Chamber Music Society Launches Series at the Harris

In collaboration with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Harris Theater will present the nation's premier ensemble for chamber music in its first-ever Chicago-based performance series. Expanding on its rapidly-growing national and international presence, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) will open its three-year annual concert series and residency on Friday, January 27, 2012 at 7:30 pm with a program of clarinet trios featuring CMS Artistic Directors cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han, recently named Musical America's 2012 "Musicians of the Year." The pair will be performing with former CMS Artistic Director and renowned clarinetist David Shifrin.

Tickets, $25 - $50, are available at the Harris Theater box office located in Millennium Park at 205 E. Randolph Dr., by calling 312-334-7777 or by visiting www.harristheaterchicago.org.

CMS Artistic Director David Finckel remarked, "The new partnership between the Harris Theater and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is promising and visionary, setting new standards for artistic collaboration. It is a unique venture that allows CMS to share programs and ensembles, assembled for devoted listeners at Lincoln Center, with the exciting and growing audience of the Harris Theater." Artistic Director Wu Han added, "It's about making new friends, hearing new sounds, enlarging the musical worlds of all involved. We could not be more thrilled to be welcomed into Chicago's thriving musical scene, especially with one of the world's most innovative, inclusive and visionary venues as our host."

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's inaugural series program on January 27, 2012 will feature:
Beethoven Trio in B-flat major for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano, Op. 11 (1797)
Bruch Selections from Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano, Op. 83 (1909)
Brahms Trio in A minor for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano, Op. 114 (1891)

The CMS 2012 season at the Harris also includes Masters of the Keyboard featuring pianists Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Anne-Marie McDermott, André-Michel Schub, and Wu Han on March 20, 2012; and French Virtuosity featuring pianists Inon Barnatan & Juho Pohjonen; violinists Jessica Lee, Kristin Lee and Elmar Oliveira; violist Beth Guterman; and cellist Andreas Brantelid on May 22, 2012.

In addition to three concert series performances this season, CMS has partnered with the Harris Theater and The Music Institute of Chicago to provide master class opportunities to some of Chicago's finest young student musicians. Six Music Institute of Chicago Academy Fellowship recipients will have the once-in-a-lifetime chance to perform for and learn from CMS artists, considered by many to be the world's most esteemed and influential classical musicians. Pianist Kate Liu (17) will work with Wu Han; David Finckel will work with cellist Johannes Gray (14); and David Shifrin will work with violinists Laura Park (17), Alexandra Switala (17), Gallia Kastner (14), and Kelly Talim (16). All six students will also take part in a combined master class with Han, Finckel and Shifrin, which will take part at the Harris Theater.

About the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) is one of twelve constituents of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the largest performing arts complex in the world. Along with other constituents such as the New York Philharmonic, Lincoln Center Theater, and The Metropolitan Opéra, the Chamber Music Society has its home at Lincoln Center, in Alice Tully Hall. Through its performance, education, and recording/broadcast activities, it draws more people to chamber music than any other organization of its kind.

CMS presents annual series of concerts and educational events for listeners ranging from connoisseurs to chamber music newcomers of all ages. Performing repertoire from over three centuries, and numerous premieres by living composers, CMS offers programs curated to provide listeners a comprehensive perspective on the art of chamber music. The performing artists of CMS, a multi-generational selection of expert chamber musicians, constitute an evolving repertory company capable of presenting chamber music of every instrumentation, style, and historical period. Its annual activities include a full season of concerts and events, national and international tours, nationally televised broadcasts on Live From Lincoln Center, a radio show broadcast nationwide, and regular appearances on National Public Radio's Performance Today.

In 2004, CMS appointed cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han artistic directors. They succeed founding director Charles Wadsworth (1969-89), Fred Sherry (1989-93), and David Shifrin (1993-2004).

