A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra (photo: Yoon S. Byun)

The Naumburg Competition-winning Trio Cavatina, the multi-Gramophone award-winning Pavel Haas Quartet, the outside-the-box chamber orchestra known as A Far Cry and the trailblazing Kronos Quartet are just a few of the outstanding chamber music artists performing on Chamber Music Columbus’ 2012-13 season. Here’s our spectacular season lineup:

Sept. 15    St. Lawrence String Quartet

Oct. 6        Spencer Myer, piano

Jan. 19     Kronos Quartet

Feb. 2       Trio Cavatina

March 9  A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra

April 20  Pavel Haas Quartet

Order Your Season Tickets Early for Best Choice of Seats
If you are already a season ticket holder and renew your subscription by May 31, you will automatically keep your current seats. If you wish to change your seats or are a new subscriber, then the earlier you get your order in the better: we assign seats in the order in which we receive requests.

Exclusive Ticket Discounts
And be sure to take advantage of the many ticket discounts we offer. If you are a “member” of Chamber Music Columbus (meaning that you make a tax-deductible contribution), then you can take advantage of the lower “member” prices. If you join Chamber Music Columbus at the individual level, you will receive the discount on one season ticket. If you join at the family level, you can receive the discount on two season tickets. New subscribers (or those who haven’t subscribed in the last three years) who also become members of Chamber Music Columbus can take an additional 25% off our season ticket prices!

Cavani Quartet violinists Annie Fullard and Mari Sato join Chamber Music Connection students and associated faculty at the CMC Spring Weekend Festival

For nearly two decades Chamber Music Connection’s (CMC) annual Spring Weekend Festival has marked the beginning of summer on Ohio Wesleyan University’s campus. But for its 20th anniversary May 4-5, the festival will move south to the Ohio State University School of Music, and its guest artists – the Cavani String Quartet with violist Michael Tree and cellist Melissa Kraut – will perform the festival’s closing concert at Columbus’ Southern Theatre May 5.

CMC Artistic Director Deborah Price cited scheduling and logistical problems for the festival’s change of location and date. Price also said this year’s Spring Weekend Festival will mark more than its anniversary: it will celebrate the ongoing collaborative work of OSU School of Music alumni that has fueled the festival for 20 years.

“The Cavani was founded when the (quartet’s) original members were students at Ohio State, and I’m an Ohio State alum, as well. So I think part of this whole thing is to celebrate (OSU School of Music) alumni,” Price said.

Richard Blatti, director of OSU’s School of Music, said he’s glad Ohio State will be home to this year’s festival.

“I believe in chamber music, I always have. I think it’s the essence of being a musician, so I think it’s something that needs support regardless. I’ve been interested in seeing (the CMC festival) here for a few years, but they’ve always had a relationship with Ohio Wesleyan, and I think that’s great. But this year we had the opportunity to host it, so I grabbed the chance. And I think the fact that it’s hooked up with the Chamber Music Columbus series makes it even that much more attractive,” Blatti said.

The Spring Weekend Festival offers young musicians an intensive experience learning and performing chamber music masterworks under the intimate guidance of master artist/teachers. This year, festival participants will have a chance to play in or observe a master class led by former Guarneri String Quartet violist Michael Tree. And with the festival’s move to Ohio State, festival participants will be coached by OSU School of Music faculty members, as well as by the members of the CMC associated faculty and the musicians of the Cavani Quartet.

Blatti said OSU student ensembles also will participate as auditors and performers in this year’s festival, a move Price hopes will benefit CMC students, as well.

“We’re also hoping that we’ll have a little more collaboration with the student ensembles at Ohio State, that (festival participants) have more accessibility to these artists that may have not been so easy for them in the past,” Price said.

For the first time in the festival’s history, the Cavani Quartet will perform the festival’s closing concert  at the Southern Theatre, Saturday, May 5, at 8 p.m. In keeping with tradition, the Cavani will wrap up the concert with featured CMC seniors and alumni in a performance of the finale of Mendelssohn’s Octet.

“The idea is, it’s just going to be en masse,” Price said. “I hope there’s going to be 50 people playing the Mendelssohn Octet on stage.”

Price and Blatti say they have discussed moving the Spring Weekend Festival permanently to Ohio State but that no final plans have been made.

Blatti says he hopes to continue to develop the relationship between OSU and Chamber Music Connection’s festival as part of a broader vision to build relationships with other local arts organizations, including Chamber Music Columbus.

