Beginning in June 1986, the Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival has beckoned summer to one of the loveliest areas in Maryland. The tradition began when several internationally recognized artists offered two concerts as a gift to a small audience in Talbot County. J. Lawrie Bloom, clarinet and principal bass clarinet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, gathered the musicians for those concerts, hosted by his parents, Eve and Ralph Bloom.

Mr. Bloom has shared Artistic Director billing with Marcy Rosen, cello, and founder and member of the acclaimed Mendelssohn String Quartet for nineteen years.

Over two weekends each June concert venues range from the restored art deco Avalon Theatre in Easton to Emmanuel Episcopal Church in picturesque Chestertown, to the Aspen Institute's Wye Woods, to churches, yacht clubs and elegant waterfront estates. A free Young People's Concert attracts an audience of all ages with an enticing mix of listening and laughter.

The Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival is a nonprofit organization registered under Maryland law. A Board of Directors assisted by a large number of other volunteers governs it. Artistic Directors are Marcy Rosen and J. Lawrie Bloom. The Executive Director is Donald Buxton. The twice-yearly newsletter, Interlude, provides Festival notes from season to season.

The Festival between seasons sponsors other musical events. The "Interlude" series presented a summer 2007 concert featuring the Ravel Trio; the date was chosen to coincide with the Easton Plein Air Festival. The Trio Cavatina performed in the fall of 2007 in conjunction with the Talbot International Food & Wine Festival. March 8, 2008 brought members of the Pan American Symphony Orchestra to perform at the Avalon Theater, combining the tantalizing tempos of the tango with its elegant expression in the dance as a sparkling beginning to the annual Gala.

The Festival's newest dimension is the Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition inaugurated in 2004 to seek out aspiring young ensembles to compete for cash prizes and performance opportunities. The next Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition, occured on March 29, 2008, and brought five of the finest young professional ensembles in the world to the Eastern Shore to compete for a $10,000 Gold Medal or a $5,000 Silver Medal and a chance to perform at the Festival on June 6, 2008.