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Celebrating 64 Years of Inspired Music Making!

June 28 – August 2, 2025

EASTERN MUSIC FESTIVAL READIES FOR 63rd SEASON

GREENSBORO, NC (June 21, 2024) – Starting this weekend, hundreds of musically-gifted young students and distinguished faculty members from across the globe will call Greensboro home for the next five weeks as part of the 2024 Eastern Music Festival (EMF). Celebrating its 63rd year, EMF is one of the premier training programs in the US for talented, young musicians who are studying orchestral instruments, piano, classical guitar, and conducting.

This year’s Festival features 262 student musicians between the ages of 14 and 23 hailing from 37 states and 12 countries. The students will be joined by 58 renowned professional musicians, performers and conductors serving as faculty members to help the students prepare for a career as professional musicians and music educators. In addition to one-on-one coaching, the students and faculty will also perform 65 formal and informal concerts, many of which are free, held for the public on the campus of Guilford College and at select locations throughout the Greensboro community.

According to EMF Executive Director Chris Williams, the educational component of EMF is both central to its theme and something that separates it from most music festivals and orchestras. “For more than 60 years, we’ve remained true to our mission in guiding young musicians on their way to careers in performing arts,” said Williams. “With that mission in mind, we could not be more excited to welcome this year’s outstanding class of students and our accomplished faculty to Greensboro as we kick off the 63rd season of Eastern Music Festival. It’s truly a life-changing experience for the students to learn from and perform alongside world-renowned musicians drawn from major orchestras and music schools around the country.”

Many EMF students and alumni have advanced their artistic careers to become professional performers and teachers. Among them are Grammy award-winning trumpeter Wynton Marsalis; Stephanie Collins Matsuo who is the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s first female Concertmaster; and rising cello sensation Sterling Elliott.

“For over 60 years, the Eastern Music Festival has been making beautiful music to the delight of thousands of Greensboro’s residents,” said Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan. “We look forward to welcoming the talented students, faculty, and special musical guests who are attending this season. We hope they enjoy calling Greensboro home as much as we’ll enjoy having them in our community.”

Several of the faculty members have long-standing relationships with the festival and make Greensboro their summer home every year. In an effort to continue building upon those relationships, the EMF Board of Directors has entered into an effort to negotiate a fair and beneficial collective bargaining agreement with Local 342 of the American Federation of Musicians, which represents a majority of the faculty employed by EMF.

Students and faculty are set to arrive on Guilford College’s campus on June 22 with the Eastern Chamber Players leading off the EMF performance schedule at 8 pm on Tuesday, June 25 at Guilford’s Dana Auditorium.

Programs cover “a lot of territory”

Included among the highlights of the 63rd EMF season are:

Longtime and distinguished Music Director Gerard Schwarz returns in 2024 to conduct the five Joseph M. Bryan Jr. ’60 Festival Orchestra Series programs on Saturday evenings and other performances.

Bela Fleck joins the Eastern Festival Orchestra Saturday, June 29, for the opening festival series program which features the 18-time Grammy-winning banjo player performing his arrangement of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Also, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E minor and pieces by Debussy and Zwilich are on that program.

Other “signature performance” programs include:

Monday, July 1, with The Amernet String Quartet that includes EMF violinists Misha Vitenson and Avi Nagin along with Michael Klotz on viola and Jason Calloway, cello, performing pieces by Schulhoff, Mozart and Dvorak.

Wednesday, July 10, with the U.S. Air Force Heritage Winds Quintet including four EMF alumni, performing a variety of pieces by living female composers. The program is free of charge to the public.

Wednesday, July 24, the EMF Classical Guitar Summit at Temple Emanuel with guitar faculty including Dana Professor of Music Kami Rowan as well as young artists. The guitar program is in its 10th year.

The full schedule of performances can be found online (www.easternmusicfestival.com).