For 16 years now, a local man has been making a unique kind of music in a unique remnant of Stratford’s once-mighty furniture factory days.

Violinist Andrew Chung, pictured here with microphone in hand, is a bona fide “Stratford local”: he was born and raised here, son of Ivy and Dr. Sing Chung. The couple settled in Stratford after Sing, born in Xinhui, China, and whose family emigrated to Canada when he was four years old, graduated from University of Toronto dentistry school in 1973. And while Andrew Chung’s studies and music took him around the world, including to Australia, he eventually came home to build his career in southern Ontario.

Chung is a busy musician: he has played for many years in the Stratford Festival’s orchestras put together for musical theatre shows; he currently is also the Artistic Producer of London Symphonia, a symphony orchestra founded in nearby London, Ontario in 2015, born from the ashes of another symphony group, Orchestra London, that ran into financial and administrative difficulties.

But INNERChamber is Chung’s baby. At his right hand is cellist Ben Bolt-Martin: Together these two program six concerts a year with a wide and eclectic range of chamber music presented. Sometimes there will be a classic string quartet but everything from harp to toy piano to oud (an Arabic lute-like instrument) have added their musical voices. Singers, actors, children’s book authors and poets have joined in performances and provide the storytelling that binds together each concert’s theme. The next concert on deck as this blog post is published is called Typeface, and takes place on Feb. 1, 2026, with the featured narrator Chris Moorehead (my husband.) It will explore the relationship between typography styles and musical styles throughout the centuries in the Western world. “I frequently have to pinch myself that our audience is so willing to sample from such a wide range of music that we present,” says Chung.

While INNERChamber has performed at more than one venue, their most frequent home is an arty-fied warehouse space called Factory 163, at 163 King St., Stratford. The Streets of Stratford website explains location’s history:

“In 1903, the Globe-Wernicke company, of Cincinnati, Ohio, bought four acres of land in Stratford’s east end, at 163 King St., and on them built a three-storey furniture factory with 45,000 square feet of work space. In 1926, after experiencing some financial difficulties, Globe-Wernicke sold its Stratford operation to the Preston family. Under the name of Preston-Noelting Ltd., the company continued with furniture lines but added business stationery to its offerings …  After a partnership split, Preston-Noelting Ltd. became Prestonia and, after the Second World War, focused on the production of office stationery when office furniture made of metal flooded the market. Prestonia operated in the building until the early 1990s.”

In 2006, the Cox family took over the building and created Factory 163, with the vision of making it a mixed-use creative space. Plans for renovating the building’s third floor have never materialized. Most of the second floor is used by Off the Wall, which offers courses for professional development and private interest, related to theatre production, from props to scenery to wig making. The first floor is used for a variety of purposes, from art exhibitions to craft shows to drum circles to photo shoots. Six times a year, over the fall, winter and early spring, INNERChamber moves in.

The concerts draw many not-local residents: people who have moved to Stratford drawn by the vibrant arts community. These Sunday night concerts start at 7 p.m., preceded by a buffet dinner laid out by 5:45 p.m.; at $53 per show, currently, it’s among the best deals for dining and culture in the city.

“I have always felt that once classical music is made fun and inviting, anyone could become hooked,” says Chung. “Introducing a dinner-plus-concert model – also with a cash bar – from day one has been essential to increasing the fun factor.”

The “fun factor” also means the concerts are incredibly social events. You bump into neighbours, acquaintances, relatives and friends as people line up for the buffet (and the bar). Some people eat at tables set out for this purpose but many balance their food plate on their lap, sitting in their concert seat. After the food plates are tucked away, people continue to chat and visit until the lights dim and the musicians – known well to many audience members who have been coming to these concerts for years – take their seats.

Chung says he founded “INNERchamber along with my dear friend John David Sterne (an arts administrator who had moved to Stratford at that time), and a few core musicians who still perform with us today. The main aim was to provide a way for Stratford audiences to hear chamber music performed by musicians living locally. So many of our musicians perform with other performing arts organizations in larger city centres. INNERchamber offers concerts and programs in Stratford developed by the local musicians themselves.”