ZACH BROCK APPOINTED ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL OF LEXINGTON
Nathan Cole Turning Over Artistic Director Duties after Nineteen Years while Continuing as Performer
Big news out of my hometown. I’ve been appointed Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington, taking over from Nathan Cole, who co-founded the festival in 2007.
Nathan recently became Concertmaster of the Boston Symphony, a historic job, and needed to pass the baton. He put it this way:
“I am immensely proud of the quality and accomplishments of the festival, and I want to remain involved. Sadly, my new responsibilities in Boston prevent me from giving the time needed to develop the programs that Lexington has come to expect. Zach, whom I have known since we were both in CKYO as kids, is among the most accomplished musicians I know, and so the festival’s programs and continued success are in good hands. I look forward to being part of the festival under Zach’s direction.”
Nathan and I go back to childhood — we were in the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra together. He first brought me in as Artist-in-Residence back in 2017, so this organization has been on my radar for a while. And I said what I meant in the official release:
“Moving back to Lexington has been very rewarding, and this appointment at the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington is among the most significant things to come from it… I am deeply honored to be entrusted with an organization known for its innovation and artistic excellence. I have known and respected Nathan for decades, and I look forward to collaborating with him and the wonderful and talented core troupe to continue bringing world-class chamber music to my hometown.”
Board president Gregory Pettit said:
“We are incredibly lucky in Lexington to have such dedicated and world-renowned native sons bring both excellence and excitement back to their hometown year after year. We are luckier still to have the community support that has enabled us to bring world-class music to Lexington and continue to grow. We are delighted to have Zach Brock as artistic director to continue that tradition.”
My Chamber Music Origin Story
Some of you might be wondering what I’m doing in the world of Chamber Music, and how that co-exists with bebop, Snarky Puppy, and everything else I’ve been up to. Fair question.
When I was a little kid, there was a great restaurant started by young people, my parents’ generation, called Alfalfa’s. It was as much community space as restaurant: local art on the walls, weekly performances by various ensembles. One of those ensembles was a string quartet made up of three brothers, Brice, Ned, and Rodney Farrar, and another local violinist, Craig Timmerman. I grew up watching them play the classic quartet literature, and what struck me wasn’t just the music. It was how they communicated. The interconnectedness. The joy, friendship, and humor they brought to every piece. That stuck with me.
Later, in CKYO, I got to play in a string quartet coached by a newer member of Lexington’s musical community, cellist Benjamin Karp. We played Dvořák and Haydn, among other things, and Benjamin taught us how to actually talk to each other through the music. Listen, look, show, breathe. Skills I’d end up using every night playing with a jazz pianist, bassist, and drummer.
At Northwestern, studying with Dr. Myron Kartman, those instincts got sharper. I played Beethoven, Brahms, and Bartók, spent a quarter on viola, and played two summers at chamber music festivals, one in Alfred, NY and one in Prague. My career moved away from classical music after that, but chamber music stayed with me. Living in Chicago after graduation, my friendship with bassist and composer Matt Ulery brought me into contact with the Grammy-winning ensemble Eighth Blackbird. Their cellist and founding member, Nick Photinos, and I had actually met years earlier at the Stanford Jazz Workshop when we were both in high school. We made recordings of Matt’s music that I still hear on NPR, and Nick and I later appeared together on a recording for the Cédille label with soprano Patrice Michaels, new works for voice, violin, cello, and piano. More recently, when I’m not with Snarky Puppy, I’ve been playing with and writing for the Ahn Trio, a celebrated piano trio originally formed by three sisters out of Juilliard who won international competitions in the ‘90s and built a reputation on newly commissioned work.
Here’s how I think about it: any music not written specifically for large ensembles, Symphony Orchestras or Jazz Big Bands, is essentially chamber music. Smaller spaces, more varied instrumentation, and a different kind of relationship between the players. In chamber music, each musician is a co-equal. Everyone makes big decisions, everyone gets a chance to lead. I noticed this as a kid, playing string quartets and jazz quartets at the same time. The instruments and skill sets are different, but the aesthetic is the same.
My Vision
My vision for the festival is rooted in the same values Nathan and I have always shared. We love the great classical repertoire and will keep programming it, but we’ll also make room for new composers and music that doesn’t fit neatly into any category. We’re not interested in defending old boundaries between genres or cultures. We want to put together programs that genuinely move people, and do it for the community we both grew up in.
About Zach Brock
Zach Brock is a multi-Grammy Award-winning American jazz violinist and composer best known for his long-standing membership in the genre-bending instrumental group Snarky Puppy. Heralded by critics as the “pre-eminent improvising violinist of his generation,” his style uniquely blends jazz, classical, world, and popular music. He has released over a dozen albums as a leader or co-leader. A dedicated educator, Brock serves as an adjunct faculty member at The New School in NYC and has been an Artist-in-Residence at Temple University. He will premiere his new orchestral suite, What Remains, with the Lexington Chamber Orchestra on May 9, 2026.
About Nathan Cole
A veteran of both the LA Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony, Nathan Cole is a world-renowned American violinist who was appointed Concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) starting with the 2024–2025 season. He is only the fourth person to hold this prestigious position in the last 104 years. He co-founded the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington in 2007.
About the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington
Founded in 2007, The Chamber Music Festival of Lexington is held over 10 days every year in the famed Bluegrass horse country of Lexington, Kentucky. The festival brings together a quintet of nationally recognized musicians to offer Central Kentuckians formal concerts, concerts by its Ensemble-in-Residence, educational programs, a world class guest artist, and in most years a newly commissioned chamber piece. Its Artistic Director is native Lexingtonian Zach Brock, Grammy-winning violinist. For more information, please go to www.chambermusiclex.org.