“Music reminds us that we have far more in common than what separates us,” says Grammy-nominated violinist Andrés Cárdenes.
He is the co-founder of the Josef Gingold Chamber Music Festival, which returns to Boca Raton for its third year in early July with seven free or low-cost performances including a number of community engagement events. Those community concerts will take place at Alzheimer’s Community Care in Boca Raton, Temple Sinai of Palm Beach County and the Shirley and Barton Weisman Community Center, both in Delray Beach; the Alzeheimer’s and Weisman Center events are not open to the public.
The festival begins Tuesday, July 7, and runs through Sunday, July 19. Public concerts are set for Temple Sinai of Palm Beach County (July 9), Lynn University’s Amarnick-Goldstein Hall (July 11, 12, 18 and 19), and the Boca Raton Museum of Art (July 16). All of the public concerts are either free or low-cost.
Founded in Miami in 2017, the festival is a program of violinist Elmar Oliveira’s Elevar Foundation, which brings emerging artists together with internationally acclaimed performers and honors the memory of the Russian-American violinist Josef Gingold (1909-1995), a mentor to many, including Cárdenes.
Cárdenes is the primary heir to Gingold’s technique, vision and philosophy of violin playing and a belief in music as a profound form of human connection.
He also chaired the jury for the 2026 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, another Elevar Foundation initiative, and has served on juries for the prestigious Tchaikovsky and Stradivarius international violin competitions.
“We’re thrilled to be here in the community and bring music to the area, especially in the summer when there’s not much classical music around,” says Jill Arbetter, executive director of the Elevar Foundation and a former violinist with the Zurich Opera and Berlin Symphony Orchestra.
For its third year in Boca Raton, the theme of the festival is “The Next Generation,” and Cárdenes says that idea guided both the repertoire and the selection of artists.
“We wanted to create programs that connect generations of musicians through some of the greatest works in the chamber music repertoire,” he says.
Central to the program this year are works by Mozart because, Cárdenes says, his works “demand clarity, communication and collaboration.”
“These are qualities that are essential to chamber music,” he said. These works provide the opportunity for established artists and emerging performers to share the stage and engage in a meaningful artistic dialogue, he added.
The works include a wide-ranging survey of the chamber music repertoire, from Mozart’s “Dissonance” Quartet to the Romantic breadth of Brahms, Rachmaninov, Schumann, and Chausson. Concerts will be performed at a variety of venues, including Lynn University and the Boca Raton Museum of Art.
The program opens with a recital July 7 by EOIVC laureate and emerging artist Julia Jones and continues with July 9 with a program called “Jewish Prayers and Celebrations,” with music by Bruch, Bloch, and the Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim, at Temple Sinai.
That concert is followed by two “Mozartiade” concerts devoted to the music of Mozart, and three “Romantic Tapestries” concerts, culminating in Chausson’s Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet.
In addition to Cárdenes, those artists include violinists Jones, Gary Levinson and Erica Lynn; violists Michael Klotz and Jack Kessler; cellists Sara Sant’Ambrogio and Anne Martindale Williams; and pianists Robert Koenig and Sheng-Yuan Kuan.
Cárdenes says he is particularly excited to welcome Kessler and Jones, fourth-prize winner at the this year’s Oliveira Competition, and Erica Lynn, one of his former students.
“Seeing former students return as artistic colleagues is especially rewarding and speaks to the continuity of the chamber music tradition,” Cárdenes says. “The festival is not only about celebrating great music, but also about nurturing the artists who will carry that tradition forward.”
He’s grateful for the opportunity to bring the series back to Boca Raton this year and says that being under the Elevar Foundation umbrella has given the festival the support it needs to grow.
“It is incredibly gratifying to be welcomed in the community,” he says. “From the beginning, our goal was to build a festival that honored Josef Gingold’s artistic legacy while creating something meaningful for the South Florida community.”
“Seeing the festival continue to grow — and feeling the community’s support behind it — has been very gratifying,” he adds.
IF YOU GO
Performances July 9 (7 pm) at Temple Sinai of Palm Beach County; July 11 (7:30 pm) and 12 (3 pm) and July 18 (7:30 pm) and July 19 (3 pm) at the Lynn University Conservatory of Music; July 16 (5:30 pm) at the Boca Raton Museum of Art; the opening concert July 7, a recital by violinist Julia Jones, is available by calling Dave Welch at 561-368-0042. All concerts except the Boca Raton Museum event ($10 per ticket) are free, but registration is required. Visit www.elevarfoundation.org/jgcmf for details.
For the full schedule and details, please visit the Gingold Festival website at www.elevarfoundation.org/jgcmf. While the concerts are free or low-cost, guests are asked to pre-register.