As the nation's premier repertory company for chamber music, CMS is committed to bringing audiences the finest performances of an extraordinary body of repertoire, dating as far back as the Renaissance and continuing through the centuries to the finest works of our time. As a compelling and dynamic means of artistic expression, chamber music has always inspired composers to create some of their finest works. Today, CMS actively supports composers' efforts. In its history, CMS has commissioned over 150 new works from a formidable array of composers, including Bruce Adolphe, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, William Bolcom, John Corigliano, George Crumb, Lukas Foss, John Harbison, Alberto Ginastera, Morton Gould, Keith Jarrett, Oliver Knussen, Gian Carlo Menotti, Darius Milhaud, Peter Schickele, Bright Sheng, Joan Tower, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. CMS also supports the work of living composers by awarding the Elise L. Stoeger Prize, a cash award given every other year to an outstanding composer of chamber music.

About David Finckel and Wu Han
Cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han rank among the most esteemed and influential classical musicians in the world today. The talent, energy, imagination, and dedication they bring to their multifaceted endeavors as concert performers, recording artists, educators, artistic administrators, and cultural entrepreneurs go unmatched. Their duo performances have garnered superlatives from the press, public, and presenters alike.

In high demand year after year among chamber music audiences worldwide, the duo has appeared each season at the most prestigious venues and concert series across the United States, Mexico, Canada, the Far East, and Europe to unanimous critical acclaim. London's Musical Opinion said of their Wigmore Hall debut: "They enthralled both myself and the audience with performances whose idiomatic command, technical mastery and unsullied integrity of vision made me think right back to the days of Schnabel and Fournier, Solomon and Piatigorsky." Beyond the duo's recital activities, David Finckel also serves as cellist of the Grammy Award-winning Emerson String Quartet.

In addition to their distinction as world-class performers, the duo has established a reputation for their dynamic and innovative approach to the recording studio. In 1997, David Finckel and Wu Han launched ArtistLed, classical music's first musician-directed and Internet-based recording company, which has served as a model for numerous independent labels. All twelve ArtistLed recordings have met with critical acclaim and are available via the company's website at www.artistled.com. This season, ArtistLed releases its thirteenth recording, an album of clarinet trios by Beethoven, Brahms, and Max Bruch, featuring clarinetist David Shifrin. The duo's repertoire spans virtually the entire literature for cello and piano, with an equal emphasis on the classics and the contemporaries. Their commitment to new music has brought commissioned works by many of today's leading composers to audiences around the world. In 2010, the duo released "For David and Wu Han" (ArtistLed), an album of four contemporary works for cello and piano expressly composed for them. David Finckel and Wu Han have also overseen the establishment and design of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS Studio Recordings label, as well as the Society's recording partnership with Deutsche Grammophon; and Music@Menlo LIVE.

David Finckel and Wu Han have served as Artistic Directors of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 2004. They are also the founders and Artistic Directors of Music@Menlo, a chamber music festival and institute in Silicon Valley that has garnered international acclaim since its inception in 2003. They have achieved universal renown for their passionate commitment to nurturing the careers of countless young artists through a wide array of education initiatives. For many years, the duo taught alongside the late Isaac Stern at Carnegie Hall and the Jerusalem Music Center. Last season, under the auspices of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, David Finckel and Wu Han established chamber music training workshops for young artists in Korea and Taiwan, intensive residency programs designed to bring student musicians into contact with an elite artist-faculty. David Finckel and Wu Han reside in New York with their sixteen-year-old daughter, Lilian.

About David Shifrin
A Yale University faculty member since 1987, clarinetist David Shifrin is artistic director of Yale's Chamber Music Society series and Yale in New York, a concert series at Carnegie Hall. Last season he celebrated his 20th anniversary as an Artist of the Chamber Music Society and, from 1992 to 2004, he served as its artistic director, inaugurating the CMS Two program and the annual Brandenburg Concerto concerts. Currently in his 31st season as artistic director of Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, he has collaborated with the Guarneri, Tokyo, and Emerson string quartets and is a member of the Kavafian-Schub-Shifrin Trio. Winner of the Avery Fisher Prize, he is also the recipient of a Solo Recitalist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. A top prize winner in competitions throughout the world including Munich, Geneva and San Francisco, he has also held principal clarinet positions in the Cleveland Orchestra and the American Symphony under Stokowski. His recordings have received three Grammy nominations and his performance of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra was named Record of the Year by Stereo Review. He has also released two CDs of Lalo Schifrin's compositions, one of which was nominated for a Latin Grammy. At home with the work of such contemporary composers as John Adams, Joan Tower, Bruce Adolphe, and Ezra Laderman, Mr. Shifrin commissioned a concerto from Ellen Taaffe Zwilich that he premiered at CMS and with the Buffalo Philharmonic in 2002.

