The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival launches its celebratory 20th Anniversary Season with an opening night performance featuring Jonathan Biss and the Pacifica Quartet. The festival opens Saturday, June 8 at the Seligman Performing Arts Center.

Details from the GLCMF:

The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival will celebrate its 20th anniversary season June 8-23 with more than 20 concerts in downtown and metro venues. In celebration of a milestone year, the 2013 Festival will feature the return of favorite artists, five new commissions performed by five returning ensembles, and the return of three legendary composers. The festivities kick off on Opening Night, Saturday, June 8 at Seligman Performing Arts Center. The concert will feature world-famous pianist Jonathan Biss and Grammy Award winning ensemble, the Pacifica Quartet.

Pianist Jonathan Biss performed at the very first Festival in 1994 at the age of 13. His last Festival appearance occurred in 1998.

Jonathan Biss, who appeared on the very first Festival season in 1994 at the age of 13, has since appeared with the foremost orchestras of North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia and released a number of solo albums. The most recent album being the first CD in a nine-year, nine-disc recording cycle of Beethoven’s complete sonatas in January 2012. His last Festival appearance occurred in 1998.

Biss will bookend the concert with a performance of Beethoven’s “Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 16″ with his parents, violinist Miriam Fried and violist Paul Biss, along with cellist Andrés Díaz. Biss will also close out the evening with a performance of Dvořák’s “Piano Quintet No. 2, Op. 81″ – a work widely acknowledged as a masterpiece of its form. Biss will perform the work with the members of the Pacifica Quartet.

 The Pacifica Quartet made their Festival debut in 1998 as part of the Shouse Institute. This year marks their first return engagement.

Also featured on the evening will be a new work by composer Keeril Makan, co-commissioned by the Festival and the Boston Celebrity Series for the Pacifica Quartet. The work was premiered on the Celebrity Boston Series to a sold-out audience in October of 2012 at Bard College. Makan is an Associate Professor of Music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome and a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship.

The Pacifica Quartet made their Festival debut in 1998 as a part of the Shouse Ensemble Institute for young and emerging ensembles. This will be their first return performance to the Festival. Named the quartet-in-residence and full-time faculty members at Indiana University’s Jacob School of Music in March 2012, the Pacifica was the quartet-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2009 – 2012) – a position previously held by the Guarneri String Quartet – and received the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance.

The Festival’s opening night performance will set the tone for the two-week festival. Upcoming concerts during the Festival’s first week will include a Sunday, June 9 at 3 p.m. performance at Grosse Pointe Unitarian Church, and four concerts running Tuesday, June 11 through Friday, June 14 at Temple Beth El and Kirk in the Hills Presbyterian Church. The first week concerts will feature many of the opening night artists as well a number of additional artists including: the Jupiter String Quartet, the Parker Quartet, pianist James Tocco and cellists Paul Katz and Robert deMaine. The Festival’s closing night performance will take place on Saturday, June 22. Find out more about these upcoming concerts by calling (248) 559-2097 or going online to www.greatlakeschambermusic.org.

Opening Night is sponsored by Plante Moran. Major sponsorship for the 2013 Festival is provided by JPMorgan Chase.

 JUNE 8 CONCERT INFORMATION

Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 16…………………………………… Ludwig van Beethoven

Miriam Fried, violin; Paul Biss, viola; Andrés Díaz, cello; Jonathan Biss, piano

Return ……………………………………………………………………………………………Keeril Makan

The Pacifica Quartet: Simin Ganatra, violin; Sibbi Bernhardsson, violin; Masumi Per Rostad, viola; Brandon Vamos, cello

 Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81…………………………………………..Antonín Dvořák

Jonathan Biss, piano; Pacifica Quartet

ABOUT THE GREAT LAKES CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL

The Festival is co-sponsored by St. Hugo of the Hills, Temple Beth El, Kirk in the Hills, and Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings. Subscriptions and single tickets are now on sale. To order or to find out more, please visit www.greatlakeschambermusic.org or call (248) 559-2097.