All chamber music performances take place at the Episcopal Church of the Advent, Washington and Franklin streets.
The New York Chamber Ensemble returns to Cape May for its 19th consecutive year. Clarinetist and accomplished conductor Alan R. Kay is the artistic director of the ensemble.

Kay was honored with membership in the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in 2002 and serves as Principal Clarinet with New York's Riverside Symphony. He often performs as principal clarinet with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and at American Ballet Theater. Kay's honors include a Presidential Scholars Teacher Award, the C.D. Jackson Award at Tanglewood, Juilliard's 1980 Clarinet Competition, and the 1989 Young Concert Artists Award with Hexagon, the piano and wind sextet featured in the documentary film, "Debut." A founding member of Windscape and Hexagon, he also appears frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and as a guest of numerous string quartets and chamber ensembles, including the Mendelssohn, Rossetti, Miro, and Shanghai Quartets. Kay taught at the Summer Music Academy in Leipzig, Germany in 2004 and currently teaches at the Manhattan, Hartt and Juilliard schools.

The New York Chamber Ensemble’s first performance at the Cape May Music Festival is “Till There Was Eulenspiegel” on Tuesday, May 20 at 8 p.m. Schubert’s shining masterpiece, the beloved Octet, rounds out this wonderful program preceded by a Mozartean homage to Bach, and Franz Hasenöhrl’s charming tribute to Richard Strauss’ musical tale about the medieval rogue, Till Eulenspiegel. The program includes Mozart/Bach: Prelude and Fugue, KV 404a No. 4 in F Major, Strauss/Hasenöhrl: Till Eulenspiegel—einmal anders! (Differently for once!), Schubert: Octet.

On Tuesday, June 3 at 8 p.m., the New York Chamber Ensemble presents, “The Many Sounds of the German Baroque” with Thomas Meglioranza, baritone and Robert Wolinsky, harpsichord. Meglioranza, makes his Cape May debut, while Wolinsky returns as master of ceremonies. Meglioranza possesses a remarkably versatile voice that is equally at home in repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Babbitt to Schubert to Gershwin. He was a winner of the 2005 Walter W. Naumburg Competition, the 2003 Franz Schubert/Modern Music Competition in Graz, the 2002 Concert Artists Guild Competition, and the 2002 Joy in Singing Award. Wolinsky, harpsichord and keyboard player, has more than 50 recordings to his credit and has performed with many of America’s leading ensembles. Experience the remarkable diversity of sounds one could experience while traveling through the Germany of the 18th century during this concert. The program includes Telemann: Trio Sonata in A Minor (“Musical Exercises”), Biber: Sonata Representativa, Telemann: Cantata, “Erquicktes Herz, sei voller Freuden,” Goldberg: Trio Sonata in C Major (originally attributed to Bach), and J.S. Bach: Two Arias (from Cantatas 123 and 157).

To round out their performances at this year’s Music Festival, the New York Chamber Ensemble will present another heartfelt homage to the world of jazz, “The Jazz Element: Jazzing up the Classics.” Their eighth “jazzical” program is on Tuesday, June 10 at 8 p.m. and features Ted Rosenthal on piano and Susan Rotholz playing flute and providing vocals. The jazz world has spilled over into the “classical” genre and continues to inspire new generations of composers. Jazz pianist and composer Rosenthal makes his Cape May Music Festival debut with this scintillating program of jazz of the Americas and Rotholz, known to audiences for her fantastic flute playing, shows a new, vocal side of herself. The program includes Piazzolla: Milonga de la Anunciacion, Villa-Lobos: The Jet Whistle, Ted Rosenthal: “Jazzing Up the Classics,” and Benny Carter: South Side Samba.
Chamber music lovers will be delighted when the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players return to the Music Festival on Tuesday, May 27. New Jersey’s premier players present a program of classics of the chamber repertoire including Haydn: Quartet No. 68, Op. 3, No. 5; Shostakovich: Quartet No. 8; and Dvorak: Quartet No. 6 in F major, Op. 96 “American.”

General admission tickets to chamber music concerts are $20, $15 for seniors and $5 for students.
The Cape May Music Festival is funded in part by grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State and the Geraldine R. Dodge and Frank and Lydia Bergen Foundations. PNC is a Corporate Benefactor of the Music Festival, Comcast is a senior sponsor and Yamaha is the official piano of the Cape May Music Festival.