Wendy Putnam is featured on the Boston Symphony Orchestra's new episode of "It's your BSO" . Learn more about Wendy's hobbies, her thoughts on playing in the BSO, and her encounter with Keith Lockhart.
Watch the video on Youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOhfAIJT2sQ&playnext=1&list=PL5_zYwBQ-QBbvs6L9y5m3Bw75mMggnGoB
[April 24th, 2013]
The Boston Musical Intelligencer covered our final concert of the season and managed to capture the sentiment of concert-goers. David Finckel, on cello, and Wu Han, on piano, played with "wide-ranging colors and superb articulation".
Read the full review at: http://classical-scene.com/2013/03/28/overheard/
[March 28th, 2013]
Trio Cleonice Brings Youth, Excitement to Concord
Concord, MA: The Concord Chamber Music Society will close its 2012-13 season with its annual community concert featuring a performance by New England Conservatory of Music’s piano trio-in-residence, the Trio Cleonice. The concert will take place at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 7th at the Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts in Concord. The program, entitled “A Musical Joke,” includes examples of musical humor by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert and Ives, which will entertain and delight listeners of all ages. Refreshments are available following the concert and audience members will be able to meet and speak with the musicians. The concert will take place during the Emerson Umbrella’s Spring Open Studio Weekend and offers the opportunity to view and purchase a wide variety of visual and textile artwork, as well as meet the artists themselves, before or after the concert. Admission to the Open Studio Weekend is free to concertgoers.
Violinist Ari Isaacman-Beck, cellist Gwen Krosnick and pianist Emely Phelps formed the Trio Cleonice in 2008 and were immediately recognized for the vitality and creative energy of their performances. Their 2011-2012 season included debuts at Jordan Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington. They also performed at the Oberlin Conservatory, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and NYU’s Maison Française. They will perform their annual recital at Jordan Hall in March. Prior to their residence at the New England Conservatory, Trio Cleonice was an Emerging Ensemble at the Juilliard School where they worked with Robert Mann and Joseph Kalichstein.
The group’s diverse repertoire covers the early trios of Mozart and Beethoven through the Romantic masterworks. A significant part of their repertoire includes piano trios by contemporary American composers, especially Pulitzer prize-winning composer Richard Wernick. They work closely with the NEC’s Office of Community Performances and Partnerships and have given family concerts and community outreach events throughout the Boston area and have endeavored to help audiences enjoy great chamber music in a warm and unpretentious environment.
The Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts is located at 40 Stow Street in Concord, a few steps west of the center of town. The “Concord” stop on the MBTA commuter rail line from North Station and Porter Square is two blocks away. Free parking is available adjacent to the facility and on-street and there are municipal lots nearby, behind the Middlesex Savings Bank and Concord Post Office. The facility is handicapped accessible. Tickets are $15 for general admission and children under 12 accompanied by an adult will be admitted free of charge. Additional information may be obtained online at www.concordchambermusic.org or by calling the Concord Chamber Music Society at (978)371-9667.
[March 7th, 2013]
Concordance, a new piano quartet composed by Pulitzer prize-winning Yehudi Wyner, was premiered at the January 27th concert.
The concert also featured members of the Concord Chamber Players: Wendy Putnam, Steven Ansell, and Michael Reynolds.
Of Concordance, the Boston Musical Intelligencer's Leon Golub wrote that the "piece concludes monumentally with an affirmation of staying power, even as the dance of life moves on, leaving us behind, strangely fulfilled." Read the full review for more details.
The concert was also reviewed by The Boston Globe's Harlow Robinson, proclaiming: "'Concordance' succeeds in creating a deeply philosophical mood and haunting sonic world; it deserves to find a place in the piano quartet repertoire". Read the full review.
[January 29th, 2013]
Works by Ravel, Mozart and Mr. Wyner to be Performed
Concord, MA: The Concord Chamber Music Society will present its winter concert at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 27th at the Concord Academy Performing Arts Center. Musicologist Steven Ledbetter will deliver a pre-concert lecture on the program beginning at 2:00. CCMS Director and violinist Wendy Putnam, cellist Michael Reynolds and Steven Ansell, Principal Violist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, will be joined by the Pulitzer Prize - winning composer and pianist Yehudi Wyner. The program includes the Sonata for Violin and Cello by Maurice Ravel, Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, K. 493 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and the premiere of a new work for piano quartet, Concordance (2012), composed by Yehudi Wyner. Concordance was commissioned by CCMS with generous support from the Harvard Musical Association.
Wyner has enjoyed a remarkable career as a composer, soloist, chamber musician, conductor, and teacher. He was a professor at Yale from 1963 through 1977 where he chaired the composition faculty, was dean of the music department at SUNY-Purchase and has taught at Cornell, Brandeis and Harvard. From 1975 to 1997 he was a faculty member at the Tanglewood Music Center. He has composed more than eighty works spanning an extensive range of genres including orchestral and chamber works, solo voice and instrument compositions, choral and theatrical music, and liturgical pieces.
