Organizers cancelled this year’s Eastern Music Festival in part because of a contract dispute with musicians. The organization announced in October that it would cease operations.
Now, a new group that includes the wife of the late founder is planning to bring it back for the summer of 2026.
Barbara Morgenstern’s husband Sheldon “Shelly” Morgenstern founded the Eastern Music Festival in the 1960s. She says the renewed event will be called the Eastern Festival of Music, or EFM.
She says the group has $1 million in pledged donations.
“It is a cultural gem for Greensboro," she says. "To me, it's very important to the community, and it would have been a real shame if it had actually ceased to exist.”
Morgenstern says Gerard Schwarz, who had been with the Eastern Music Festival since 2008, will return as music director. Many of the musicians have also indicated that they’ll be back in 2026.