“Our university and the current leadership of the College of Arts and Sciences are very interested in making a much stronger commitment to the arts organizations of the city and of the central Ohio community, to the extent that our students are much more involved in what is happening downtown and vice versa,” Blatti said. “I would like to see Ohio State at the forefront of this kind of series of relationships that allows for bringing out the very, very best in all of these organizations.”

The Cavani String Quartet and guest violist Michael Tree perform Saturday, May 5, 012, 8 p.m., at the Southern Theatre. For ticket information, visit cmcolumbus.org.

Chamber Music Columbus is almost as famous for our post-concert parties as we are for the world-class chamber ensembles we bring to town. After each of our concerts Chamber Music Columbus members enjoy conversation with our artists over potluck delectables and a glass of wine in the cozy home of one of our volunteer hosts or in a lovely party room.

Chamber Music Columbus is looking for volunteers to host parties after the concerts in our 2012-13 season. And since Chamber Music Columbus members bring the lion’s share of the potluck offerings, it’s never been easier to host a party for us. If you love great chamber music and enjoy bringing people together, contact Riek Oldenquist at roldenqu@columbus.rr.com or Carole Wilhelm at wilhelm.carole@gmail.com for hosting information.

Top photo: Clarinetist David Shifrin takes a shot; Bottom photo: Cellist David Finckel captivates CMC students

Here are the ways you can save on Chamber Music Columbus concert tickets:

• Subscribe! Returning Chamber Music Columbus subscribers save 25% on season tickets, compared to single ticket prices.
• As an introductory offer, new Chamber Music Columbus subscribers save an additional 25% off the regular season ticket prices.
• Members of WOSU Public Media get great discounts with the WOSU MemberCard. The WOSU MemberCard offers 50% off up to four tickets to Chamber Music Columbus concerts.
• Look for us in The Columbus Dispatch‘s “Reader Rewards” program.
• The PNC Arts Alive All Access program (previously High 5) makes $5 individual-concert tickets available to individuals 13-25 years old and one accompanying parent.
• All students and anyone 19-25 years old save 50% on tickets.
• Members of OSURA (OSU Retirees Association) can save on selected concerts.
• The Entertainment Book coupon offers 50% off up to four tickets to Chamber Music Columbus concerts.
• We also offer corporate discounts to selected concerts.

In addition to substantial savings on season tickets, members of Chamber Music Columbus (i.e. those who make a tax-deductible contribution) receive other perks, including the Dine Originals Out on the Town card, which offers dining discounts at select central Ohio restaurants. Chamber Music Columbus members receive discounts on tickets to performances by Chamber Music Columbus, BalletMet, CATCO, ProMusica, Opera Columbus, and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, and discounted admission to the Columbus Museum of Art.

Become a member of Chamber Music Columbus and start saving now!

Members of the Johannes String Quartet perform side-by-side with Chamber Music Connection students.

Through the generosity of Chamber Music Columbus’ Education and Outreach program, the Johannes String Quartet joined Chamber Music Connection (CMC) for an exciting three-day residency as part of CMC’s Conservatory Series. The members of the Johannes Quartet – violinist Soovin Kim, violinist Jessica Lee, violist Choong-Jin (C.J.) Chang and cellist Peter Stumpf – coached and performed with CMC students works by Brahms and Dvořák in a side-by-side concert.

CMC’s side-by-side residencies with Chamber Music Columbus’ featured artists offer a unique apprentice-style experience that allows students to rehearse and perform with professional ensembles. Over the course of the Johannes Quartet’s residency, the quartet rehearsed with CMC students for more than nine hours for a concert that began with the Johannes’ inspiring performance of Mozart’s String Quartet, K589 and showcased the Johannes and the CMC Chamber Orchestra in movements from Brahms’ String Quartet, Op. 51 and Dvořák’s String Quartet, Op. 51.

The Johannes Quartet and CMC students also performed an outreach concert for students at the Ohio State School for the Blind, and later, Cavani String Quartet violinist Mari Sato joined the Johannes Quartet’s members in coaching CMC students in master classes. In an interview with WOSU’s Jennifer Hambrick before the Johannes Quartet’s stunning concert at the Southern Theatre, Soovin Kim called the CMC/Chamber Music Columbus side-by-side experience “unique,” and explained that their CMC residency marked the first time the quartet had rehearsed and performed quartet repertoire with a chamber orchestra of students.