In addition to the Concord Chamber Music Society commission, Mr. Wyner has received commissions from Carnegie Hall, the BBC Philharmonic, Santa Fe Music Festival, the Library of Congress, National Endowment for the Arts and the Ford, and the Fromm and Koussevitsky foundations. His piano concerto Chiavi in Mano, which the BSO premiered in 2005, garnered a Pulitzer Prize for musical composition. Wyner’s The Naxos recording of Wyner's The Mirror won a Grammy Award, and he has been the recipient of two Guggenheim fellowships.
Joining Mr. Wyner will be Wendy Putnam, Steven Ansell and Michael Reynolds, Mr. Reynolds is a cellist and founding member of the Muir String Quartet, and is an accomplished chamber musician and educator who has appeared on stage with several of the world’s great artists including Gil Shaham, Richard Stolzman and Benny Goodman. Steven Ansell, Principal Violist of the BSO, has received two Grand Prix du Disque awards and has appeared on PBS's "In Performance at the White House." Ms. Putnam, Director and Founder of CCMS, is also a violinist with the BSO.
Concord Academy is located at 166 Main Street in Concord, MA, one block west of the town center and is a short walk from the Concord Center stop on the MBTA’s Fitchburg commuter rail line. Free parking is available on Main Street and in the municipal lots on Keyes Road, behind the Post Office on Walden Street and adjacent to the Concord Free Public library. The facility is handicapped accessible. Ticket prices are $42 and $33, depending on proximity to the stage ($37 and $28 for seniors and students).
Since its inception in 2000, CCMS has become one of the foremost chamber music performance series in the region and is an organization dedicated to bringing distinguished musical artists from all corners of globe to audiences in Concord, Massachusetts.
[January 2nd, 2013]
A review of the second concert of our 2012-2013 season is now available.
The Boston Musical Intelligencer's Brian Schuth praised the St. Lawrence String Quartet as they "brought vivid interpretive imagination to pieces by Haydn, Golijov and Beethoven". He also writes, "This is what live classical performance should be — a display of passion, conviction and intelligence". Read the full review for more details.
[November 26th, 2012]
If you would like to buy tickets to an individual concert, or an entire season subscription, please proceed to the ticket purchase site or contact us by phone (978-371-9667).
We hope to see you this season!
[August 18, 2012]
The Concord Chamber Music Society is now selling season subscriptions for its exciting Thirteenth Season (2012-13).
If you would like to buy a season subscription, please proceed to the ticket purchase site or contact us by mail or phone. Past season subscribers can request their old seats or new seats, and will have seating priority until August 15th, 2012.
Single ticket sales will start on August 15th.
To learn more about our upcoming concerts, please see the performance details information in the Concerts section of the site.
[July 12, 2012]
We're excited to announce our 2012-2013 Season concert Schedule.
The CCMS 2012-2013 concerts promise to inspire and delight with guest appearances by renowned violinist Joseph Swensen, the acclaimed St. Lawrence String Quartet, and Musical America’s 2012 Musicians of the Year, cello and piano duo David Finckel and Wu Han.
The Concord Chamber Players will premiere a new piano quartet by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Yehudi Wyner, and the season will conclude on a lighthearted note with the annual Community Concert, featuring the Trio Cleonice and a program of musical humor.
Season subscriptions will go on sale shortly, stay tuned. Single ticket purchases will be available on August 15th.
We're eager to share this musical season with you and hope to see you there.
[June 30, 2012]
Two reviews of our most recent concert are available now.
The Boston Musical Intelligencer's Griesinger writes of the final piece, by Bartok, that "In places the piece was driven by the powerful playing of Nina Lee on cello, but on the whole it was the beauty of the ensemble that made the music so powerfully affecting". There is also a brief examination of the Concord Academy Performing Arts Center acoustics that you may find helpful when selecting seats for next season! Read the full review for more details.
The Boston Globe also reviewed the concert, writing: "It was an excellent performance". Read the full review .
[March 23, 2012]
Harlem Quartet in Family Concert Featuring Beethoven & the Blues
April 1st @ 2pm
Concord, MA: The Concord Chamber Music Society’s community concert, "Beethoven to the Blues" will take place on Sunday, April 1st at 2:00 p.m. at the Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts in Concord, MA. The jazz-inspired program, including music from Beethoven to Marsalis, will be performed by the award-winning Harlem Quartet. Included with ticket purchase are refreshments, an opportunity to meet the musicians, and admission to the Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts Spring Open Studios. Children under 12 will be admitted free when accompanied by an adult.
The Harlem Quartet, praised for its "panache" by the New York Times, "is bringing a new attitude to classical music, one that is fresh, bracing and intelligent," according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. It is comprised of the most accomplished young musicians of this generation, all winners of the prestigious Sphinx Competition, and has established its mission to advance diversity in classical music while engaging young and new audiences through a varied repertoire. As the 2010 resident ensemble of the New England Conservatory’s String Quartet Training Program, the Harlem Quartet brings boundless energy and enthusiasm to chamber classics and contemporary works alike, having collaborated with jazz greats such as Chick Corea, Gary Burton and Wynton Marsalis. In June the quartet will perform, with the Chicago Sinfonietta, the world premiere of West Side Story for string quartet and orchestra, arranged by Randall Craig Fleischer.