About the Music Institute of Chicago Academy
Founded in 2006, the Music Institute of Chicago Academy has established itself as one of the most respected pre-collegiate conservatory programs in the United States. The Academy's internationally recognized faculty, rigorous curriculum, and instructional model, as well as the program's highly gifted students, have solidified its preeminent reputation. Students in this prestigious program have come from throughout the United States, as well as from Central and South America, Europe, Japan, China, and Korea. The very selective program focuses on providing an intensive and comprehensive musical education and significant performance opportunities for developing musicians. Each Fellow receives a scholarship covering 95 percent of tuition for a year of study in the Academy, exclusive opportunities to perform and coach with an array of world-class guest artists, and complimentary sessions of professional recording and piano accompanist services for competitions and conservatory auditions. The carefully assembled faculty represents teachers and performers with a passion for developing young talent and an established reputation for student achievement. The nation's most elite college and university music conservatories, including The Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Eastman School of Music, and the New England Conservatory, actively pursue graduates of the four-year program.

About the Music Institute of Chicago
The Music Institute of Chicago believes that music has the power to sustain and nourish the human spirit; therefore, our mission is to provide the foundation for lifelong engagement with music. As one of the nation's largest and most respected community music schools, the Music Institute offers musical excellence built on the strength of our distinguished faculty, commitment to quality, and breadth of programs and services. Founded in 1931 and one of the oldest community music schools in Illinois, the Music Institute is a member of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts and accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music. Each year, our world-class music teachers and arts therapists provide the highest quality arts education to more than 5,000 students of all ability levels, from birth to 101 years of age at campuses in Evanston, Highland Park, Lake Forest, Lincolnshire, Winnetka, and Downers Grove. The Music Institute also offers lessons and programs at the Steinway of Chicago store in Northbrook and early childhood and community engagement programs throughout the Chicago area and the North Shore. Nichols Concert Hall, our education and performance center located in downtown Evanston, reaches approximately 14,000 people each year. Our community engagement and partnership programs reach an additional 6,500 Chicago Public School students annually. The Music Institute offers lessons, classes, and programs through four distinct areas: Community School, The Academy, Creative Arts Therapy (Institute for Therapy through the Arts), and Nichols Concert Hall.

* * * All programs, prices and dates are subject to change. * * *

Opened in 2003, the Harris Theater's mission is to partner and collaborate with an array of Chicago's emerging and mid-sized performing arts organizations to help them build the resources and infrastructure necessary to achieve artistic growth and long-term organizational sustainability. The Harris Theater for Music and Dance was the first multi-use performing arts venue to be built in the Chicago downtown area since 1929 and today the Theater continues to host the most diverse offerings of any venue in Chicago, featuring the city's world-renowned music and dance institutions and the Harris Theater Presents series of acclaimed national and International Artists and ensembles.

To learn more about the season at the Harris Theater, visit www.harristheaterchicago.org or call the box office at 312-334-7777 to request a brochure.

For additional information about the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Chicago's state-of-the art 1,470 seat performance venue, please visit www.harristheaterchicago.org.

United Airlines is the official airline of the Harris Theater's 2011-2012 Season.

Support for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center performance has been provided by the Harris Theater Hear The Music Consortium.

Support for Harris Theater programming is provided by the Irving Harris Foundation Presenting Fund, established in 2006 to bring to Chicago artists or ensembles of the highest caliber which would normally not be seen here in order to complement the works of the Theater's resident companies and build audiences for the Theater.

All performances are on The Elizabeth Morse Genius Stage.

The Harris Theater is partially supported by a CityArts grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.