Winding your way up the mountain, the air changes, cools. You feel the sprawl fall away, a weight is lifted. On Shambala’s grounds, inside its beautiful hall, friends and music await.

Chamber music is about connection, from one heart to another. In putting together this program, I asked myself how to connect musicians, how to connect with audiences, how to connect to the community. How to make this time on Tamborine special: intimate, intense, pleasurable.

I wanted to gather a crew of world class chamber musicians who are also wonderful humans. They all appear in many guises across the festival–as soloists, duo partners, chamber musicians–and many are bringing dream projects.

There is the duo of Slava and Sharon Grigoryan, astonishingly skilled players and musicians as well as partners in life. Alexandra Flood, the toast of Europe’s operatic houses, who brings with her one of the world’s great lieder pianists, Sholto Kynoch. Rounding out the team are the beloved Orava Quartet, Margaret Blades, Liam Viney and Ashley Smith.

Across the weekend we cross centuries and continents. There are intimate solos and boisterous septets. Songs with and without words. Love gained and love lost. Sounds of whimsy and nostalgia, sounds both strange and captivating. 

And musical friends, old as well as new.

Tim Munro - Festival Director