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