Block-long lineups, star classical musicians and churches filled to capacity day after day, with crowds who react with rock-concert enthusiasm …This is the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival.   – The Ottawa Citizen

• The Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival began in 1994 and it was an immediate hit, drawing enthusiastic response from Ottawans and rave reviews from the media.  It has quickly become the world's largest chamber music festivals. It has grown from 22 concerts in 1994 to over 100 in 2007. In 2003 the Festival was awarded Event of the Year by Ottawa Tourism.

• The 15th annual Festival will take place from Friday, July 25 th until Saturday, August 9th, with 110 concerts/musical events and over 250 artists.
• The members of the Juno award-winning Gryphon Trio (cellist Roman Borys, violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon and pianist Jamie Parker) are the Artistic Programming Directors and Artists-in-Residence for the 2008 Festival.
• The Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival is recognized as one of Canada’s most important cultural events. Many of the world’s outstanding chamber music artists and ensembles have performed at the Festival.

• The Festival brings in an audience of nearly 40,000. The Festival draws from near and far: 85% of the audience is from the region, and about 15% live outside the area.
• The audience is educated: over 80% has a university education and over 50% of them at the post-graduate level (2007 survey).

• More than 300 volunteers help to make the festival and the concert series a resounding success.

• During the Festival, there are free concerts in widely accessible venues to expose a new and broader audience to the joys of chamber music.
• The Festival reaches out to younger audiences.  It presents an educational Young People’s Concert Series, as well as master classes with internationally renowned classical musicians, and music workshops devoted to various musical styles.
• The audience engaged: people stand in line for hours to get a good seat at a concert and there is a great rapport between the audience and the artists. The audience stomps their feet in enjoyment – and musicians from Europe love it!  “There is nothing like this festival anywhere else in the world,” Fergus McWilliam horn player with the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, told the audience. – Richard Todd, The Ottawa Citizen, 2007

• The audience is pleased. Over 92% of people surveyed at the 2007 Festival rated the artistic level as very high.  “I was more than happy with what I heard. It’s been wonderful, and I’ll be back. I love the atmosphere.”  -  Hazel Smith, a festival patron in an interview by Steven Mazey, The Ottawa Citizen, 2007