ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
August 2 - 10 in Petoskey, MI
The Akropolis' Chamber Music Institute at Bay View is a 9-day summer festival bringing together talented composers with innovative chamber performers, located in the picturesque lake shore town of Petoskey, Michigan. ACMI's goal is to help launch your creative career as a 21st century artist through instruction in high-level performance, entrepreneurial thinking, and community collaboration.
For 9 days, the 14 instrumentalists and 4 composers selected will work intensely with Akropolis: living, working, performing side by side, and forming a community as an artistic collective. As chamber music leaders, we can't wait to share this experience with you in one of our favorite places on earth!
Who Should Apply to ACMI?
In ACMI's fourth year, we are accepting 14 instrumentalists and 4 composers. We capped the total participants at 18 to create an intimate, highly individualized residency experience with the most access possible to Akropolis.
Individual Instrumentalists
The following instrumentalists are encouraged to apply! If you do not see your instrument or discipline in the following list, please send us an email at info@akropolisquintet.org and we'd be happy to consider your application. The following instrumentalists are encouraged to apply:
Woodwinds
Piano
Percussion
Brass
Strings
Composers
Undergraduate, graduate, and professional level composers are encouraged to apply! If you are currently a student, a concentration or degree pursuit in composition is encouraged for applicants, but not required.
Pre-Formed Ensembles
ACMI encourages applications from pre-formed chamber ensembles. Pre-formed ensembles are also guaranteed a world premiere commission from one of the 4 selected ACMI composers. At this time, we are not able to offer a group tuition pricing, so each individual member would each be responsible for the individual ACMI tuition rate. Members of a pre-formed ensemble are eligible for individual scholarships.
Working with Akropolis
As a GRAMMY® nominated "sonically daring ensemble" with a "wonderfully fresh sound" (BBC Music Magazine) we have won several national competitions and graced the Billboard Charts three times, all in an ensemble type that has virtually no precedent in classical music. We found our voice through the reed quintet, and we've never looked back. Since our founding 16 years ago, Akropolis has fielded thousands of individuals' questions about how to succeed in classical and contemporary music and we have given more than 300 master classes, coachings, and entrepreneurship workshops at colleges and universities of all stripes.
As leaders in the chamber music community, ACMI is our opportunity to help the next generation of artists stand out in this incredibly niche and competitive field. This is the festival WE would have wanted to attend as early career new music chamber musicians, and we want to help you have a vibrant, impactful, and artistically fulfilling career. Our goal is to help you thrive and make your artistic mark! If we can do it as an ensemble that started as nothing more than an undergraduate reed quintet, so can you.
A Typical Day at ACMI
The Bay View environment mirrors life as a professional independent artist and is modeled after how Akropolis has worked and grown together for the last decade. Each day offers a balance of coaching, rehearsal, composing, practice, creative brainstorming and actualization, and personal free time. Akropolis values individual free time as much as rehearsal time, and will place a heavy emphasis on participants having as much time to refresh and recharge as they do to better themselves and their craft.
As an example, a typical performer day would be:
Free time (e.g. practice, meditation, or a walk)
Breakfast
Private lesson or career development conversation with Akropolis / chamber rehearsal
Lunch
Free time (afternoon beach, sun, physical exercise, etc.)
Recording session / rehearsal
Dinner
Free time (attend a live performance, visit Petoskey, etc.)
As an example, a typical composer day would be:
Free time (e.g. sketches, meditation, or a walk)
Breakfast
Composition time / career development conversation / workshopping your music with Akropolis
Lunch
Free time (afternoon beach, sun, physical exercise, etc.)
Recording session / rehearsal / or workshop of your music
Dinner
Free time (attend a live performance, visit Petoskey, etc.)
What Composers Will Do at ACMI
Having commissioned and premiered over 150 works, Akropolis would not exist without living composers and their unique voices. In building this festival, we not only wanted to have chamber music at ACMI’s heart, but new music as well. The 4 composers in-residence at ACMI will create a new work for Akropolis which will be extensively workshopped at ACMI and premiered during the 25/26 season, as well as a new work for the ACMI instrumentalists which will be premiered at ACMI.
The 4 composers accepted will receive:
A live premiere of their newly composed work by an ACMI artist ensemble participating in the festival
A live world premiere of their new work for Akropolis during Akropolis' 25/26 season
Workshops with Akropolis on both works
A high quality audio and video recording of the work created for ACMI fellows
Dedicated composing time
One-on-one consultations with Akropolis
A private lesson with guest faculty, Jeff Scott
The sheet music for both their works published in the Akropolis Collection catalog
The opportunity to share and discuss music and concepts with ACMI composers and instrumentalists in formal and informal sessions
Individualized entrepreneurship and career development sessions
Lifelong relationships and professional connections with participant and Akropolis colleagues
What Ensembles Will Do At ACMI
Pre-formed ensembles will do everything that all instrumentalists at ACMI do, but they will also have the opportunity to perform their own repertoire on concerts during ACMI, as well as a dedicated audio and video recording session of their own music. This is in addition to the new piece by an ACMI composer that they will premiere and record at ACMI.
About the Bay View Music Festival
ACMI is housed within the Bay View Music Festival, the longest continuously operating chamber music festival in the United States, situated at the heart of one of the country's most beautiful resort areas and Chautauquas.
We are proud to be partnering with this historic festival. Located on the shore of Lake Michigan’s Little Traverse Bay in northern Michigan, the Bay View community is situated at the heart of one of the United States’ most beautiful resort areas. Students find the natural beauty of the area, the experience and dedication of the artists, and the warm support of the community a wonderful and rewarding experience. The Festival lays claim as the longest continuously operating chamber music festival in the United States and continues to impress the college and post-college students year after year who come seeking additional training, perspective, refreshment, and the inspiration needed to pursue a career in the arts. We are delighted to report that graduates of the program, much like the faculty, are actively involved in the performing arts all over the world as soloists, ensemble members, administrators, and faculty.