“Music can soothe the soul,” says Grammy-nominated violinist Andrés Cárdenes.
He is the co-founder of the Josef Gingold Chamber Music Festival (JGCMF), which returns to Boca Raton for its second year with eight free performances beginning Tuesday, July 8, and running through Sunday, July 20, plus five community engagement events.
Originally founded in 2017 as a program of the Elevar Foundation, the festival ran in Miami for six years before moving north to Palm Beach County in 2024.
Named in honor of legendary classical violinist Josef Gingold (1909–1995), who was Cárdenes’s mentor at Indiana University, the festival celebrates Gingold’s legacy by bringing together world-class faculty and emerging artists for two weeks of concerts, mentorship and community engagement.
“We’re thrilled to be here in Boca Raton,” says Cárdenes, who also serves as artist-in-residence at Lynn Conservatory in Boca Raton and is professor emeritus at Carnegie-Mellon University.
His main reason, he says, for founding the festival is to honor Gingold and his memory.
“Josef Gingold was a guiding light for many violinists, especially for me,” he says.
Cárdenes was particularly close to Gingold and the primary heir to the technique, vision and philosophy of violin playing that Gingold espoused.
Widely respected for his solo, chamber, and orchestral work, Cárdenes is the artistic and music director of the festival and past concertmaster for the Pittsburgh Symphony.
He also chairs the jury for the 2026 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition (EOIVC), another Elevar Foundation initiative, and has served on juries for the prestigious Tchaikovsky and Stradivarius international violin competitions.
The Oliveira Competition, the flagship program of the Elevar Foundation, was established by violinist Elmar Oliveira in collaboration with the Lynn University Conservatory of Music. It takes place every three years at Lynn.
In addition to the music, part of the festival experience for Cárdenes is a communal one — being able to share the experience with like-minded colleagues and other world-class musicians.
“It’s an opportunity to share something meaningful with colleagues on the same musical wavelength, and other chamber music enthusiasts and to embody Josef Gingold’s techniques and spirit,” he says. “It’s inspiring for everyone.”
“We all share the same goal, vision and passion,” says Cárdenes, who this year is incorporating a repertoire of Sephardic Jewish music in the program as a tribute to Gingold’s Jewish heritage.
Titled Sephardic Dreams, the program pays homage to Jewish composers centered on Sueños de Sefarad, by David Stock, a piece commissioned by Cárdenes before Stock’s death in 2015. Cardenes also gave the world premiere of Stock’s Violin Concerto.
Other works include music by Julius Chajes (Prayer), Erich Wolfgang Korngold (Much Ado About Nothing), Felix Mendelssohn (Piano Trio No. 2), and music by John Williams from the 1993 Steven Spielberg film Schindler’s List.
Performances will take place Tuesday, July 8, at the Phyllis and Harvey Sandler Center at the Adolph and Rose Levis Jewish Community Center in Boca Raton and on Thursday, July 10, at Beth Ami Congregation, also in Boca Raton. The performances begin at 7 p.m.
The festival also includes four performances at the Amarnick-Goldstein Concert Hall at Lynn University: The French Connection (July 12), with works by Ravel, Debussy, Ysaÿe and Fauré; Romantic Fantasies (July 13), featuring pieces by Saint-Saëns, Poulenc, Rachmaninov and Brahms; Czech It Out! (July 19), a celebration of Dvořák’s Bohemian style; and Swept Away (July 20), with selections by Arensky, Schumann and Brahms. The July 12 and 19 programs are set for 7:30 p.m.; the July 13 and 20 programs begin at 3 p.m.
The Dvořák program will also be presented July 15 at St. Andrews Estates South in Boca Raton (7:45 p.m.), and the Swept Away program will be offered July 17 at St. Mary’s Church in Stuart (7 p.m.).
Jill Arbetter, executive director of the Elevar Foundation and a former violinist with the Zurich Opera and Berlin Symphony Orchestra, praises Cárdenes’s leadership.
“We’re honored and excited to have Andrés bring his vision to the Elevar Foundation and the Josef Gingold Chamber Music Festival,” she says.
She’s looking forward for this year’s program, noting that this year, two additional concerts were added to the Lynn University venue, along with a performance at St. Mary’s Church in Stuart, extending the festival’s reach into Martin County.
This year’s community engagement component will bring music to Alzheimer’s Community Care centers in West Palm Beach and Stuart, as well as to students at the Youth Orchestras of Palm Beach County Summer Camp.
Musicians include violinists Cho-Liang Lin, Brooke Gunter and Gary Levinson; violists Gerald Karni, Michael Klotz and Richard Young; cellists Rafael Figueroa and Wendy Sutter; pianists Ian Hobson, Sheng-Yuan Kuan and Lana Suran; harpist Isabel Cárdenes (Andrés’s daughter); flutist Elizabeth Lu; and clarinetist Stojo Miserlioski.
Cárdenes said the pieces selected for the festival were inspired by the Golden Age of violin playing and a belief in chamber music as a living, breathing art form that can unite people and be a force for good.
“With so much conflict and polarization in our daily lives, it’s important to take two hours to sit quietly and reflect on something beautiful,” he says. “Relax, listen to beautiful music, cleanse your soul, release your tensions and appreciate the beauty of life.”
Music, he says, can inspire, uplift and create common ground, and, like life itself, requires cooperation. He also believes music is more than an aesthetic pleasure.
“Music is a blueprint for society,” he says. “It reminds us that we can’t create something truly special on our own — we have to do it together. Like musicians, we must be on the same page, and create a contract with our colleagues.
“That’s the lesson music offers us: that something beautiful can emerge through cooperation, shared vision, and a collective purpose.”
For the full schedule and details, please visit the Gingold Festival website here.