The Olympic Music Festival (OMF) is again partnering with YEA (Youth Education in Arts) Music, this time to present the Junior Fellows Program, an educational initiative that connects the “highly gifted” musicians of the OMF’s fellowship program with talented local high school music students.

The program kicks off with the Junior Fellows Masterclass on Thursday, Aug. 15, at 7 p.m. at the Wheeler Theater at Fort Worden, which is open to the public and free to attend with no reservations required.

Olympic Chamber Music Fellows will work with local high school Junior Fellows on musical selections of the students’ choice, with input from Chamber Music Fellows and other mentoring artists.

“Our Olympic Chamber Music Fellowship program supports emerging classical musicians through mentorship, as they embark on professional lives as musicians,” said Emilie Baker, managing director of the Olympic Music Festival. “We are working to make the Junior Fellows Masterclass an annual component of the Fellowship program, to continue that thread of guidance and mentorship with local students.”

Violist Violet Knobel and cellist Alex Lott are both returning Junior Fellows participants from 2023.

Junior Fellows will also shadow their Olympic Chamber Music Fellows through a week of professional rehearsals, and are invited to bring their families to weekend concerts on Saturday, Aug. 17, and Sunday, Aug. 18, free of charge.

The 2 p.m. concert on Aug. 17 will focus on “Folk Melodies and Dances,” and is set to include Françaix’s 1933 String Trio, Beethoven’s String Quartet in C major, Op. 59 No. 3, “Razumovsky,” and Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25.

The 2 p.m. concert on Aug. 18 will focus on “Orchestral Soundscapes,” and is set to include Bacewicz’s 1949 Quartet for Four Violins, Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57, and Mendelssohn’s Octet for Strings in E-flat major, Op. 20.

Artists for both concerts are set to include 2024 Olympic Chamber Music Fellows Evan Johanson and Coco Mi on violins, Luther Warren on viola and Annie Hyung on cello, as well as Joseph Maile and Angela Wee on violins, Juan-Miguel Hernandez on viola, Matthew Zalkind on cello and Julio Elizalde on piano.

For the general public, tickets, dates and program information can be found online at olympicmusicfestival.org or by phone at 360-385-9699.

Baker added that the Olympic Music Festival has three remaining weekends of concerts after the Olympic Chamber Music Fellows from Aug. 24-25, through Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, to Sept. 7-8, which are listed online at olympicmusicfestival.org/2024-summer-concerts.