The Seattle Chamber Music Society Summer Festival kicks off tonight in Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall with compositions by Felix Mendelssohn, Francis Poulenc, Franz Schubert and George Gershwin.

With Benaroya Hall undergoing a facelift, the festival will move around the Puget Sound, including concerts at Town Hall, Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, the Vashon Center for the Arts and Bainbridge Performing Arts. The complete calendar is available online. Listeners can also stream the concerts online.

The Seattle Chamber Music Society is also bringing back its Concert Truck to bring free concerts to dozens of public locations around the region. Check their website for a complete calendar.

“It's free. It's a great way we get people aware of chamber music if they have not been exposed to it,” said Ned Laird, Seattle Chamber Music Society board member. “We take our art out into their neighborhoods. There are folks who underwrite it so it doesn't cost the company any money.”

The Seattle Chamber Music Society was founded by former New York Philharmonic cellist Toby Saks in 1982. The chamber group originally performed their summer season at the Lakeside School. It moved the summer festival to Nordstrom Recital Hall in 2010.

Saks appointed John Ehnes, who Laird described as “one of the world’s leading violinists,” to replace her as artistic director in 2012. John Holloway was hired as executive director in 2021. He was promoted to the newly created role of CEO earlier this year.