“Chamber music is not something fixed but something evolving and growing, and we need to participate in that.”Melvin Chen, piano/Festival Director

On July 4, 2026, the United States marks its 250th birthday. This program is the Festival’s contribution to the national celebration. Copland’s Hoedown opens with pure kinetic energy, a distillation of the American vernacular with fiddle tunes, open spaces, and the sound of a country in motion. William Grant Still’s Miniatures offer a more expansive geographic and cultural portrait. Five short scenes range from a cowboy song to a Mexican lullaby, a Peruvian traditional love song, and a pair of African American folk settings. The new work from Nahre Sol celebrates an American tradition as it looks toward the next 250 years. Dvořák’s “American” String Quintet was composed in 1893 during the Czech master’s American sojourn. It remains, 133 years later, one of the most affectionate portraits an outsider has ever made of this country.

Part of a collaboration with fashion brand 

Musical Bridges is a multiyear project in which the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival commissions new works that place classical chamber music within a broader musical and cultural context.

Nahre Sol’s Dust and Clover is made possible through the generous support of the Desai Family Foundation.