Eastern Shore
Chamber Music Festival
Fairhope, AL | Point Clear, AL | Gulf Shores, AL
Videography by Benjamin Rollings
Mark Your Calendars for This Summer Season!!
Three weeks of chamber music along the Eastern Shore of the Mobile Bay.
Center Poster Art by Carolyn Van de Velde
Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival
Fairhope, Alabama
ESCMF artists perform live, mesmerizing classical chamber concerts all along the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay free of charge to our audiences. ESCMF concerts pair contemporary chamber music with masterworks from the chamber repertoire.
ESCMF Artistic Directors
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Sahada Buckley is a violinist and cross-disciplinary artist from Fairhope, Alabama. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia with degrees in Music Theory and Violin Performance and is currently earning her Master's degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying with Pro Arte Quartet first-violinist, David Perry. At UW-Madison, Sahada is a member of the graduate string quartet, the Marvin Rabin String Quartet. In 2018, she performed as a soloist with the University of Georgia Symphony Orchestra after winning the 2018 UGASO Concerto Competition and, in 2019, she through-hiked the entire Appalachian Trail with a violin on her backpack. Sahada has attended festivals such as Meadowmount School of Music, Tanglewood BUTI, Montecito Music Festival, and Green Mountain Music Festival. In Madison, Sahada plays with multiple small ensembles exploring the possibilities of experimental improvisation. Two of her albums have been featured on Bandcamp Daily’s ‘Best Experimental Albums’ List. Sahada spends her free time walking her dog, painting and attending concerts.
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Wisconsin-native Trace Johnson is a cellist known for his effortless musicality and rich cello tone. Johnson has appeared as a chamber musician, soloist, and orchestral musician in various settings in the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Canada, China, and the United States. Equally at home teaching in the studio or performing on stage, Johnson is a devoted and thoughtful communicator who enjoys a varied career as a cellist, teacher, and musician. Johnson has held cello positions with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, Sarasota Opera, and Miami City Ballet. He has recently appeared with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Present Music, Florentine Opera, Candlelight, Madison New Music Festival, LunART, Arthaus Orchestra, and Artosphere Festival Orchestra. In 2025, PARMA/Albany Records released Johnson's debut album Works for Cello , which featured a premiere cello work, Limbic Notes, by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Melinda Wagner. Trace is a regular performer and presenter at the Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival in Fairhope, AL, where he is one of two co-artistic directors.
