Tomoko Kashiwagi, the Emily J. McAllister Endowed Associate Professor of Collaborative Piano at the University of Arkansas, is launching a bold new initiative this summer: the Ozark Music Festival, a two-week classical music event taking place June 10–22 across Northwest Arkansas.

Building on a longstanding commitment to community engagement through music, Kashiwagi is co-founding the festival as a dynamic continuation of the legacy of the Hot Springs Music Festival, which closed in 2024 after nearly 30 years of nurturing emerging classical musicians.

“I was invited to join the Hot Springs Music Festival as a piano faculty member in 2020,” said Kashiwagi. “It had an incredible reputation, even when I was a student. When the festival was canceled due to the pandemic, I was heartbroken. So when the HSMF board approached me about helping to carry its mission forward in a new setting, it felt like fate.”

The Ozark Music Festival will bring together 25 professional artists and 75 collegiate musicians from across the U.S., including University of Arkansas students and Arkansas residents studying out of state. Participants will engage in intensive training and perform in 13 public concerts featuring orchestra and chamber music.

The 2025 season opens on Wednesday, June 11, with a free outdoor brass fanfare at Fayetteville’s Cultural Arts Corridor (Upper Ramble) at 6 p.m. The theme of the inaugural season, “Transformation,” honors the festival’s evolution from its Hot Springs roots into a new chapter in the Ozarks.

The Festival Orchestra, under the baton of Sunny Xia, Douglas F. King Associate Conductor of the Seattle Symphony, will perform masterworks including Debussy’s La Mer, Strauss’s Don Juan, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. Programs also highlight contemporary composers such as Reena Esmail and Angelique Poteat, and include a world premiere by Little Rock native Jeremy Crosmer, cellist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Concerts will be held at premier regional venues including Fayetteville Public Library, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, The Momentary, and the Faulkner Performing Arts Center. Chamber music performances will be staged in intimate community spaces throughout Northwest Arkansas, offering immersive, up-close experiences for audiences.

The Ozark Music Festival is co-directed by Kashiwagi and Executive Director Brittany Cooper-d’Orsay, an Arkansas native and alumna of the original Hot Springs Music Festival.

For a full concert schedule and ticket information, visit: ozarkmusic.org.