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.[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 currently offers 13 concerts throughout the year, including a 4-concert summer series at Arsenal Center for the Arts, a 6-concert series at Sanders Theatre at Harvard University, and a 3-concert series at Kresge Auditorium at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. BCMS 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 artistic director emeritus of BCMS Ronald Thomas, cellist and founding executive director Bruce Coppock, violinists Stephanie Chase and Lynn Chang, violist Katherine Murdock, and clarinetist Thomas Hill, among others. Other current members of BCMS include: violist and artistic director Marcus Thompson, violinists Ida Levin and Harumi Rhodes, violist Roger Tapping, pianists Randall Hodgkinson and Mihae Lee.
BCMS also 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 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 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 among others.[3]
Awards and honors
- Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino named March 26 as "BCMS Day" as a tribute to the organization's 25th anniversary.
Selective Discography
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.
- BCMS: Brahms Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114/ Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115, recorded in 1990
- BCMS: Brahms: Piano Trio in B major, Op. 8 / Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 60, recorded in 1990
- BCMS: Shostakovich: Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 67 / Cello Sonata in D minor, recorded in 1994
- BCMS: Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht Op. 4; Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence in D Op. 70, recorded in 1994
- BCMS: Mendelssohn Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20; Enescu Octet in C major, Op. 7, recorded in 1998
- BCMS: Mozart: Trio in E-flat, K. 498 "Kegelstart"; Schumann: Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tales Telling), Opus 132; Stravinsky: L'Histoire du Soldat (A Soldier's Tale), Bartók: Contrasts, recorded in 1999