42 | JANUARY 18 • 2024 J
N

T

hree acclaimed musi-
cians play a significant
role in an upcoming
Chamber Music Detroit con-
cert. The event honors long-
time Jewish pianist Menahem
Pressler, who just missed
reaching his 100th birthday
and had been featured in
more than 30 concerts for the
80-year organization.

The three are Daniel Hope,
a celebrated violinist who
joined with Pressler in the
closing years of the Beaux
Arts Trio; Stephen Wogaman,
president of Chamber Music
Detroit who had been a
Pressler piano student at
Indiana University; and
Henry Shevitz, a practicing
physician, performing pia-

nist, Pressler page turner and
generous supporter of the
honor that brings musicians
to Michigan.
The three are very involved
with the Jan. 27 concert at the
Seligman Performing Arts
Center that inaugurates the
Menahem Pressler Chair in
Chamber Music. Hope, as
the first year’s occupant, will

perform with pianist Maxim
Lando in a program that fea-
tures selections from compos-
ers in “La Belle Epoque,” late
1800s and into the 1900s.
Wogaman suggested
Pressler to the board for the
honor.
“For me, every single
concert I do is connected to
Menahem Pressler because
he’s the musician who taught
me more than anybody else,”
Hope said. “He was my closest
musical friend, mentor and
teacher. Whenever I play a
concert or a phrase of music,
I think about what advice he
perhaps might have given.
“I play many of the works
by composers whose piec-
es we would have played
together, but my work with
Menahem was principally
focused on piano trios. We
did do some violin and piano
sonatas, some Beethoven
and some Fauré. The 400 or
so concerts that we played
together were focused on
the trio, and the program
in Detroit is solo violin and
piano.”
In the upcoming Detroit
concert, pieces will be by
George Enescu, Fritz Kreisler,
Maurice Ravel, Arnold
Schoenberg, Gabriel Fauré,
Fritz Kreisler-Antonin Dvorak
and César Franck.
“I met Menahem in the
year 2002 when the violinist
of the Beaux Arts Trio had
to withdraw because he had
an injury,” Hope said. “I got a
call from my agent to ask if I
would be interested in replac-
ing the violinist to do about
20 concerts.
“I went to Lisbon in
Portugal where the first con-
cert was going to take place,
and I met Menahem three
days before it started. It was

ARTS&LIFE
MUSIC

Chamber Music Detroit names Daniel Hope
as its fi
rst Pressler Chair in Chamber Music.

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Honoring
Honoring

Menahem
Pressler

LEFT: Musicians
Menahem Pressler
and Daniel Hope.

COURTESY DANIEL HOPE