The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival to return in 2023 with a farewell to the Emerson Quartet 

DETROIT (December 20, 2022) – The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival will return in 2023 bidding a beloved farewell to the Emerson String Quartet. This will be the final year that the quartet will take the stage at the Festival.  

The 2023 Festival marks 30 years since the Festival’s inception. The season’s theme is turning points, which will recognize composers and music that have changed the course of classical music. 

To align with the theme of the festival, the Emerson String Quartet will perform three concerts of its most essential repertoire.  

The quartet is considered one of the world’s premier chamber music ensembles for more than four decades. The group has made more than 30 recordings and has been honored with nine Grammy Awards, three Gramophone Awards, the Avery Fisher Prize, and Musical America’s “Ensemble of the Year” award.

The quartet has been closely tied to the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival. Its cellist, Paul Watkins, is the festival’s artistic director. Violinist Philip Setzer, a founding member of the Emerson Quartet, directs the organization’s educational program called the Shouse Institute, which will be celebrating its 26th anniversary this season.

The Shouse Institute began in 1997, to connect younger, emerging ensembles with opportunities to perform in venues across southeast Michigan and learn first-hand from leading musicians in the industry. The educational program has launched the careers of many of today’s leading classical ensembles, including eighth blackbird, Calidore String Quartet, Pacifica, Jupiter and Ariel Quartets, Axiom Brass, Donald Sinta Quartet and the Claremont Trio. 

More details about the 2023 Festival will be announced in the new year. For updates, visit www.greatlakeschambermusic.org and subscribe to our email newsletter.  

About the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival 

The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival was born in 1994 of a remarkable relationship between religious and cultural institutions. A secular event, the Festival is sponsored by three religious institutions (representing Catholic, Jewish and Protestant faiths) and Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings, a prominent musical ensemble that is an administrative partner for the Festival. Traditionally, for two weeks each June, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival presents more than 20 concerts in southeastern Michigan. Many of these performances occur in the venues of the Festival's sponsors -- St. Hugo of the Hills Catholic Church, Temple Beth El and Kirk in the Hills.