Besting all comers—UW tried a summer contemporary-arts festival for a few years, Tacoma made a one-season attempt at a summer concert series in 2001, and remember the International Music Festival of Seattle (snif)?—the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s provided crowd-pleasing performances of (mostly) Romantic favorites for 28 years. As usual, the main 8 p.m. concerts are preceded by informal 7 p.m. solo recitals (your ticket’s good for both). And if you’d rather, you can sit on the lawn and enjoy the music, broadcast from indoors, for free. The series runs Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at Lakeside through July 31; then at Redmond’s Overlake School, Aug. 5-14. July 15 7 p.m. recital: Bach and Brahms. 8 p.m. concert: Prokofiev, Beethoven, Chausson. July 17 Recital: Craig Sheppard plays Bach. Concert: Haydn, Schubert, Arensky, and Paul Schoenfield’s Cafe Music. July 20 Recital: Poulenc. Concert: Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss. July 22 Recital: Jeremy Denk plays Ligeti and Liszt. Concert: Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and Shostakovich’s Piano Trio no. 2. July 24 Recital: Pianist William Wolfram plays a Liszt opera fantasia. Concert: Milhaud, Brahms, Taneyev. July 27 Recital: Pianist Adam Neiman plays Brahms. Concert: Haydn, Brahms, Bartok. July 29 Recital: an Ives violin sonata. Concert: D’Indy, Prokofiev, Brahms.

Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 8 p.m. Starts: July 6. Continues through Aug. 14, 2009