The Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival is an annual entourage of world-class musicians and spends part of September performing in venues across the city, from the University’s own Old Cabell Hall to the historic Paramount Theater and sprawling Eastwood Farm and Winery estate. The 2025 festival which wrapped up Saturday focused much of its efforts on community outreach.
Founded in 2000, the festival’s relationship with Charlottesville itself has grown and deepened over the years, expanding in both size of venues and number of performances as well as level of engagement with audiences. After a quarter of a decade, the vision of the co-founders and artistic directors, Timothy Summers and Raphael Bell, remained the same even as the schedule and scale of the festival has modernized and developed.
“In the beginning it was more of a family thing, and now it is a fixture of the community. It was always meant to be rooted here, and now that is what it has evolved to be” Summers said in an email to The Cavalier Daily.
This emphasis on community is what defined this year’s festival. To fully connect with all curious members of the music community, the festival ran its annual free community concert hosted by the Paramount Theater Sept. 12 alongside a free family-friendly event at Piedmont Virginia Community College Saturday.
In addition to continuing to eliminate the cost barrier to the arts thanks to donations from generous sponsors and partners, this year also marked the debut of a new collaboration effort with the Charlottesville City School system. This months-long initiative which combines music and student artistic reactions aims to integrate music, art and creative communication into daily education practices. The project allows children to explore their individual identities through a new medium, according to a press release from the group.
This new interactive learning experience begins with a performance of Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” a solo acoustic piano narrative, performed by the festival’s own Andrew Armstrong. Armstrong offered a private concert Monday in which he presented the Charlottesville City Schools’ fourth graders with this half-hour piece that responds musically to a gallery of 10 paintings by painter Viktor Hartmann.
The learning activities do not end with the performance, but instead continue through the school year as the school’s art faculty support fourth grade students in choosing one of the 10 musical movements to connect with and respond to in turn with their own artistic depiction. Along with any interested art students from other grades, the fourth graders will present their interpretations in a March showcase for parents and community members. Natalie Hokanson, executive director of the Virginia Chamber Music Foundation, spoke to the mission of the learning activities.
“For this particular project, we hope the students find a way to express themselves in art and to understand that art is for everyone and is accessible. It's exciting for us to collaborate with the schools to link different art forms together in one project,” Hokanson said in an email to The Cavalier Daily.
The connection to Charlottesville City Schools runs deep, established well before the idea of the festival itself and grounded in the youth of the co-founders, Bell and Summers, who grew up playing in Charlottesville City Schools orchestras.
“Our work with the schools is a continuation of the ongoing and deepening relationship that has been going on since they were kids themselves,” Hokanson said.
Just as new partnerships have developed for the festival, so has its programming overtime. While originally starting out as a series of shows based in the Jefferson Theater, the festival has moved in location over the years and adopted additional venues. The group also features events for assorted audiences, including families and children. As the programming has become more diverse and adventurous, Bell expresses gratitude for the community’s enthusiasm for each element of the fortnight of festivities.
“I am especially proud of the trust that's been built up over the years with our audience. They accept new experiences, knowing that often new experiences are the best ones,” Bell said in an email to The Cavalier Daily.
Hokanson plays a vital role in the seamless planning and production of these two weeks of musical movement and magic. She, along with Summers and Bell as artistic directors, recruit a team of world-class artists ranging from past classmates to colleagues from renowned symphonies, both domestic and abroad.
After meticulous music selections — from Lili Boulanger’s “D’un soir triste” and “D’un matin de printemps” to “Morgantina Studies,” a cello quintet composed specifically for the festival by Colin Jacobsen — the road to rehearsal ready has just begun. With pieces handpicked each year and musicians congregating from all over the world, Hokanson describes how the group cooperates and connects as the long-term planning of the festival quickly comes together.
“While the musicians may have played the music before, in most cases they have not played it together in the ensemble that is formed for that piece here in Charlottesville. That keeps the music very fresh and makes it a rare experience for the concertgoer” Hokanson said.
For the community, students, organizers and musicians themselves, the festival represents an opportunity to learn from one another and immerse oneself in talent from around the world. Bell commented on the rare feeling of connection this creative commemoration brings to both Charlottesville residents and the participating musicians and emphasized the center of it all — music.
“Music is the biggest gift of my life. It offers me the chance to express and learn with great people and make friends,” Bell said.
Just as the chamber music itself proves an intimate collaboration among musicians, the festival parallels this theme of integration and kinship among Charlottesville residents. It celebrates not only the performances themselves, but also the opportunities for cultural enrichment and self-exploration through music. Reflecting on her career dedicated to artistic planning and development, Hokanson described what the music means to her personally.
“[Music] provides the opportunity to express and feel emotions. It can be cathartic or soothing, energizing or awe-inspiring,” Hokanson said. “My hope is that those who attend our events come away feeling better than they did when they arrived because of their concert experience.”
The Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival’s September residency extends a truly meaningful tradition to the community. From small beginnings at the Jefferson Theater in 2000 to inhabiting an array of venues and working side-by-side with students in 2025, this annual arts celebration creates genuine bonds and curiosity designed to resonate beyond the performances themselves.
While this year’s musical movement has come to an end, mark your calendars for next September’s return.
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