In two weeks each June, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival presents nearly 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.Additional concert locations have included the Detroit Institute of Arts, Kerrytown Concert House (Ann Arbor), Grosse Pointe Unitarian Church and St. Thomas Aquinas Church in East Lansing.
A special highlight was a performance at the Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C. Pianist James Tocco has been Artistic Director of the Festival since its inception.
A native Detroiter, Mr. Tocco has brought a rotating contingent of world-class musicians to the Festival, creating an event of national significance.
The list of performers reads like a long “Who’s who” in chamber music, including Ruth Laredo, Andrés and Roberto Díaz, Peter Oundjian, Paul Katz, Joseph Silverstein, Miriam Fried, Gilbert Kalish, Philip Setzer, Jonathan Biss, David Finckel, St. Lawrence Quartet, Peter Wiley, Elements Quartet, Miró Quartet, Wu Han, Fred Sherry, Ida and Ani Kavafian, and a host of additional musicians.
A composer-in-residence program, instituted in 1997, has brought John Corigliano, Joan Tower, Ned Rorem, William Bolcom, John Harbison, and Paul Schoenfield to the Festival.
In 2006, the Festival presented music from a group of well-known 21st century composers with Michael Daugherty, Gao Ping, Gabriela Frank, and Paul Schoenfield each attending performances of their work.
For 2007, composer Leon Kirchner (age 87) participated. Corigliano, Tower, Bolcom and Harbison will return in 2008 as past composers-in-residence celebrating their 70th birthdays.