Announcing Daniel Chong and Jessica Bodner as next Artistic Directors

An announcement from Board President H. Nancy Sokol, MD

Our wonderful Founder and Artistic Director (AD) over the past 25 years, Wendy Putnam, will be stepping down at the end of this season. Though her shoes are difficult to fill, the Board and I are are thrilled to let you know that we have found the successor who we believe embodies everything we had hoped for to assure the robust future of CCMS, enhance our reach to new audiences and expand the boundaries of chamber music.
In fact, we found two such individuals with abounding musical excellence, communication skills, and vision who will share the position as Co-Artistic Directors. I am thrilled to let you know that Daniel Chong and Jessica Bodner, founding members of the outstanding Parker Quartet, have accepted our offer to lead CCMS, to start in the 2025–26 season.
Some of you may have heard them perform with the Parker Quartet at our first post-pandemic concert in Lincoln in 2022. If you were fortunate to have been there, you would have experienced the quartet’s beautiful music and Daniel and Jessica’s unique connection with the audience in the post-concert discussion they led.
Please read more about Daniel and Jessica below, and join us in welcoming them to our CCMS community.

Nancy

GRAMMY Award-winning violinist Daniel Chong is one of the most exciting and versatile musicians of his generation and is known for his gripping interpretations and sincerity of expression. Since 2002, as the founding first violinist of the Parker Quartet, he has garnered wide recognition for his performances in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, Musikverein, and Wigmore Hall. Additionally, recent solo engagements include appearances at National Sawdust in New York City, Seoul Arts Center, and Jordan Hall in Boston. Daniel has received several awards and prizes such as the Cleveland Quartet Award and top prizes at the Concert Artists Guild Competition and the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition. In the recording realm, he can be heard on the ECM Records, Zig-Zag Territoires, Naxos, and Nimbus Records labels.
His major music festival performances include the Marlboro Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Mostly Mozart, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the Perigord Noir Music Festival. In addition to the core repertoire, Daniel is a strong advocate for new music. Some of the composers he has worked closely with are György Kurtág, Augusta Read Thomas, Helmut Lachenmann, and Chaya Czernowin.
Daniel currently serves as Professor of the Practice at Harvard University.

Daniel Chong

Jessica Bodner, described by the New York Times as a "soulful soloist," is known for her inexhaustible search for vivid music-making and exploration of sound. Jessica is the violist of the GRAMMY Award-winning Parker Quartet and has appeared at venues around the world both with the Quartet and as an individual such as at Carnegie Hall, 92nd Street Y, Library of Congress, Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Musikverein, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Seoul Arts Center, and has appeared at festivals including Edinburgh International Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Chamberfest Cleveland, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Moab Music Festival, Yellow Barn, Perigord Noir, Monte Carlo Spring Arts Festival, San Miguel de Allende, Istanbul’s Cemal Recit Rey, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Hitzacker, and Heidelberg String Quartet Festival. As a member of the Parker Quartet, she has recorded for ECM Records, Zig-Zag Territoires, Nimbus, and Naxos.
Jessica held visiting teaching positions at New England Conservatory and Longy School of Music, has been on faculty at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Yellow Barn Festival, and is currently a faculty member of Harvard University's Department of Music as Professor of the Practice in conjunction with the Parker Quartet's appointment as Blodgett Quartet-in-Residence. Outside of music, Jessica enjoys running, practicing yoga, and hiking with her husband, violinist Daniel Chong, their son, Cole, and their vizsla, Bodie.