10:00 AM | STRING AND PIANO MASTERCLASSES with Soovin Kim, Wendy Warner, and Gloria Chien

Student musicians perform for festival artists during an exciting morning of simultaneous masterclasses. The audience can wander from room to room and observe these illuminating sessions.

2:00 PM | SPOTLIGHT CONCERT with Ignat Solzhenitsyn

The opening Spotlight concert traces a journey between homelands, reflecting the dual musical heritage of Ignat Solzhenitsyn. Through movements drawn from his beloved Russian and Germanic chamber works, this program illuminates his artistic voice that was shaped by migration from Russia to the United States.

Selected movements from:
MOZART Violin Sonata in E minor
PROKOFIEV Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor
BRAHMS Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Major
RACHMANINOV Piano Trio in D minor

Soovin Kim, violin; Wendy Warner, cello; Ignat Solzhenitsyn, piano

3:30 PM | IN DEPTH From Russia to Vermont: A Family’s Journey with Ignat Solzhenitsyn and Soovin Kim

In this intimate conversation, Ignat Solzhenitsyn joins Soovin Kim to reflect on the Solzhenitsyn family’s migration from Russia to Vermont, tracing a path shaped by exile, resilience, and renewal. Through personal memory and artistic perspective, they explore how displacement and belonging leave lasting imprints on identity—and on the music that emerges from it.

Join the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival for our 18th Summer Festival, Migrations: Musical Movements!

Music is among the most powerful expressions of cultural identity. Distinct tones, rhythms, and philosophies color musical traditions around our world. Equally compelling are the new musical languages that emerge when ideas cross borders and oceans to take root in new soil. Our 2026 summer festival, Migrations, will celebrate the journeys and musical conversations that are born from movement!

A Festival Pass provides a true wealth of experiences. Get your pass today to guarantee that you won’t miss a note.

Music: Your Festival Pass provides full admission to six concerts and our popular showcase recital. You’ll enjoy some of the greatest works in the repertoire—and discover new favorites—all performed by some of the world’s great musicians. Passholders develop special bonds with our artists through shared experiences and receptions.

Enrichment: Your Festival Pass provides full admission to all four of our Inside Pitch talks, all three masterclasses, and our Young Composers Sounding Board. You’ll learn how performances come together and enjoy music enrichment classes led by David Serkin Ludwig, Dean of the Juilliard School.

Guaranteed Seating: Your Festival Pass guarantees admission to every concert and event. Some of our summer performances sell out to the general public—but never to passholders. You will always have a seat.

Shared Meals: Your Festival Pass grants you admission to our lush post-concert receptions and to our Passholder Dinner at Pulcinella’s.

Fine Arts: Your Festival Pass allows you to enjoy our Vermont Artists Gallery and our annual Gallery Talk. This show is one of the largest exhibits of Vermont Artists in the state. All the works are for sale (you may end up taking home a new favorite), and 20% of proceeds benefit the festival.

Community: All of these activities lead to one thing—a community of friends. Many of our passholders have formed lifelong friendships through attending the festival. It’s a warm, enthusiastic, and welcoming family of friends.

2:15 PM | PRE-CONCERT CONVERSATION WITH SOOVIN KIM AND DAVID SERKIN LUDWIG

3:00 PM | CONCERT I: From the Motherland

The voices of three of the giants of early 20th-century Russian culture traveled distinct paths, each indelibly shaping performers and composers throughout the rest of the world. Stravinsky and Rachmaninov fled the 1917 Russian Revolution and ultimately settled in the United States, while Shostakovich remained in his homeland, fighting for artistic freedom in the face of Soviet government persecution. The two classically-structured duo works on this program are balanced on the second half by Rachmaninov’s epic trio that is a loving elegy to his mentor Tchaikovsky.

STRAVINSKY Divertimento from The Fairy’s Kiss
SHOSTAKOVICH Cello Sonata in D minor
RACHMANINOV Piano Trio No. 2 in D minor, Trio élégiaque

Bella Hristova, violin; Soovin Kim, violin; Wendy Warner, cello; Gloria Chien, piano; Ignat Solzhenitsyn, piano 

 Reception and Meet-the-Artists to follow

10:00 AM | MASTERCLASS: LCCMF YOUNG ARTISTS with Soovin Kim

The 2026 LCCMF Young Artists Quartet is composed of some of the finest string players of their generation. They work in this string quartet masterclass with Artistic Director and violinist Soovin Kim.

