Founded in 1929, Chamber Music Cincinnati is America’s fifth oldest U.S. chamber music presenter—the only local entity to principally feature international touring chamber musicians at the pinnacle of their art. CMC presents up to ten programs annually.

CMC concerts are presented at Memorial Hall on Washington Park, as well as at Corinthian Baptist Church, New Jerusalem Baptist Church, New Prospect Baptist Church, and Word of Deliverance Ministries.

Artists presented include, among many:

·    Recitals. Inon Barnatan and Alisa Weilerstein, Michelle Cann, Jeremy Denk, David Finckel and Wu Han, Randall Goosby and Zhu Wang, Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason, Nathan and Julie Jordan-Gunn, Anthony McGill and Gloria Chien, Awadagin Pratt and Zuill Bailey, Menahem Pressler, Jean-Pierre Rampal, John Steele Ritter, Karen Slack, Christian Tetzlaff, Dawn Upshaw and Gilbert Kalish.

·   Trios. The ATOS, Beaux Arts, Diaz, Geringas Baryton trios and Trio con Brio Copenhagen

·   String Quartets. The Alban Berg, Amadeus, Arditti, Artemis, Arcanto, Belcea, Casals, Cleveland, Danish, Escher, Emerson, Guarneri, Harlem, Jack, Jerusalem, Juilliard, Kronos, Pacifica, Pavel Haas, Quartetto Italiano, St. Lawrence, St. Petersburg, Takacs, Tokyo, and Vermeer string quartets.

·   Larger Ensembles and Collaborations. The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Octet, Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, Eighth Blackbird, Imani Winds, Isidore Quartet with Jeremy Denk, Ritz Chamber Players, and Metropolitan Opera soprano Karen Slack with the Pacifica String Quartet.

·   Co-Commissions and North American Premieres. Works that CMC co-commissioned with Carnegie Hall by James Lee III, the Kennedy Center by Tyson Davis, and the first-ever concert presentation of arias from Terrence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones.

Each season, CMC presents one of the five groups still active from the BBC-named Ten Greatest String Quartet Ensembles of All Time, including the Ebene, Kronos, Pavel Haas, and Takacs quartets.

The Largest Cincinnati Chamber Music Audience of the Century

On December 2024, pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason drew the largest audience by any Cincinnati chamber music series this century to Memorial Hall. An exceptionally positive review by critic Janelle Gelfand is here, headlined “Sibling musicians Isata and Sheku Kanneh-Mason impress sold-out crowd in Memorial Hall.” Gelfand also named this concert one of the top 11 Cincinnati performances of 2024.

Student Coaching. U.S.-based CMC artists coach, perform for, and/or engage in dialogues with students at Indian Hill, Sycamore Township, St. Xavier, Walnut Hills, at Withrow high schools, plus students in the CSO’s remarkable, audition-only K-12 Nouveau Program for young Black and Brown musicians.

Classical Collaboration. In April 2023, CMC organized the first-ever collaboration among Cincinnati’s four leading classical music organizations—Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, UC College-Conservatory of Music and Chamber Music Cincinnati. During a single week, they presented a wide variety of programs featuring living-legend, National Medal of Arts recipient, and Grammy-winner, George Shirley. In 1961, Professor Shirley was the first Black tenor to have a Metropolitan Opera contract, followed by a long career on the world’s opera stages. This was followed by an even longer career as head of the vocal department at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance in Ann Arbor, where he continues to teach.