Chamber Music Columbus and CMC’s partnership to bring together professional chamber music ensembles and young musicians began in the fall of 2006, with the Cypress String Quartet’s CMC residency. Additional residencies have included side-by-sides with the Ying, Jupiter and Fry Street Quartets, as well as the Claremont Trio. Future residencies will feature the St. Lawrence String Quartet and Trio Cavatina in the 2012-2013 season.

Trio Solisti

When Wall Street Journal music critic Terry Teachout opined, “To my mind, Trio Solisti has now succeeded the Beaux Arts Trio as the outstanding chamber-music ensemble of its kind,” he acknowledged a torch passing to a new generation. Chamber Music Columbus presented the Beaux Arts Trio in its prime in 1978, 1982, and 1984; we’re now excited to welcome Trio Solisti to the Southern Theatre Saturday, April 21, 2012. Special guest violist Hsin-Yun Huang, formerly of the Borromeo String Quartet, will expand Trio Solisti into a piano quartet.

An established chamber ensemble can become a little world unto itself, developing its own traditions and means of communication. Thus, welcoming an outsider into a tight-knit group can be both a challenge and a joy.

Violist Hsin-Yun Huang

I had a chance to ask Huang about the challenges and joys of working with an established chamber ensemble like Trio Solisti. “Interesting that you mention challenge,” Huang said thoughtfully.

“To collaborate with an established group is like joining a married couple for intimate conversations,” Huang explained. “When it is a great couple, the conversation flows easily. I confess I’ve been lucky enough to have only collaborated with great people like Trio Solisti. They communicate beautifully and have always taken my presence into consideration. I think when the respect is mutual, it makes a wonderful working relationship.”

Huang says she and Trio Solisti’s members have known each other for many years. Still, both being a guest and welcoming a guest forces everyone involved to stretch a bit. “I never feel bound because if I see my job as simply putting on the best possible musical experience then decisions are often pretty obvious. The flexibility you need as a musician only expands you rather than limits you,” Huang said.

Trio Solisti violinist Maria Bachmann agrees. “We particularly love having guest artists work with us, as it both expands the repertoire possibilities, and each guest artist brings new ideas and their own personal style of making music. It is a great joy to perform with guest artists and most especially with the wonderful artists with whom we are working.”

Bachmann recalls that she and Huang met while both were performing as guests with an established chamber ensemble, before Bachmann helped found Trio Solisti.

“I first met Hsin-Yun in the late ’90s when we were both guest artists with another group and performed the Copland Piano Quartet. I remember we had a wonderful time playing together.”

Such a wonderful time, apparently, that Huang has become a regular guest of the trio at its festival in Colorado. “Hsin-Yun will be returning to our tenth annual Telluride MusicFest this coming summer, where we will perform works by Brahms, Dohnányi, and Elgar with her,” Bachmann said. “She is an exquisite musician and we love playing with her.”

Just as this is being written, but too late to ask the musicians about it, word has come that Trio Solisti cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach will be unable to tour with the ensemble because of a family emergency. Taking Gerlach’s place will be renowned cellist, artistic director of the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert and Cincinnati native Edward Arron. He will join Bachmann, pianist Jon Klibonoff and Huang in their April 21 performance in Columbus.

Looking forward to the Columbus concert, which features Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestücke in A minor, for piano trio, op. 88; Johannes Brahms’ Trio no. 1 in B major, op. 8; and Antonín Dvorák’s Piano Quartet in E-flat major, op. 87, Bachmann noted the connections among the three composers. “Robert Schumann was a great friend and mentor to Johannes Brahms, and Brahms helped and encouraged Antonín Dvorak in his career. The Fantasiestücke by Schumann is his first attempt at composing a piano trio. It has many qualities of his short piano works in that it is highly imaginative and free spirited. Brahms’ Trio in B major is his first piano trio which he revised much later in life; we play his revised version. He kept much of the original, but trimmed it down and made some amendments. It is certainly one of the most glorious pieces in the piano trio repertoire. In it we can experience both the youthful energy of Brahms and his powerful and mature clarity of form. Dvorak’s Piano Quartet is an alluring work which incorporates his native folk music of Bohemia. It is full of spirited folk dances, beautiful melancholy, and many surprises. These three works together create a program full of energy and high spirits.”

Huang, who expands Trio Solisti into a quartet for the Dvorak, couldn’t agree more. “I love, love this piece,” she gushed. “For me the Czech flair has such earthiness and total freedom. Dvorak was an enthusiastic violist himself, so most of his chamber music has a really prominent and juicy viola part, which of course I enjoy.”

