Chamber Music Sedona celebrates 40 years

Chamber Music Sedona is celebrating its 40th year this coming 2022-23 season and with that they have some incredible, world-class musicians coming to town.

Their mission is to bring outstanding classical music to the people of Sedona, Verde Valley and Northern Arizona. Their plan is to help enrich their culture of music with some of the world finest musicians to help promote a love for performing arts throughout music education programs. Joining us today on Arizona Horizon is Nick Canellakis, artistic director of Chamber Music Sedona.

A look into Canellaskis and his background

Canellaskis is an artist of the the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he is also a winner of the prestigious CMS Two international auditions and was also considered to be a “superb young soloist.” He is also a former graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and New England Conservatory.

He is also a regular guest artist at many of the world’s leading music festivals, including Santa Fe’s Ravinia. Filmmaking and acting are other are areas of interests Canellaski has. While taking part in seven short films, Canellaski has experience producing and directing. His latest film, “Thin Walls,” was nominated for awards at many prominent film festivals.

The history of Chamber Music Sedona

Chamber Music Sedona was established in 1983 as a non profit to present two-week festivals at Verde Valley School. CMS would go on to include concerts in Prescott, Flagstaff, Jerome and Cottonwood. In 2018, CMS went on to hire Canellakis of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as artistic director.

CMS has welcomed over 550 new artists to the community to perform, while also growing the audience at each concert. Thanks to the power of more dynamic programming, the audience has grown to 200-350 per concert.

If you want more information about Chamber Music Sedona, click here. or if you want more information about Nick Canellakis, click here.