Chamber Music Society Of Detroit Celebrates 75th Anniversary Opening Night

The Chamber Music Society of Detroit will open its 75th anniversary opening night concert on Saturday, September 15 with the Montrose Trio performing Tchaikovsky's epic Piano Trio in A minor, the same piece that was performed at the Society's very first concert in 1945. The program also includes Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66. An exhibit of memorabilia from the CMSD's 75-year history will be on display in the lobby for the evening. The concert is sponsored by Greenleaf Trust.

The concert evokes CMSD history in another important respect. That first opening night concert back in 1945 featured a piano trio whose violinist, Russian-born Joseph Gingold, was the concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and who went on to become one of the most revered and influential violin pedagogues in America. One of Gingold's students was Martin Beaver, the violinist of the Montrose Trio. Thus Beaver is the beneficiary of a long legacy of violin pedagogy that stretches back over generations to the time of Tchaikovsky and before.

The performance takes place at Seligman Performing Arts Center, located at 22305 West 13 Mile Road in Beverly Hills. Single tickets range in price from $25 - $70 for adults, $20 - $65 for seniors and $12.50 - $35 for students. Season subscriptions to the CMSD's flagship Signature Series are also still available. For more information and tickets, call 313-335-3300 or visit www.CMSDetroit.org.

Formed in 2013 - the Montrose Trio gave its international debut performance as an ensemble for the Chamber Music Society of Detroit in December of that year - the Montrose is a collaboration stemming from a long and fruitful relationship between pianist Jon Kimura Parker and the Tokyo String Quartet. Mr. Parker was the quartet's final guest pianist, and a backstage conversation with first violinist Martin Beaver and cellist Clive Greensmith led to the Montrose Trio's creation.

Following its debut on the CMSD series, the Montrose Trio quickly established reputation for performances of the highest distinction, appearing on major series in New York, Baltimore, Santa Fe, Montreal, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, La Jolla, Menlo, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, at the Hong Kong Chamber Music Festival, and throughout Italy.

Pianist Jon Kimura Parker performs with major North American orchestras on a regular basis, including recent concerto performances with the orchestras of New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. He also appears in Off the Score, an experimental group with legendary Police drummer Stewart Copeland. He is Artistic Director of the Honens International Piano Competition, Artistic Advisor of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, and Professor of Piano at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston.

Violinist Martin Beaver has appeared as soloist with the orchestras of San Francisco, Indianapolis, Montreal, Toronto, and in Belgium and Portugal. A top prizewinner at the international violin competitions of Indianapolis and Montreal, he was the first violinist of the Tokyo String Quartet for eleven years. He is currently on faculty at the Colburn School in LA.

Cellist Clive Greensmith has performed as soloist with the London Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Mostly Mozart Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic, and the RAI orchestra in Rome. He has worked with distinguished musicians including András Schiff, Claude Frank and Steven Isserlis, was the cellist in the Tokyo String Quartet for fourteen years and is currently on faculty at the Colburn School in LA.

The Chamber Music Society of Detroit, metropolitan Detroit's anchor organization for chamber music, celebrates its 75th anniversary season in 2018-19 with 25 concerts that include several special events in Detroit plus four series in venues across southeast Michigan: the flagship Signature Series at Seligman Performing Arts Center in Beverly Hills, a series at Oakland University's Varner Recital Hall, and new series at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial and the Village Theater at Cherry Hill in Canton. More information at www.CMSDetroit.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.