The Portland Chamber Music Festival is a local, community-based organization that has gained an outstanding regional and national reputation since its founding in 1994. The festival brings nationally recognized artists to Portland to present a wide range of classical chamber music, including the music of living composers.

The Festival has played to a nationwide audience on National Public Radio; twice has been awarded an Aaron Copland grant for performance of American contemporary music; has been recorded and broadcast by WGBH radio in Boston; and has been featured in both local and national press.

Performers in recent years have included members of the Vermeer, Mendelssohn, Borromeo, and Brentano String Quartets, world-renowned baritone Sanford Sylvan, and National Symphony Concertmaster Nurit Bar-Josef. Resident Composers have included Grammy winner Osvaldo Golijov and internationally celebrated composer Earl Kim.

PCMF also works to develop excitement for classical music among young people and the greater Portland community, hosting a free children’s concert, a Young Artist Apprentice Program, concerts in Gardiner and at Bates College, and adult chamber music workshops. The Festival also conducts an annual Composer’s Competition, culminating in the winning work’s premiere at a PCMF summer concert.

PCMF is a community enterprise, built on the support of dedicated individuals, foundations, and businesses in Greater Portland.  The Festival actively collaborates with many other arts organizations in Portland, including projects in recent years with the Children’s Museum, the St. Lawrence Arts Center, and the Portland Museum of Art.  

PCMF’s summer concerts are held at the Abromson Center at the University of Southern Maine’s Portland Campus, an easily accessible, modern, air-conditioned venue close to downtown Portland.