Chamber Music Festival features nationally accomplished players

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, September 2, 2025

This will be the Archipelago Collective 11th annual Chamber Music Festival in Friday Harbor, running Sept. 5-7. This year is gearing up to be an exceptional event. For the first time there will be a double bassist, for example, according to the nonprofit’s co-founder Sophie Baird-Daniel.

“Bassist and composer Sam Suggs will be a featured performer and will be playing several of his compositions,” Baird-Daniel said.

According to his biography, Suggs is the first solo bassist in 36 years to join the Concert Artists Guild roster. He was also recognized with an award for Extraordinary Creativity at the 2017 Bradetich Foundation International Double Bass Competition.

“A paradigm-shifting bassist-composer, Sam was named ‘New Artist of the Month’ (October 2015) by Musical America after winning 1st place at the 2015 International Society of Bassists Solo Competition while performing many original works,” his biography states. He has performed at the Mostly Mozart Festival, Yellow Barn, Chamber Music Northwest, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and with the Argus Quartet, PUBLIQuartet, Founders, Frisson Ensemble (composer-in-residence), and his contemporary jazz trio Triplepoint.

The Archipelago Collective is made up of impressive players from all over the country, including members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Seattle Symphony and New York Philharmonic, just to name a few.

Chamber music fans might recognize “Quartet for the End of Time,” being played at the festival this year. For those unfamiliar with the composition, it was written during World War II by Olivier Messiaen while he was captive in a concentration camp. The song was first played by his fellow prisoners. Considered as one of his most important works, Baird-Daniels calls it a beautiful, heavy piece.

Archipelago Collective was founded by Barid-Daniels and Dana Jackson over a decade ago.

“We had both recently returned to Seattle and were working on the same project. We carpooled and ended up talking the entire car ride about Chamber music and how we missed playing with people,” Baird-Daniel told the Journal.

Although from the Seattle area, both felt a connection with the San Juans. Baird-Daniel’s father was a professor at the UW Marine Labs in Friday Harbor, and she spent many childhood summers there.

“It’s one our our favorite places in the whole world,” she said. “We are so excited to be back up on the islands, we have so many loyal fans and friends!”

Part of their mission statement revolves around education, and last winter, they held a “Winter Residency” with the local schools, ending with a Winter Residency concert. The concert showcased these young musicians and what they had learned during the residency. The event was so successful they are hoping to do more in the future.

Tickets for the Festival are on sale now; however, weekend passes are sold out, as is the special concert at the San Juan Islands Museum of Art.

For more information, or to buy tickets, visit https://www.archipelagocollective.org/festival.

“It’s a really fun way to experience chamber music, to be up close and personal with the music, I think that’s why people keep coming back year after year,” Baird-Daniel said.