2026 Summer Festival
CONFLUENCE: Our Shared Voices
We hope you’ll join us for Confluence: Our Shared Voices, our 2026 festival that transcends cultural, geographical, and political borders. Together, we’ll celebrate musical traditions that shape the music we love as they converge to inspire, connect, and enrich us all.
The festival begins with “Sounds of America,” commemorating America at 250 years, from Bernstein’s West Side Story and Copland’s Appalachian Spring to spirituals, jigs, and American Indian folklore. Our second week, centered on “Songs from Home,” is filled with melodies by Reena Esmail, Lembit Beecher, Kodály, and Dvořák that lovingly evoke their cultural roots. Week three, “Musical Postcards,” explores composers inspired by other lands—from Brahms and Tchaikovsky to two world premieres that pay tribute to Rilke’s Orpheus and Nina Simone. The festival concludes joyfully with “Unity,” featuring beloved classics by some of the most enduring voices in music. Join us for a summer of music that brings together many shared voices!
From June 25 to July 19, more than 70 of the world and region’s finest chamber musicians—from piano and voice, to winds and strings—converge on Portland to bring more than 60 chamber works of boundless variety to life, including:
● 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.
● Oregon Bach Festival presents Bach’s soaring and celebratory Cantatas 201 and 207.
● This year boasts three one-night-only special events: “modern-day Mozart” Kit Armstrong returns, mandolin master Chris Thile performs a handpicked program, and we remount George Takei’s and Kenji Bunch’s epic Lost Freedom: A Memory for a larger audience.
● CMNW’s visionary Protégé Project introduces bright stars cellist Jonah Ellsworth and violist Samuel Rosenthal.
● Thrilling world premieres by some of America’s most exciting emerging composers including Steven Banks, Reena Esmail, and Donghoon Shin, plus more recently written works in our energizing New@Night series.
Explore our concerts this summer and select the experiences you’d like to attend. Subscriber concert packages are on sale NOW, single tickets go on sale May 1. Demonstrate your love and support of the arts and chamber music this year by joining our subscriber family!
SEE THIS SUMMER’S CONCERTS & ARTISTS
FLIP THROUGH THE SNEAK PREVIEW
