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Recent Press Chamber society boasts new schedule, financial recovery By Lawrence B. Johnson / Detroit News Music Critic You can hardly blame Lois Beznos, president of the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, if she celebrates her organization's 60th anniversary a bit early. That big, round-numbered season doesn't actually get under way until Sept. 20, but Beznos is already wearing a smile. And why not? The high-powered new series of nine concerts is already sold out by subscription, capping off a full return to health for the once-faltering Chamber Music Society. In the last three years, since the society moved its concerts from Orchestra Hall to Seligman Performing Arts Center at Detroit Country Day School in Beverly Hills, subscriptions have doubled to 630 -- just 90 shy of Seligman's capacity. "We felt we had to stop selling subscriptions and hold some seats back for single-ticket buyers," Beznos says. She attributes the Chamber Music Society's recent surge to three factors -- a consistently strong offering of internationally celebrated ensembles, a beautiful and acoustically superb venue and the ability to present concerts on Saturday nights. "When Orchestra Hall was saved from the wrecking ball and renovated (in the late 1980s), we were the first organization to make a full-time commitment there," Beznos says. "When the Detroit Symphony moved back there from Ford Auditorium, we lost all our weekend dates." The society watched attendance decline to around 400 per concert, in a hall that seats nearly 2,200. As revenue declined, programming had to be cut. "The connection with Seligman really came out of the blue," Beznos recalls. "One day, I decided to call the development director at Country Day to ask about renting the hall when it was finished. From that point on, we became involved in many aspects of completing the hall -- even assisting in the final acoustical adjustments." To top off its resurgence, the Chamber Music Society has spearheaded a new biennial competition for young professional piano trios (piano-violin-cello) to be named for the venerable Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, which opens the society's celebratory season. Established trios will be nominated, then observed unbeknownst to them in regular concerts -- and the winner receives guaranteed dates with 20 participating presenters around the country during two seasons. Beznos' organization will administer the competition and shoulder the responsibility for raising the remaining $1.5 million of a $2.1 million endowment that would permanently fund the competition. The 20 national presenters, including Carnegie Hall in New York, already have chipped in $30,000 a piece. Beznos hopes to have the first winner playing its prize concerts in the 2004-05 season. Copyright 2003, Detroit News |
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