Every year, the Uncommon Music Festival brings a vocal quartet, quartet, guitarist or lutenist, and an organist or pianist. (Photo/Uncommon Music Festival)

Nate Barnett and Ariadne Lih join KCAW’s Brooke Schaefer to talk all things Uncommon Music Festival. It’s the second music festival of the summer in Sitka, and this one does things a bit differently. The program includes mostly chamber music and works to cultivate an “inclusive, accessible, and community-oriented” take on classical music. In part, that means all the performances are free.

Barnett and Lih founded Uncommon Music Festival in 2015, when Barnett was a Sitka Fellow. The festival celebrated its first season as ensemble-in-residence with the Sitka Arts and Science Festival in 2017, and has been back every summer since. The festival kicked off on Tuesday and has several more events scheduled throughout the week and weekend. Find details on their website.