The program includes La Oracion del Toreo by Joaquín Turina, String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 18 by Ludwig van Beethoven, several compositions by Wynton Marsalis, including Rampart Street Row House Rag, and Billy “Sweet Pea” Strayhorn’s Take the “A” Train.
The Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts is located at 40 Stow Street in Concord, a few steps west of the center of town. The Concord stop on the MBTA commuter rail line from North Station and Porter Square is two blocks away. Free parking is available adjacent to the facility and on the street, with municipal lots nearby behind the Middlesex Savings Bank and Concord Post Office. The facility is handicapped accessible. Open seating tickets are $15 for general adult admission and $5 students age 12+. Children under 12 will be admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult.
Ticketing information, directions and a program description can be found online at www.concordchambermusic.org or by calling the Concord Chamber Music Society at (978)371-9667. Seating is limited, so please reserve your tickets early.
[March 16, 2012]
Two reviews of our most recent concert are available now.
The Boston Musical Intelligencer's Miron praised Zhou and the Concord Chamber Players for their performances. She writes: "The program was fascinating; the guest soloist Jessica Zhou, spectacular". Regarding the concert overall, "the perfect Sunday afternoon included a classy guy, a lovely piece, and great players". Read the full review for more details.
The Arts Fuse also reviewed the concert, writing: "Ms. Putnam and Ms. Zhou were perfectly at home in the style of the music, which is generally driven by a strong, lyrical impulse". Read the full review for a piece by piece account of the program.
[January 26th, 2012]
Prior to performing John Williams' La Jolla quartet in the January 15th concert, Wendy Putnam read this personal note from Williams to the audience:
A few years ago at Tanglewood, my friend Cho-Liang Lin suggested that I write a piece for his "Summerfest" chamber music series in La Jolla, California. The result is this quartet, which was premiered in August of 2011, making the performance this afternoon its second hearing.
When Wendy Putnam heard about this project, she offered to perform it, and during the recent visit of the BSO to California, she and her colleagues read the piece for me and I was thrilled.
Wendy, a fabulous violinist and superb leader, assembled the group composed of Mickey Katz, a phenomenal cellist and brilliant addition to the glorious BSO cello section... harpist Jessica Zhou, who couldn't be a more lustrous or inspiring successor to Ann Hobson Pilot... and the peerless Tom Martin, who over the many years I've worked with him, has never produced a note that wasn't breathtakingly beautiful.
The piece is in five movements, and as you will hear, gives prominence to one instrument or another as I explored the sonorities of this fairly unusual and captivating combination.
I hope all present will share some degree of the pleasure I've had in writing this piece, and only my work here in California... not geography, weather or football games... could have kept me away!
Again, special thanks to Wendy and I send my best wishes to all for a joyous afternoon.
John Williams
[January 20th, 2012]
A review of our most recent concert is available now. The Boston Musical Intelligencer's Ehrlich gives a piece by piece account of the afternoon's piano and violin performances, concluding with a Brahms Sonata that "aptly closed an extremely rewarding concert in Concord".
Read the full review for more details.
[November 23rd, 2011]
The first recording performed by the Concord Chamber Players has debuted to rave reviews, and we're so proud!
Here is just a sample of the praise we've received for our new classical music recording:
The Boston Globe reviewer decribes the listening experience: "The ensemble is consistently excellent, and the musicians switch into jazzy and bluegrass passages without any Symphony Hall stiffness. The San Francisco label, Reference, has captured a clear sound in Worcester’s famous Mechanics Hall".
Audiophile Audition explains that "The fusion of jazz and classical music often falls flat, but here the two musical disciplines feed off of and energize each other".
WRUV Radio gives a glowing, quick review of the CD stating "Brubeck's pieces of are jazz inflected, Foss' are bluegrassy, and Gandolfi's are abstract and lyrical".
and Positive-Feedback online wrote "This release is receiving my top recommendation even though you may not instantly love every note, every note is beautifully recorded".
[October 19th, 2011]
The opening concert featured Wendy Putnam on violin, with Eliot Fisk and Zaira Meneses on guitar. It was great to see you all again, and we hope you enjoyed the opening concert of our twelfth season.
The Boston Musical Intelligencer wrote up a nice review of the concert. Take a read and let us know what you thought.
[September 22, 2011]
The CCMS announces the release of its first recording project. It was an exhilarating experience to play in Mechanics Hall, collaborate with Chris Brubeck and Michael Gandolfi, and work with the exceptional Reference Recordings team.
The CD contains recordings of Brubeck's Danza del Soul, Gandolfi's Line Drawings, and Foss's Central Park Reel. The CD is available for purchase at all fine music stores, or online from Amazon,ArkivMusic, Best Buy, or directly from Reference Recordings.
Happy listening!
[June 17, 2011]