Founded in 1929, Chamber Music Cincinnati is America’s fourth oldest, and most inclusive, chamber music presenter—the only local entity to feature international touring chamber musicians at the pinnacle of their art.

CMC produces six programs annually by artists ranging from soloists to octets. In the six years prior to the pandemic, programs featured six chamber ensembles with one or more Black and Brown musicians.

In the two seasons since Fall 2021, 80% of CMC ensembles were similarly constituted. During that time, 80% of programs also have been performed at one of four major Black churches, as well as at Memorial Hall.

Past Chamber Music Cincinnati programs have included:

·       Inon Barnatan and Alisa Weilerstein, Jeremy Denk, David Finckel and Wu Han, Nathan and Julie Jordan-Gunn, Anthony McGill and Gloria Chien, Awadagin Pratt and Zuill Bailey, Menahem Pressler, Jean-Pierre Rampal, John Steele Ritter, Christian Tetzlaff, Dawn Upshaw and Gilbert Kalish in recital.

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

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

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

·       Works that CMC co-commissioned with Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the first-ever presentation of arias from Terrence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones on the concert stage.

Coming Chamber Music Cincinnati seasons will feature, among many, in the intimacy of Memorial Hall:

·    All five of the remaining active BBC Ten Greatest String Quartet Ensembles of All Time, including the Ebene, Kronos and Borodin quartets, plus the return of the Pavel Haas, last here in March 2023.

·    Many of the world’s most sought-after artists, including pianist and 2022-23 CSO soloist Michelle Cann, violinist and 2022-23 CSO soloist Randall Goosby, cellist and 2023-24 CSO soloist Sheku Kanneh-Mason with pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, and Grammy nominated Imani Winds quintet.

Student Coaching. All visiting CMC artists coach students in Indian Hill, Sycamore Township, Walnut Hills, and Withrow high schools, plus students in the CSO-sponsored Nouveau and Diversity Fellows programs.

Student Lessons. As Cincinnati and other cities create greater opportunities for classical musicians of color, a pipeline of young musicians prepared to fill those positions on the concert stage is needed. It takes 20 years for a qualified musician to develop. Barriers have cost America countless lost Beethovens, lost Mozarts, lost Prices, lost Bridgetowers, lost Horowitzs, lost Rubensteins, and lost Perlmans. To help prepare young people from socio-economicaly disadvantaged families who could otherwise not afford them, CMC provides free or nearly-free music lessons to a number of deserving students.

Classical Collaborations. 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 the first Black tenor to have a Metropolitan Opera contract.