Philadelphia Chamber Music Society
The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society is a non-profit chamber music and recital forum. It was created, in 1986, by Anthony Checchia and Philip Maneval, its Artistic Director and Executive Director respectively. The Society presents more than 60 chamber music concerts, instrumental and vocal recitals and special events each season by international artists (for example, Midori and the Emerson Quartet in Fall 2010), and at low prices ($23 or less per ticket) that encourage classical music attendance by people from differing economic levels.
The Society is one of the resident companies of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and the largest music presenter in that center's Perelman Theater. The annual program offers a diversity of repertoire including masterworks, rarely heard pieces and new music. It also presents concerts at the American Philosophical Society's Benjamin Franklin Hall and at local schools and museums.
Since its founding, the Society has presented more than 900 concerts by 375 ensembles and recitalists, and it has commissioned numerous chamber music works, including music by Richard Wernick, William Bolcom, Nicholas Maw, George Rochberg, Stephen Jaffe, and other prominent composers. The Society also runs an extensive music education program.
