Boston Chamber Music Society

The Boston Chamber Music Society (BCMS) is an American organization of musicians located in Boston, Massachusetts and dedicated to the performance and promotion of chamber music. The organization performs works from the Baroque era to the present day and is a member of Chamber Music America and ArtsBoston. BCMS' website states that it is "New England’s preeminent chamber music society and presents the most extensive and longest-running concert series in the region". BCMS currently offers 8 concerts throughout the year at Harvard University's Sanders Theatre, New England Conservatory of Music's Jordan Hall and First Church in Cambridge, Congregational. Each spring BCMS also hosts an annual chamber music workshop for mixed ensembles[1] at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The organization is led by artistic director Marcus Thompson and managing director Wen Huang.[2]

History

BCMS was founded in 1982 by a group of music professionals in the Boston area. Originally called the Boston Conservatory Chamber Players, its founding members include such distinguished musicians as cellist and founding artistic director Ronald Thomas, cellist and founding executive director Bruce Coppock, violinists Stephanie Chase and Lynn Chang, violist Katherine Murdock, flutist Fenwick Smith, clarinetist Thomas Hill, and pianist Christopher O'Riley, among others. Current members of BCMS include: violist and artistic director Marcus Thompson, oboist Peggy Pearson, clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois, violinist Jennifer Frautschi, violinist/violist Yura Lee, violist Dimitri Murrath, cellist Raman Ramakrishnan, double bassist Thomas Van Dyck, and pianist Max Levinson.[3]

BCMS also invites guest musicians to perform in their concerts. Past and current BCMS guests include violinists Steven Copes, Jonathan Crow, Arturo Delmoni, and Ayano Ninomiya; violists Cynthia Phelps, Steven Ansell, Mark Holloway and Nokuthula Ngwenyama; cellists Astrid Schween, Michael Reynolds, Michelle Djokic, Rhonda Rider and Wilhelmina Smith; double bassist Edwin Barker; sopranos Dawn Upshaw and Amanda Forsythe; baritone Chris Pedro Trakas; clarinetists Alexander Fiterstein and Jo-Ann Sternberg; French horn player William Purvis; harpist Jessica Li Zhou; and pianists Rieko Aizawa, Pedja Muzijevic and Benjamin Hochman; among many others.

BCMS has toured Europe, Asia and throughout the United States. The ensemble has also performed at many of the world's leading music festivals and collaborated with some of the world's finest music organizations including The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Muir Quartet, the Borromeo Quartet, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, the Sanibel Music Festival, and the Tanglewood Music Festival.

Awards and honors
  • Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino named March 26 as "BCMS Day" as a tribute to the organization's 25th anniversary.

Recordings

To date BCMS has released six CDs. BCMS has also recorded music for compilation CDs on the Koch Int'l Classics label, Andante label, Music Little People label, Boston Centre label, and Pearl label. The first four of BCMS's CDs listed below were recorded under the Northeastern label, and the fifth and the sixth were under its own recording label.

References
  1. Annual Workshop
  2. About BCMS
  3. "Member Musicians – Boston Chamber Music Society".
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