Chamber Music Columbus and all the performers share the goal of expanding the possibilities of music. “Classical music is a living art,” Bachmann put it simply.  “Artists and communities alike share the responsibility of helping music to flourish so that it is accessible to all.”

Trio Solisti and guest violist Hsin-Yun Huang perform Saturday, April 21, 8 p.m., at the Southern Theatre. Pre-concert interview with the artists at 7 p.m. For tickets, visit cmcolumbus.org.

The Johannes String Quartet (Photo: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco)

For many, business travel is only an occasional opportunity or inconvenience, depending on your point of view.

But for the members of the Johannes String Quartet, it’s a way of life.

The musicians of the Johannes String Quartet – members of the Philadelphia Orchestra; professors at Indiana University, SUNY-Stony Brook and Vassar College and pursuing careers as soloists –spend countless hours each year criss-crossing the country. And as a part-time string quartet, they take their Johannes responsibilities in stride.

“That’s the interesting thing about our quartet,” said the quartet’s second violinist Jessica Lee in a recent phone interview while traveling by taxi to the train station. “We’re not a full-time quartet, so that gives us all the opportunity to be able to pursue other directions in our careers. We are able to go and do other things and then bring those experiences back to when we are rehearsing and performing together as a quartet.”

The Johannes has been rehearsing and performing together since 1998, when the group formed in Philadelphia of three Philadelphia Orchestra members and a student at the Curtis Institute of Music. The other careers of the Johannes Quartet’s current members haven’t gotten in the way of the group’s trajectory. The Johannes has been mentored by the Guarneri Quartet, with which it toured for two years, and which has heavily influenced the Johannes’ vision for its own sound.

“I grew up – and I’m sure all the guys in our group grew up – just idolizing the Guarneri Quartet,” Lee said. “They had both such an amazing group identity and sound and way of playing, but on top of that, they’re very, very individual. Of course we want to emulate them and we want to be as great – everyone wants to strive towards that goal of excellence, I suppose. But rather than trying to have a sound like theirs or have an intensity like theirs, I think we are going after kind of the larger picture of what they were going after, trying to find a way to remain as individuals but combine those individual voices as something that will really speak to the audience.”

Later this month, the Johannes Quartet will speak to its audience at the Southern Theatre through what Lee calls a “nice and varied” program consisting of Mozart’s String Quartet, K. 589; Schumann’s String Quartet, Op. 41, No. 1 and Dvorak’s String Quartet, Op. 51 – some of Lee’s personal favorites.

“There are so many different flavors on this program. Mozart is very special to the (Johannes) quartet. And there’s something so special about Mozart to me personally. There’s something very intangible about the music of many composers, but in particular with Mozart’s there’s some kind of magic that I cannot describe. It’s so wonderful and simple but complicated. The Schumann was the very first quartet I ever played. And when we read it, I had not played it since I was a first-year at Curtis and it brought back so many memories. And of course the Dvorak – it’s so gorgeous, it’s so lush, it’s so elegant and beautiful  and there are so many of the folk elements of the Slavic influences that Dvorak had from his homeland.”

And “homeland” – or at least “home” – is no small thing for the far-flung Johannes Quartet.

The Johannes String Quartet performs quartets of Mozart, Schumann and Dvorak Saturday, Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. at the Southern Theatre. For tickets and information visit Chamber Music Columbus online.

In 1948, as a 17-year-old graduate of Columbus’ West High School and a rising freshman at the Ohio State University, Jim organized a season of five concerts by the Walden String Quartet, creating Prestige Concerts to present them. Prestige Concerts later changed its name to the Columbus Chamber Music Society, then to Chamber Music Columbus.

Jim continued as director of the Columbus Chamber Music Society for fourteen years, until becoming director of the Aspen Music Festival in 1962. His career in arts management lasted nearly 50 years and also included appointments as manager of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and as vice president of the Saint Louis Conservatory and Schools for the Arts.

Jim is survived by his wife, Marthellen, two sons, Nelson and Richard, and two daughters, Jennifer Meyer and Elizabeth Zenk. We extend our sympathy to his family, and those of us who were privileged to know him will miss him. All of us at Chamber Music Columbus owe Jim a great debt of gratitude or establishing an ongoing tradition of classical music excellence in Columbus.

Information for this story was compiled from the St. Louis Beacon, The Columbus Dispatch and Arthur Efland’s contributions to the history of Chamber Music Columbus.

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