I was mostly a stranger to the world of classical music when I started my current job as Executive Director at Interlochen Public Radio. I’d run IPR’s news service for 15 years but had no musical training aside from a few guitar lessons. One of the first major projects I was involved with for Classical IPR was a broadcast of the New York Philharmonic from Hill Auditorium. The week also involved some pop-up concerts around Ann Arbor as part of the orchestra’s residency. I remember watching a percussion ensemble inside the Avalon Cafe and being struck by an encounter with that type of music at such close range. Since then, I have believed that a piece of IPR’s mission needs to be putting the public in direct contact with musical excellence and power.
One of the ways we have done this is with The Sound Garden Project, and this week we are announcing an exciting new partner for 2026. (See our press release with details about this partnership below.) Sound Garden is a residency program at IPR that is one of a kind. Musicians are made part of communities from Interlochen to Glen Arbor to Cheboygan. They live in these towns and make music part of daily life for a week or more, showing up at coffee shops, the gas station, library and the hardware store. Artists converse with the public as neighbors and help people engage with music they might not even know exists. Honestly, I didn’t really know what a woodwind quintet was before this program.
The experience is transformative for the artists as well. I remember when a musician from our first Sound Garden season told me she had been taught to never make eye contact with the audience. When her quintet opened for The Accidentals at Bay View, she was blown away by how the trio engaged the audience from the stage. A studio instructor at Michigan State University once told us the change he observed in his musicians after their time with us was “monumental”.
Our sense of unique value has now been confirmed by Concert Artists Guild, a renowned artist agency in New York that will send some of the best ensembles in the country here to be part of The Sound Garden Project. This summer CAG-represented ensembles Katarina String Quartet and Cerus Quartet are both in our lineup and both have gold medals from the prestigious Fischoff competition. You can see them at very close range if you are in the area. I hope you do. The schedules will be here when summer approaches.
Click document below to view entire press release.
