Get to know the apprentice musicians of the National Music Festival up close and personal with four free Lunchtime Chamber Bites Concerts, Tuesday through Friday, June 14 – 18 at 12:30pm in Chestertown, MD.
“It’s an hors d’oeuvre, not a meal,” Thomas Parchman, the Festival’s Director of Operations and clarinet mentor, says of the music on the menu. Programs are no more than 45 minutes long. He describes the series as “somewhere between a lecture/recital and a show-and-tell.”
These performances will feature shorter works, demonstrations of various instruments, and a question-and-answer segment with the musicians. The format also provides a great way to introduce younger audiences to the world of music. Both young and old can learn more about the instruments of the orchestra and how our musicians work to fit all of the parts together.
All concerts but one will be at historic Sumner Hall, 206 S. Queen St., in downtown Chestertown. The June 16 vocal concert will take place at the Unitarian Universalists of the Chester River, 914 Gateway Dr, Chestertown. The concerts are an excellent complement to the rest of your afternoon plans.
Programming, times, and locations can be found on the National Music Festival website, https://nationalmusic.us/.
These short concerts are just a taste of the high-quality performances that the Festival produces. Come for the lunchtime concerts and whet your appetite for the Festival Symphony Orchestra!
Ticketed Festival concerts range from more formal chamber concerts to full orchestra masterworks like Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. Prices range from $10 to $25 per person, and student tickets are also available for the reduced price of $5. Tickets can be purchased online at nationalmusic.us, at the Festival’s Headquarters in the Chestertown Visitors Center, or at the box office before the concert.
To ensure the health and safety of patrons, staff, and artists, NMF requires verifiable proof of full vaccination against COVID-19, and that masks (fully covering the nose and mouth) be worn in order to attend all events.
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~ National Music Festival