MISSION
Chelsea Music Festival celebrates great music by convening world-leading musicians and artists in the performing, culinary, and visual arts for an international audience. The Festival invites artists, composers, and performers to collaborate in pursuit of a new frontier of artistic expression. ABOUT
Inspired by its Chelsea roots, the Festival reflects the creativity of one of New York City
's most dynamic neighborhoods. Programs span musical genres ranging from classical to contemporary to jazz with a special emphasis on Festival commissions by composers whose works are not in the traditional western canon. On the digital programming front, the Festival hosts an online library of recordings so music enthusiasts, artists, and students alike can explore unique interpretations of classical, jazz, and contemporary works via high-quality videos of world-class performances and dialogues available for years to come. Since 2010, the Chelsea Music Festival has established itself as a critically-acclaimed, accessible and interactive gateway to chamber music in non-traditional concert spaces such as art galleries, public squares, schools, and churches. Artists hail from around the world to partake in nearly two weeks of programming complete with concerts, lectures, exhibitions, family events, and free outreach performances. In 2020, the Chelsea Music Festival inaugurated its Online Encores and Online Originals digital video series on YouTube; Online Encores presents highlights from Festival archives and past concerts while Online Originals presents new and never-before-seen performances and recordings. We are proud to give emerging voices, particularly those of women and people of color, a stage and are working to build an audience and intimate community to support a new generation of musicians, composers, and artists. The Festival’s Artistic Directors are Ken-David Masur and Melinda Lee Masur. Ken-David Masur is a Grammy-nominated producer and conductor currently serving as Music Director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. A graduate of Columbia University, he was previously Associate Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Munich Symphony, Associate Conductor of the San Diego Symphony, Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre National in Paris and has led such orchestras as the Dresden Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Russian National Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de Toulouse. Melinda Lee Masur is a concert pianist who has performed throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia, including all three stages of Carnegie Hall, at London’s Wigmore Hall and South Bank Centre, the Berliner Philharmonie, Ravinia Festival and at the Festival Les Muséiques Basel. She graduated from Harvard University and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover, Germany and is a Steinway Artist.
