Long a bragging right for Greensboro, the Eastern Music Festival is folding.
The festival’s board on Monday announced it voted to dissolve the nonprofit organization after it was unable to resolve a labor dispute with the union representing faculty musicians. The shutdown ends more than six decades of summertime festivals that trained more than 10,000 young classical musicians from around the world on the campus of Guilford College.
Almost two years of negotiations, aided by federal mediators, failed over a disagreement over control of the festival, according to the board. “A key point of disagreement was the union’s demand for control over managerial, programmatic, and staffing decisions,’’ the nonprofit festival group said in a statement.
“This included a proposed model requiring EMF to prioritize hiring a fixed number of tenured faculty and professional musicians to form a fully professional orchestra,” the statement said. “This approach would deny opportunities for students to perform unless all professional options were first exhausted.’’
The demand, it added, “was incompatible with EMF’s commitment to keeping student education and performance at the heart of its mission.”
Percussionist and lead faculty negotiator John Shaw said he and his colleagues were committed to education. Charlotte-based Local 342 of the American Federation of Musicians was seeking an assurance that the festival model would remain unchanged so that “none of us were going to be needlessly fired,” he told Winston-Salem public radio station WFDD.
The faculty musicians voted in November 2023 to be represented by Local 342. Negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement commenced in January 2024, but faltered early 2025, resulting in the cancellation of this past summer’s festival.
This past February, the bargaining committee representing the faculty rejected EMF’s “last, best, and final offer,” the festival said at the time, which included an increase in faculty compensation.
In early March, the union filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board over EMF’s decision to cancel the upcoming summer festival.
As it ceases operations, the festival will identify one or more nonprofits to which it will transfer its remaining assets.
This past March, when EMF announced the cancellation of its five-week summer program, it expressed a desire to come back in 2026 “better than ever.” Its closing now erases a source of national pride for Greensboro, leaving memories of young students toting musical instruments around Guilford College between classes and performances.
Grammy award-winning trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, cello sensation Sterling Elliott and other festival alumni went on to fame from their summers in Greensboro.
The closing also leaves a live music void for thousands of people who attended performances at various venues in Greensboro. In years past, a free concert drew crowds of several hundred who sat on folding chairs and blankets under big oaks on Guilford’s campus.
In contrast to the symphony and other serious classical music typically played in Guilford’s Dana Auditorium and other performance halls, the lawn concerts were more casual. Rousing performances such as Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” gave people the opportunity to picnic and sip wine while listening to classical music.
“Even as we acknowledge the decision of the organization to cease operations, we celebrate the opportunity we had to welcome EMF students, faculty and patrons to our campus,” Guilford President Jean Parvin Bordewich said in a statement.
