The project Building Bridges Through Music is aimed at building bridges between young people in the city and in the suburbs through a shared love of music. The two high schools participating in this project (Cass Technical High School and Grosse Pointe South High School) will culminate the collaboration with the premiere of the commissioned new work of composer Alexandra T. Bryant, performed by the two local high schools along with the Aeolus Quartet.

Our historic 80th season concludes with the visionary Brentano Quartet in two of the greatest masterworks in the literature. Join us for a guided journey from the high seriousness of Beethoven’s 13th string quartet, written in the final years of the composer’s life, to the youthful celebration found in the 22-year-old Franz Schubert’s Trout Quintet, performed here with two of chamber music’s most sought-after collaborators, Jonathan Biss and Joseph Conyers.

The dynamic combination of pianist Conrad Tao, violinist Stefan Jackiw, and cellist Jay Campbell breaths new excitement into one of chamber music’s most enduring ensemble configurations. Each member an accomplished soloist in their own right, these three renowned visionary artists of the next generation approach both old and new works with the same curiosity and deep emotional commitment.

Longtime favorite Richard Goode brings Beethoven’s most visionary piano work to the Chamber Music Detroit stage for the first time. From the pen of a composer clouded in deafness and declining health, the Diabelli Variations exploded one of the Classical Era’s most popular musical forms into a transcendent statement of independence, defiance, and resilience.

Join us on March 8 for Fallen Petals & Planting Seeds, an event featuring a live performance of Fallen Petals of Nameless Flowers, a work of music and spoken word commissioned in 2021 by Chamber Music Detroit with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Learn how the work was created by Jeff Scott (composer), Robert Laidler (author of the poetic text), and Bryan Jones, who facilitated conversations between the author and four former Michigan Juvenile Lifers whose stories provided a rich source of material for the work. Hear a full live performance of Fallen Petals of Nameless Flowers - by Imani Winds, cellist Seth Parker Woods, pianist Cory Smythe, and actor Michael Braugher - and witness its raw, gritty, unabashed look at the lived experiences of these four Michigan children in their decades-long journey to adulthood within the prison system. Finally, explore with a panel of dedicated individuals, led by renowned attorney Deborah LaBelle, how the life and death decisions made about young people in Michigan are shaping the cause of youthful justice in Michigan and around the nation. As we present this powerful piece again, join us in realizing how far we have come and how far there is still to go. Don't miss this unique opportunity to witness a captivating performance of this moving work and engage in a thought-provoking conversation about what greater understanding can mean for justice in America.

Following on the heels of his popular CameraMusic online performance in early 2022, Michael Stephen Brown makes his live concert debut at Chamber Music Detroit, as he prepares for a rare solo recital appearance at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York.

Nominated for this year’s GRAMMYTM Award for Best Classical Instrumental Performance, the visionary cellist Seth Parker Woods headlines a program featuring the stirring “Transfigured Night” by the 25-year-old Arnold Schoenberg, and works for cello and piano by Beethoven and Walker.

The 2022 winners of the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award make their much-anticipated debut at Chamber Music Detroit. Their spectacularly creative programs features gems from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, including masterpieces by renowned women composers.

“A cellist of power and grace”

— The Guardian

The last to occupy the violin chair in the legendary Beaux Arts Trio, the visionary violinist Daniel Hope makes his first recital appearance at Chamber Music Detroit with pianist Maxim Lando.  Their exquisite program conjures up “La Belle Epoque” when the beauty of Paris and Vienna dominated music making of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Cleveland’s renowned Baroque chamber orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, brings to CM Detroit one of its most innovative and creative programs. Enjoy a heart-warming program evoking Christmas night in Old Ireland – when families and friends gathered for singing, storytelling, and plenty of wassail. From a caroling party through the streets of Dublin to a holiday barn dance in Virginia… follow the journey of the Irish who bravely crossed the Atlantic. Irish singer Fiona Gillespie joins with fiddlers, medieval harp, hammered dulcimer, and bagpipes in this communal celebration of the American immigrant experience.

Celebrated American soprano Karen Slack’s dynamic opera and recital performances combined with her passionate advocacy for racial justice and women composers make her a sought-after artist on many fronts. For her performance at Chamber Music Detroit, Slack performs Of Thee I Sing! Songs of Love and Justice, her incredibly moving program conceived during the turmoil in the summer of 2020, when the country was forced into a long-overdue racial awakening. After witnessing the murder of George Floyd on national television – as many did while confined to their homes during the onset of the pandemic – Slack felt it necessary to create a program focusing on the healing powers of justice and love. The program will include material from composers Clayton White, Undine Smith Moore, Ricky Ian Gordon, Scott Gendel, H. Leslie Adams, Jake Heggie, and Adolphus Hailstork. 

Renowned for their definitive performances of works spanning three centuries, the Pacifica Quartet pairs one of Ludwig van Beethoven’s late masterpieces for string quartet with three works by American masters, including a new work by composer James Lee III, written for the quartet and Metropolitan Opera soprano Karen Slack under a commission by Carnegie Hall, Baltimore’s Shriver Hall, Chamber Music Cincinnati, and Chamber Music Detroit.

“spellbindingly virtuosic”

— Michael Kennedy of the London Telegraph

A visionary collaboration that has already yielded two Grammy Awards re-unites on the Chamber Music Detroit stage to launch our groundbreaking 80th Season. This close musical partnership between one of the world’s most exciting string quartets and an extraordinarily creative composer – the youngest ever to receive a Pulitzer Prize – offers music that is fresh, moving, and exquisitely beautiful.