Seattle Chamber Music Society Announces 2026 Winter Festival, January 23–February 1
Seattle, Sept. 8, 2025 – The Seattle Chamber Music Society (SCMS) announces the programming for its 2026 Winter Festival, running January 23-February 1. Over the course of six concerts, acclaimed classical musicians will collaborate on 22 exceptional chamber works by Beethoven, Beach, Dohnányi, Dvořák, Haydn, Mozart, Ravel, and Schubert, among others, with a festival highlight being the January 30 performance of J.S. Bach’s complete Brandenburg Concertos.
Musicians performing at the 2026 SCMS Winter Festival include festival artistic director James Ehnes, pianists Inon Barnatan and Anton Nel; violinist Benjamin Bowman; harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani; violists Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt and Cynthia Phelps, and horn player Radovan Vlatković. (A full list of performers follows.)
“The Winter Festival is a powerful testament to Chamber Music’s enduring relevance and role as a cultural magnet. It’s meaningful to welcome such extraordinary musicians to Seattle to collaborate on these incredible works. It’s moving to feel the audience’s response to these shared experiences and inspiring to know that our virtual reach now connects us across the U.S. and into more than a dozen countries,” said James Ehnes, the Gilbert Omenn and Martha Darling Artistic Director of SCMS, who performs in every concert.
Complementing the five-week Summer Festival and six-concert Signature Series, the Winter Festival is one of the ways SCMS presents exceptional performances year-round. Concerts take place at Nordstrom Recital Hall, Benaroya Hall. Each program is preceded by a free pre-concert performance.
Fans of chamber music worldwide may also stream the concerts live through SCMS’s Virtual Concert Hall and/or enjoy each program on-demand, starting two weeks after each live performance and continuing through March 15. Produced by Simon Kiln, an award-winning classical producer and editor, the Virtual Concert Hall captures concerts from seven high-definition camera angles using top audio/video production and equipment. In addition to performances, the Virtual Concert Hall invites audiences into the music through behind-the-scenes footage, introductions from the artists, and live intermission shows.
SCMS Winter Festival program details follow. Discounted early-bird season subscriptions are on sale now HERE; single tickets go on sale October 20 (no fees added on subscriptions or single-ticket sales through December 1). Visit seattlechambermusic.org.
Seattle Chamber Music Society: 2026 Winter Festival
January 23–February 1 | Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall
Musicians: Joseph Kaufman (bass); Seth Krimsky (bassoon); Edward Arron, Ani Aznavoorian, Efe Baltacıgil, Brant Taylor, and Bion Tsang (cello); Jeffrey Barker and Demarre McGill (flute); Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord); Jeffrey Fair and Radovan Vlatković (horn); Donovan Bown, Stefan Farkas, and Benjamin Hausmann (oboe); Mari Yoshinaga (percussion); Inon Barnatan, Alessio Bax, Anton Nel, and Jeewon Park, (piano); Jens Lindemann (trumpet); Che-Yen Chen, Beth Guterman Chu, David Harding, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, and Cynthia Phelps (viola), and Benjamin Bowman, James Ehnes, Njioma Grevious, Bella Hristova, Amy Schwartz Moretti, and Andrew Wan (violin).
