Attentive listening, shared vision, and partnership are the hallmarks of chamber music—and for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, they’re also the foundation of how it connects with communities worldwide through its touring residencies.
In addition to a full season of programming at New York’s Lincoln Center, CMS musicians perform more than 70 concerts on tour each year. Many of these take place as residencies, or long-term partnerships with local presenters through which CMS sustains a deeper, more integrated presence in each community.
CMS is currently engaged in 13 residencies�12 across the U.S. and one in Hong Kong—each as unique as the community it serves. Some, like the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago, welcome CMS artists year-round; others take the form of festivals, like the Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass at Shaker Village in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, where concerts unfold each Memorial Day weekend in a converted tobacco barn overlooking rolling hills of bluegrass.
As Rebecca Bogers, CMS Director of Touring & Artistic Planning, says, “Chamber music is one of the most flexible art forms.� On tour, CMS artists share a blend of repertoire from concerts in Alice Tully Hall and programs curated for specific residencies—performances that can only be heard in those communities. The CMS team is mindful of each venue’s “broader diet� of music, and shapes programs that reflect its artistic vision while aligning with the arc of each venue’s season. “There’s a lot of variety in these programs,� says Bogers. “It’s an opportunity to affirm the impact of chamber music in the broadest sense, from intimate recitals to bigger works. You can have a duo, you can have the Brandenburgs.� Some presenters, like Wolf Trap in Virginia and Palm Beach’s Society of the Four Arts, regularly program this signature CMS repertoire. “And we’re always trying to strike a balance of having artists return to locations, but also infusing new artists.�
This long-range view builds trust between artists, presenters, and audiences, yielding opportunities for discovery. “They know the quality is going to be high,� Bogers says, “and as that happens, you can share works they might not have chosen on their own. We often hear audience members saying, ‘This was my favorite piece, and I’d never heard of this composer.’� One recent example: while audiences are relishing Schubert’s renowned “Trout� Quintet—currently on tour at the time of writing—they also responded enthusiastically to the Poulenc Sextet for Piano and Winds last fall.
The intimacy of chamber music and the opportunity to see the communication and connection between artists onstage often wins over newcomers. One couple recently described themselves to Bogers as “ballet folks� who didn’t know what chamber music was until they attended a CMS performance. Now, they’re subscribers. “We hear it all the time on the road,� Bogers says.
Some residencies, like those at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, and Trinity Episcopal Church in Vero Beach, Florida, are self-presented� which has provided “an opportunity to put the full weight of CMS expertise behind it,� says Bogers. The result: consistently sold-out performances in both locations.
How does a CMS residency develop? It takes a strong partner. “At their core, each residency has a visionary local leader, with a deep commitment to the culture of their city,� says Bogers. A presenter, a philanthropist—or often both—these individuals “are thinking deeply about how they want to build those communities, and the connection with CMS contributes to fulfilling this objective.�
Alongside these partners, the CMS team “works very much like a chamber music group,� says Bogers. Co-Artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han spearhead all artistic decisions, collaborating closely with Bogers as well as Tom Novak, Director of Artistic Planning, Production & Administration, and a skilled support team.
Of course, CMS artists are also key to the collaboration. In addition to being extraordinary performers, “just as importantly, they’re also ambassadors, and speak about the music with clarity and depth that resonates with audiences,� Bogers says. The whole process “takes a village. We’re connecting over these shared cultural values, the desire for artistic excellence."
Over time, CMS residencies embed the organization into each community’s creative ecosystem. Residencies can help establish a region or venue as a hub for chamber music, such as at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center—CMS’s most robust partnership, where artists perform nine times annually, and at St. Cecilia Music Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan. With its newest residency, InConcert Sierra in Grass Valley, California, CMS has a front-row seat as the organization builds a new concert hall. Collaborator SUNY Purchase recently opened a new retirement facility on campus; many of these new neighbors—recent transplants—attend CMS concerts, and already know the organization from seeing performances elsewhere in the country.
CMS tour stops often extend beyond the concert hall, and residencies allow for deeper roots. In addition to performances, artists offer educational and family programming. Accompanying recent appearances at the Harris Theater residency in Chicago, CMS musicians gave masterclasses at the Music Institute of Chicago, a community music school, and shared lunch with donors and patrons.
Across every city, venue, and format, the goal of CMS residencies remains the same. As Bogers says, “It’s rooted in the belief that music transforms lives, and that you can build this cultural connection that can bring audiences together in so many different ways.�
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