Chamber Music Society

2009-2010 Concert Series

It’s our 72nd Season

The Chamber Music Society of Louisville is pleased to announce its program for its 2009-10 season.  All performances are on Sundays at 3:00 p.m. in the acoustically-superb  Comstock Concert Hall  at the University of Louisville School of Music.  Pre-concert talks take place before each performance in the Bird Recital Hall at 2:00pm and are free. Program notes are mailed or emailed to all subscribers in advance of each concert.

2009-2010 Season Subscription PDF Form - Print & Mail

Regular season tickets are $80, season tickets for students are $15. Single tickets for non-members are $25. Contact the University of Louisville’s School of Music at (502) 852-6907 to purchase subscriptions or request additional information.

The Kentucky Center and the Chamber Music Society present Mark O’Connor's Appalachia Waltz Trio

Sunday, October 4, 2009, 3:00 p.m.
Bomhard Theater at The Kentucky Center
Presented in partnership with The Kentucky Center. A limited number of discounted tickets for Chamber Music Society subscribers may be obtained through the Kentucky Center box office by calling (502) 584-7777 and using the password CMS. This concert is not included as part of the Chamber Music Society season subscription.

Described by The Los Angeles Times as "one of the most talented and imaginative artists working in music,” Mark O’Connor is a celebrated American composer and virtuoso violinist. In 1993, O’Connor’s first recording for the Sony Classical record label, 'Appalachia Waltz', created in collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer, earned O’Connor worldwide recognition. The tremendously successful follow-up, 'Appalachian Journey', received a Grammy Award in 2001. Mark O’Connor’s Appalachia Waltz Trio breathes new life into the music he originally created and performed years ago. This acclaimed trio performs fiddle tunes, original compositions, caprices and more.

Brentano String Quartet

Sunday, October 18, 2009, 3:00 p.m.
Britten String Quartet No. 3
Stephen Hartke New work
Beethoven Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3
The first performance of the season brings a quartet hailed as "passionate, uninhibited and spellbinding" by the London Independent. In 1996, the Quartet was invited by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to be the inaugural members of Chamber Music Society Two, a coveted distinction for chamber groups. The Quartet embarked on its first European tour in 1997 and was honored in the U.K. with the Royal Philharmonic Award for Most Outstanding Debut. In 1998, cellist Nina Lee joined the Quartet,
succeeding founding member Michael Kannen. The following season the Quartet became the first Resident String Quartet at Princeton University.

eighth blackbird presents "Meanwhile"

Sunday, November 15, 2009, 3:00 p.m.
Stephen Hartke Meanwhile
Mark Anthony Turnage New work
Missy Mazzoli New work
Dennis DeSantis and Rosanne Etezady Movements from Powerless and Damaged Goods
Boulez Derive 1
Frederic Rzewski Les Moutons de Panurge
Kati Agocs Immutable Dreams
Thomas Ades Catch
Franco Donatoni Arpege
Described by The New Yorker as “friendly, unpretentious, idealistic and highly skilled,” the Grammy Award-winning eighth blackbird promises audiences provocative and engaging performances. The sextet has been the subject of profiles in the New York Times and on NPR’s All Things Considered. In 2008, the group’s recording of “strange imaginary animals” won the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance. In previous seasons the sextet has traveled extensively, appearing in South Korea, Mexico, Canada, Amsterdam, and throughout North America. The ensemble is in residence at the University of Richmond in Virginia and at the University of Chicago.

Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert

Sunday, January 31, 2010, 3:00 p.m.
Haydn Baryton Trio
Dvorák Four Miniatures
Schoenberg Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4
Mozart Grande Sestetto Concertante, contemporaneous transcription of Sinfonia Concertante, K. 364
Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, led by artistic coordinator and cellist Edward Arron, was formed in 2003 to celebrate the Metropolitan Museum Concerts' 50th anniversary season. The ensemble has received critical acclaim for their passionate performances and enthusiastic advocacy of the art of chamber music. Steve Smith of The New York Times said, “What makes this group’s concerts the most consistently satisfying chamber-music series in New York is the zeal with which the musicians go about their work.”

Takács Quartet

Sunday, March 14, 2010, 3:00 p.m.
Haydn Quartet in D Major, Op. 71, No. 2
John Psanthas A Cool Wind
Beethoven Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130
with Op. 133 Grosse Fuge
Recognized as one of the world's premiere string quartets, the Takács Quartet is renowned for its ability to fuse four distinct, expressive musical personalities into spellbinding interpretations. Formed in 1975 in Budapest, Hungary, the Quartet is now based in Boulder at the University of Colorado. The Quartet's award winning recordings include the Late Quartets by Beethoven which, in 2005, won Disc of the Year and Chamber Award from BBC Music Magazine, a Gramophone Award and a Japanese Record Academy Award. Their recordings of the early and middle Beethoven quartets collected a Grammy, a Gramophone Award, a Chamber Music of America Award and two further awards from the Japanese Recording Academy.

ATOS Trio

Sunday, April 25, 2010, 3:00 p.m.
Haydn Piano Trio in G Major, Hob. XV:25
Ernest Bloch Three Nocturnes
Gaspar Cassadó Piano Trio in C Major
Schubert Trio in E-flat Major, D. 929 (Op. 100)
Shortly after its formation in 2003, the ATOS Trio developed a strong reputation as one of the finest young chamber ensembles of our time. Their prize-winning performance at the 2003 Brahms International Competition in Austria was the first of many honors the ensemble would receive. In 2007, the Trio won the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award, the most important distinction for piano trios in the United States. Also in 2007, the Trio won 1st Prize, Grand Prize, the Musica Viva Tour Prize and the Audience Prize at the 5th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, an unprecedented achievement, as a single ensemble had never garnered so many honors.