About Us

For over five decades, the Kent Blossom Music Festival (KBMF) has been training the next generation of classical music artists in Kent, Ohio. KBMF, a partnership between The Cleveland Orchestra and Kent State University, stands as one of the top summer training institutes in the United States. It remains the only partnership of its kind between a major American orchestra and a public university. 

Chamber, orchestral, and solo repertoire are core components of the program. The Young Artists who spend their summers here experience intensive coaching and mentorship from members of The Cleveland Orchestra, Kent State music faculty and internationally significant guest artists. Faculty, guests and Young Artists perform twenty or more concerts per season at the Glauser School of Music, Blossom Music Center and surrounding communities.

Concerts and Streaming

“The experience I had at Kent Blossom not only prepared me well for college, it also led directly to my forming a string quartet a year later, which later became the Emerson String Quartet.” 

Philip Setzer, violin (‘69)

KBMF Blog and News