Welcome to the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival! Our seventh season promises to be the best yet as we feature a dazzling lineup of internationally acclaimed artists, who will perform a kaleidoscopic range of great music…from Classical, Romantic and Modern to light and just plain fun. Just a few highlights of our 2008 season include:

• Pianist Jon Kimura Parker will team with Helen Nightengale, Amy Moretti, wife Alyosia Parker, Hsin You Huang, and I in performances of works by Dvorak and Dohnanyi. Amelia Island favorite cellist Lynn Harrell will perform Bach's Cello Suite No. 5.

• Violinists Robert McDuffie and Amy Schwartz Moretti will perform the challenging Prokovief violin duo. He also will team with pianist Elizabeth Pridgen and a string quartet on an equally difficult Chausson piece. Per local requests, McDuffie also will perform works for solo violin and piano by Lehar, Mozart, Copland, and Kreisler.
The world famous Guarneri String Quartet will perform at the opening gala, while the acclaimed American String Quartet will play at our closing gala.

• We will celebrate the 150th anniversary of St. Peter's Episcopal Church with a Baroque concert featuring violinist Rachel Barton Pine and Trio Settecento.

• Piano masters Valentina Lisista, Claude Frank and Andreas Haefliger will continue the Festival's tradition of presenting world-class pianists in both chamber and solo recitals.

• You also will be treated to a large measure of American music by Copeland, Gershwin, Chaplin and Raymond Scott. In addition, an Americana concert will feature music by Samuel Barber, Libby Larsen and Peter Shickele.

These are just a few highlights. When you look at the detailed program in this site, you will see that we will be offering much, much more great music. And consistent with past Festivals, performances will be held at venues throughout Amelia Island, including several beautiful churches, the historic Nassau County Courthouse, the Plantation and the Ritz Carlton. We have even scheduled a performance at historic St. Andrew's Church in downtown Jacksonville.

On behalf of our Board of Directors and every Festival volunteer, I extend to you an invitation to come and enjoy some truly great music by the sea from May 30 through June 15. We look forward to seeing you at the 2008 Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival.