiffman (viola), Matthew Zalkind (cello), and Philip Chiu (piano) as they introduce you to all things chamber music!

Violinist Heng-Han Hou returns to TSM with a dazzling program, and as a Community Program mentor the following week!

As 2022 Winners of the Banff International String Quartet Competition, these up-and-coming artists are on track for worldwide success on the concert hall stage. In tribute to the legendary Juilliard String Quartet, the Isidore String Quartet is “approaching the established as if it were new, and the new as if it were firmly established” with an electrifying program.

Grammy Award-winning violinist and long-time Chamberfriend James Ehnes opens Chamberfest with a blockbuster, leading the NAC orchestra’s final concert of the season with a program of Bach’s violin concertos.

Marc-André Hamelin, piano; Penderecki String Quartet

Winners of the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition and a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, the American ensemble combines old and new with a varied program stretching from Beethoven and Bach to Aida Shirazi and a piece by Ottawa’s own Dinuk Wijeratne, The Disappearance of Lisa Gherardini.

Music that celebrates a variety of traditions – from central Europe to Iran, from the concert hall to the stage of a Broadway theatre – makes up this exhilarating program. Like so much music by nineteenth-century Czech composer Dvořák, this profound chamber work echoes with the traditional songs and dances of his native land.

Join the Rolston String Quartet and guest Violist Rory McLeod for a family-friendly concert that embraces neurodiversity and disability.

Love and Despair: Korngold & Franck

Night Garden: Brahms & Kodály

Josh “Socalled” Dolgin, “the mad wizard of Yiddish Hip-Hop”, digs into his roots with this heart breaking, trailblazing show, Socalled sings Yiddish.

Chamberfest regulars Beth Silver (cello) and Jenna Richards (piano) are known for their characterful delivery and non-traditional programs.

Duo Concertante take you on an exciting musical journey with a focus on female composers both living and from the past.

“…the most important part of the afternoon program was probably Ovcharenko’s astonishing Liszt Sonata in B minor. Lushly detailed and violently thrilling, it left us holding our breath and riveted…. “

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.