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.[1] 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 offers 12 concerts during an annual season and also presents an annual summer festival of music during the month of August. BCMS is currently led by executive director Alan Mann and Artistic Director Marcus Thompson.[2]
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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 former Artistic Director of BCMS Ronald Thomas, violinists Stephanie Chase and Lynn Chang, violist Katherine Murdock, and cellist Bruce Coppock, among others. Other current members of BCMS include: violist and Artistic Director Marcus Thompson, clarinetist Thomas Hill, violinist Ida Levin, violinist Harumi Rhodes, violist Roger Tapping, pianist Randall Hodgkinson, and pianist Mihae Lee.
BCMS also frequently invites guest musicians to perform in their concerts. Past BCMS guests have included violinists Steven Copes, Jennifer Frautschi, and Arturo Delmoni, double bassist Edwin Barker, violists Cynthia Phelps, Steven Ansell, and Mark Holloway, cellist Michelle Djokic, baritone Chris Pedro Trakas, clarinetist Jo-Ann Sternberg, french horn player William Purvis, cellists Rhonda Rider and Wilhelmina Smith, sopranos Dawn Upshaw and Amanda Forsythe, harpist Jessica Li Zhou, and pianists Pedja Muzijevic and Benjamin Hochman among many others.
BCMS concerts are held in several different venues including Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory, the Sanders Theatre at Harvard University, Pickman Hall at the Longy School of Music, and the First Church in Cambridge.
In addition, BCMS is frequently invited to perform all over the world. The ensemble has toured Europe, Asia and throughout the United States. They have also performed at many of the worlds 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 among others.[3]
To date BCMS has released 6 CDs of music featuring the member ensemble. 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.