For Information:
Mike Spino, (904) 261-1779

Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival Awarded $10,000 Grant By National Endowment for the Arts

Fernandina Beach, Fl.—May 2, 2008—The Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival today announced it has received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in support of four concerts featuring American music at the upcoming Festival, which runs from May 30 through June 15.

Tickets, which are now on sale to the general public, can be purchased online at www.aicmf.com, by calling 904-261-1779 or at the Festival’s office at 11 South 7th Street, Fernandina Beach.

The Festival’s grant is part of the NEA’s “American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius,” a major initiative aimed at acquainting Americans with the best of their cultural and artistic legacy. Through American Masterpieces, the NEA is sponsoring performances, exhibitions, tours, and educational programs across all art forms that will reach large and small communities in all 50 states.

The four Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival concerts in Fernandina Beach supported by the NEA grant are:

• June 1: A free concert in Central Park featuring a program of Americana and American music performed by the Atlanta Woodwind Quintet.
• June 8: Christopher Rex, the Festival’s artistic and general director, and the Resident Festival Artists will perform works by American composers Samuel Barber, Libby Larsen and Peter Shickele at Macedonia AME Church.
• June 11: The Resident Festival Artists will perform a free concert of American music at the Amelia Trace/Savannah Grand assisted living facility.
• June 12: American Musical Tales and Wonders, a concert for families and children, will be performed at the Peck Center Gym. Tickets for this special performance are $5.

Christopher Rex commented: “We are extremely honored to receive this generous grant from the NEA. Through the NEA’s support, Festival attendees will be enjoying the extraordinarily rich evolution of chamber music in the United States. This is an exciting moment for the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, and we will reward our audiences with American chamber music of the highest quality.”
In addition to Americana, the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival will present an extensive program of  German, French, Russian and Czech music performed by an array of internationally acclaimed musicians. The Festival’s star-studded lineup includes violin virtuosos Robert McDuffie and Rachel Barton Pine; cellist Lynn Harrell; and master pianists Valentina Lisista, John Kimura Parker, Claude Frank and Andreas Haefliger. The 2008 Festival also will mark one of the last times area residents will be able to hear the Guarneri String Quartet, one of the world’s greatest chamber ensembles that will retire after the 2008-2009 season.

The Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Entering its seventh season, the nationally renowned Festival is dedicated to bringing classical music at the highest level to the general public, schools and senior centers of Amelia Island and surrounding communities of northeastern Florida.

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