arts & life

music

The Ariel Quartet

The Chamber

Music Society of

Detroit features a

concert season

with something

for everyone.

The Chamber Music
Society of Detroit will
present three distinct
concert series at these
venues:
• Signature Series at
Seligman Performing Arts
Center, Beverly Hills.
• Midtown Series at
Schaver Recital Hall,
Wayne State University,
Detroit.
• Oakland Series at Varner
Recital Hall, Oakland
University, Rochester.
Individual ticket prices
range from $16 to 64 and
discounts are available for
students. (248) 737-9980;
chambermusicdetroit.org .

Shari S. Cohen
Special to the Jewish News

A

rich and diverse array
of performers and pro-
grams will highlight the
2015-16 season of the Chamber
Music Society of Detroit (CMSD).
Concerts will feature musicians
much-loved by CMSD audiences,
along with acclaimed newer
performers in programs that
span traditional chamber music,
20th-century compositions and a
newly commissioned work.
Internationally renowned
violinist Pinchas Zukerman
and pianist Angela Cheng will
open the season at Seligman
Performing Arts Center on the
Detroit Country Day Campus
on Saturday, Sept. 19, at 8 p.m.
A special pre-concert dinner
presented by three Detroit-area
star chefs will be held prior to the
concert to raise funds for CMSD's
educational programs for local
students.
CMSD President Stephen
Wogaman views each season as
an opportunity to present several
"anchor concerts:' such as the
one featuring Zukerman, as well
"to do some interesting, innova-
tive things that blend new and
old:' Among these will be a spe-
cial performance of Beethoven's
last three piano concertos by
Richard Goode, world-renowned
pianist, on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016.
Jewish Grammy Award-
winning clarinetist Richard
Stoltzman, another leading
chamber and jazz musician,
will perform on Nov. 8, with
pianist David Deveau. Wogaman

Pinchas Zukerman

is pleased that audiences will
have an opportunity to hear
cellist Joel Krosnick perform
Schubert's Cello Quintet with
Astrid Shween, who will succeed
Krosnick when he retires from
the Juilliard String Quarter at the
end of this season. They will per-
form with fellow members of the
Julliard String Quartet on Dec. 11
and 12. Krosnick, who has been
a member of the quartet since
1974, has performed in Detroit
many times.
The upcoming season features
a diverse mix of performers,
some new to the CMSD audi-

ence, including baritone Tom
Meglioranza, who will perform
an eclectic program including
works by Beethoven and Bolcom
on Oct. 3, and the Ebene Quartet
who will perform chamber music
and jazz at alternate concerts on
March 18 and 19.
The Shanghai Quartet will fea-
ture Wu Man, the world's premier
virtuoso performer of the pipa,
an ancient Chinese instrument,
on Jan. 16. The quartet will be in
residence for an entire week for
CMSD educational programs at
three local schools.
CMSD will present several crit-
ically acclaimed younger musi-
cians for the first time, including
five Israelis. Pianist Benjamin
Hochman, born in Jerusalem,
won the prestigious Avery Fisher
Career Grant in 2011 and has
appeared with the New York
Philharmonic, the Chicago
Symphony and the Los Angeles
Philharmonic. He will perform a
recital on May 13, and a cham-
ber music concert with the Ariel
Quartet on May 14.
The Ariel Quartet was formed
16 years ago by a group of music
students in Israel who later
earned music degrees from the
New England Conservatory of
Music. They have received the
Cleveland Quartet Award and
are now in residence as the fac-
ulty quartet at the University
of Cincinnati Conservatory of
Music. This will be the quar-
tet's first local performance.
Three members — Alexandra
Razovksy, Amit Even-Toy and
Gershon Gerchikov — are
Jewish.

IN

Violinist Itzmar Zorman
received the 2014 Borletti-Buitoni
Trust Award and the 2013 Avery
Fisher Career Grant and won the
2011 International Tchaikovsky
Competition. Born in Tel Aviv,
Zorman has performed widely
in Europe and the U.S., including
local concerts at the Great Lakes
Chamber Music Festival, Ann
Arbor Symphony and Chamber
Soloists of Detroit. He will appear
on April 9 with the Musicians
from Marlboro — chamber musi-
cians who have participated in
the famed Marlboro Festival in
Vermont.
Among the season's innovative
programs is a newly commis-
sioned work, Temple Visions,
which will have its Midwest
premiere on Nov. 14, performed
by the Montrose Trio. Composer
James Lee is from Michigan and
received three music degrees
at the University of Michigan.
Wogaman says the work is "just
gorgeous and ends with an amaz-
ing moment of triumph:'
Adrienne and Robert
Feldstein of West Bloomfield,
longtime supporters of CMSD,
helped to underwrite this new
work, which was commissioned
by a group of chamber-music
societies, including CMSD.
The Chamber Music Society
of Detroit is known for its strong
support from the Jewish commu-
nity, and Wogaman describes the
audience as very special.
"They have been absorbing,
loving, living this music together
for decades:' he says. "In that
sense it really is a society. They
understand it deeply:' ❑

September 10• 2015

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