A new summer concert festival has been created for the Northwest Arkansas area, and a U of A professor is leading the helm.

Tomoko Kashiwagi is the artistic director of Chamber Music on the Mountain, a new concert series at Mount Sequoyah Center's Creative Spaces, NWA program. They were awarded a $15,000 grant from Mid-America Arts Alliance to "offer a year-round concert series bringing high-caliber musicians to collaborate with local musicians, artists and organizations in Northwest Arkansas."

The first CMM Summer Festival will be held July 19-31.

"It's been a dream for me to establish a chamber music series in Fayetteville for a few years," Kashiwagi says. "Mount Sequoyah Center is a perfect venue. It is a quaint, non-profit community center overlooking downtown Fayetteville. Two concerts will be family-friendly outdoor concerts, and another two concerts will in the newly renovated Millar Lodge, both at very affordable ticket prices. We were fortunate to partner with Fayetteville Public Library, the Momentary and Crystal Bridges Museum for additional outreach concerts that are free so more people can come to enjoy our performances."

The chamber music festival hopes to bring classical music to all people, Kashiwagi explains, not just specialized concert halls.

"I feel that classical music, like many other traditional art forms, somehow got stereotyped as highbrowed, something you can only experience in specialized concert halls," she said.

"To let more people be (re)acquainted with classical music, we are going to bring the concerts out into our community. Chamber music is perfect because there are many small ensemble combinations which can be flexible to fit into various venues. It was challenging to find good venues, quiet places with nice resonance and atmosphere that are comfortable for our audience and musicians. Outdoor venues are great, but it is difficult to play instruments, especially strings, in high humidity, and amplifying the instruments without distorting the quality of the acoustic sound is very tricky."

To learn more about Chamber Music on the Mountain and get updates on future concerts, visit chambermusiconthemountain.org.