11:30 AM | INSIDE PITCH with Sean Gallagher: Musical Migration and the Worlds of Stravinsky

The extraordinary and wide-ranging career of Igor Stravinsky spanned multiple realms: from late imperial Russia to the heyday of early modernism in France to the post-war United States, and the age of jet-set celebrity. The conceptual scope of his music reflects this breadth of experience. This talk explores the many worlds—cultural, aesthetic, compositional—that Stravinsky traversed and helped to shape.

1:00 PM | MASTERCLASS: LCCMF YOUNG ARTISTS with Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt

The 2026 LCCMF Young Artists Quartet continues their musical exploration during this masterclass with one of the finest violists of her generation. 

3:00 PM | INSIDE PITCH with David Serkin Ludwig: Musical Inheritance

LCCMF Composer-in-Residence David Serkin Ludwig traces his lineage through major musical artists who emigrated to the United States. His great-grandfather, the eminent German violinist and composer Adolf Busch, left Europe in protest of rising fascism. He took his entire family, including son-in-law pianist Rudolf Serkin, who would become one of the leading musical voices of the late 20th century. 

In this very personal Inside Pitch, Ludwig shares the history, music, and (unofficial) stories of his forebears, and the narrative of their journey to the United States, as they brought a musical inheritance with them that would permanently transform the cultural life of their new home.

1:00 PM INSIDE PITCH with DAVID SERKIN LUDWIG: A Voice in America

At a pivotal moment in his life, Antonín Dvořák arrived in the United States and marveled at the music he found around him. Through the voice of singer and composer Harry T. Burleigh, he encountered spirituals that would leave a lasting impression. LCCMF Composer-in-Residence David Ludwig explores how those influences emerge in his “American” viola quintet and what it means for a composer to find a voice shaped by a new place.

2:30 PM or 5:00 PM CONCERT II: New World Resonances

Dvořák spent much of his life using his native Slavic and Bohemian folk music to lovingly develop a Czech national style. During his time in the United States, he also found great inspiration from African American and Native American melodies that led to several of his finest works, including his final symphony titled From the New World, and two chamber works now referred to as the “American” – his F major string quartet, and the work on today’s program, the ebullient E-flat major viola quintet.

Program
​BURLEIGH Selected Songs and Spirituals
​DVOŘÁK Viola Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 97

Artists
​Hyunah Yu, soprano; Bella Hristova, violin; Soovin Kim, violin; Milena Pajaro-Van de Stadt, viola; Teng Li, viola; Edward Arron, cello; Jeewon Park, piano

6:45 PM | PRE-CONCERT CONVERSATION WITH SOOVIN KIM AND DAVID SERKIN LUDWIG

7:30 PM | CONCERT III: Songs Across Cultures

Cultural interplay has never been more fluid, fueling both compositional subject matter and styles. Nokuthula Ngwenyama was born in Los Angeles to Zimbabwean and Japanese parents, and the full spectrum of her heritage comes out in Joy Steppin’, a celebration of a universal idea shared across cultures. David Serkin Ludwig’s new LCCMF commission, Peshev Songs, is a tribute to Dimitar Peshev, the Bulgarian World War II hero who saved more than 40,000 Jews from deportation to death camps. The program is anchored by Dvořák’s beloved piano quartet, a love letter to his Czech homeland - an expression of musical nationalism, an idea that reverberated around the world in the 19th century. 

NOKUTHULA NGWENYAMA Joy Steppin’ 
DAVID SERKIN LUDWIG Peshev Songs for soprano and piano trio | US Premiere
DVOŘÁK Piano Quartet in E-flat Major

Espressivo! Piano Quartet
Jaime Laredo, violin; Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola; Sharon Robinson, cello; Anna Polonsky, piano

Hyunah Yu, soprano; Bella Hristova, violin; Edward Arron, cello; Jeewon Park, piano 

2:15 PM | PRE-CONCERT CONVERSATION with Soovin Kim and David Serkin Ludwig

3:00 PM | CONCERT IV: Songs of Farewell

Chopin in Paris, Korngold in Los Angeles, and Smetana for a time in Sweden – each found not only refuge but genuine embrace in a new cultural home. Yet in each case, a deeper emotional current persists in their music, as if the ache of distance were already present before departure. Their intertwined belonging and loss give rise to melodies of tenderness and longing. The festival closes with Smetana’s fiery piano trio, an outpouring of grief and acceptance at the death of his daughter. 

CHOPIN Cello Sonata
KORNGOLD Two Songs from Abschiedslieder, Op. 14 and Marietta’s Lied
SMETANA Piano Trio in G minor

The Chien-Kim-Watkins Trio
Soovin Kim, violin; Paul Watkins, cello; Gloria Chien, piano

Hyunah Yu, soprano; Edward Arron, cello; Jeewon Park, piano; 

Reception and Meet-the-Artists to follow