The name Sky Island Chamber Musicians was inspired by the mountains of Southern Arizona. Called “sky islands”, the mountains are rich with an unexpected diversity of plants and animals. When the Sonoran desert was a sea, its islands were separate ecosystems, resulting in an unusually wide diversity for such a small geographic area.

Sky Island Chamber Musicians was formed by Michael Becker and Shawn Campbell, members of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, in 2004. They created this group with the vision of bringing together the finest classical musicians in Southern Arizona to perform rarely heard chamber music. Music performed by Sky Island Chamber Musicians uses voices from the different instrument families: brass, woodwinds, strings and percussion, in contemporary and classic works.