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The 40th season of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society features musical masterpieces from the early 17th to the early 21st century, played on some of the world’s most highly prized musical instruments. Two series, performed by the SCMS's accomplished artists, offer musical feasts simply unobtainable anywhere but at the Smithsonian. Following the success last year in experimenting with various seating configurations in the National Museum of American History's new Music Hall, the entire season will be performed in this chic and comfortable space, with its close proximity of performers and audience members. Kenneth Slowik, SCMS artistic director and recipient of the 2011 Smithsonian Secretary’s Distinguished Scholar Award, will again curate a series of pre-concert lectures (one hour prior to each program), shedding light on the glorious music and the life and times of the featured composers.

For tickets and subscription information, visit: ResidentAssociates.org/Chamber (no handling fee), or call 202-633-3030 ($3 nonrefundable handling fee per phone order)

The Axelrod Quartet Series

The Axelrod String Quartet
Marc Destrubé, violin
Marilyn McDonald, violin
James Dunham, viola
Kenneth Slowik, violoncello

Smithsonian Chamber Music Society audiences are privy to the unparalleled experience of being able to hear two magnificent quartets of instruments—one made by Antonio Stradivari, the other by his teacher Nicolò Amati—in this popular three-concert series. The season opens in November with a string quartet adaptation of Johann Sebastian Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue), BWV 1080. The four voices of the string quartet bring fresh clarity to the exquisite counterpoint of this masterful late work, written during the last decade of Bach's life. Over the remainder of the season, the Axelrod Quartet concludes its traversal—interrupted last season by inclement weather —of Haydn's Op. 76 quartets, and presents works of other Viennese composers: Webern and Brahms (in January), and Haydn's pupil Beethoven (in March). The final pair of concerts in the series will introduce the Rolston Quartet , the graduate-quartet-in-residence at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. This gifted young ensemble, which was grand prize winner of the Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition and took prizes in both the M-Prize and Bordeaux International String Quartet competitions, will join the Axelrods in the last of Louis Spohr's four innovative double quartets, utilizing both sets of instruments for an extravagant sonic experience.

Saturday 19 & Sunday 20 November 2016 at 7:30 pm
The Axelrod Quartet
J. S. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 
Hall of Music, American History Museum
Lecture one hour before the concert

Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 January 2017 at 7:30 pm
The Axelrod Quartet
Works of Haydn, Webern, & Brahms 
Hall of Music, American History Museum
Lecture one hour before the concert

Saturday 19 & Sunday 20 March 2017 at 7:30 pm
The Axelrod & Rolston quartets
Works of Haydn, Beethoven, & Spohr 
Hall of Music, American History Museum
Lecture one hour before the concert

See the individual listings in the Concert Schedule for complete program information for the Axelrod Quartet Series.

The Masterworks Series

The Smithsonian Chamber Players

Rebekah Ahrendt, viol
Vera Beths, violin
Steven Dann, viola
Mark Fewer, violin
Katherine Kyme, violin
Loren Ludwig, viol
Myron Lutzke, violoncello
Lucine Musaelian, viol
Charles Neidich, clarinet
Meridith Riley, violin
Catherine Slowik, viol
Kenneth Slowik, violoncello, harpsichord, fortepiano, viol, baryton
Ian Swensen, violin
Arnie Tanimoto, viol
Webb Wiggins, organ
Audrey Wright, violin

The season opens in October with a program containing Krzysztof Penderecki's evocative "Leaves of an Unwriten Diary" of 2008, and Arnold Schönberg's monumental D minor quartet of 1904-1905 (formally analogous to the First Chamber Symphony heard at the conclusion of last season). The Smithsonian Consort of Viols makes another January outing, with a program centered around works of Alfonso Ferrabosco and Orlando Gibbons for viols and organ. In February, two of California's top period-instrument players, Katherine Kyme and William Skeen join Kenneth Slowik for four of Haydn's inventive fortepiano trios from the late 1780s. Slowik celebrates his 40th season as a member of the Smithsonian Chamber Players with a pair of all-Bach recitals at the beginning of April. Later that month, the theme is late-19th-century Viennese, with two of the greatest chamber works of Brahms: the warmly gemütlich A major violin sonata, and the haunting, autumnally beautiful clarinet quintet, one of the pieces Brahms wrote after he was seduced to end his self-imposed compositional retirement by the artistry of clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld. The season ends on a festive note, with the Esterhazy Machine presenting a sampling of the 126 baryton trios Haydn wrote for his music-loving employer Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy "the Magnificent," and Robert Schumann's genial piano quartet of 1842.

Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 October 2016 at 7:30 pm
The Smithsonian Chamber Players
Works of Penderecki, Barber, & Schönberg 
Hall of Music, American History Museum
Lecture one hour before the concert

Saturday 7 & Sunday 8 January 2017 at 7:30 pm
The Smithsonian Chamber Players
Consort Music of Alfonso Ferrabosco & Orlando Gibbons
Hall of Music, American History Museum
Lecture one hour before the concert

Saturday 25 & Sunday 26 February 2017 at 7:30 pm
The Smithsonian Chamber Players
Piano Trios of Joseph Haydn
Hall of Music, American History Museum
Lecture one hour before the concert

Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 April 2017 at 7:30 pm
Kenneth Slowik
Works of Johann Sebastian Bach, t.b.a.
Music Hall, American History Museum
Lecture one hour before the concert

Saturday 29 & Sunday 30 April 2017 at 7:30 pm
The Smithsonian Chamber Players
Brahms: Violin Sonata, Op. 78 & Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115
Hall of Music, American History Museum
Lecture one hour before the concert 

Saturday 6 & Sunday 7 May 2017 at 7:30 pm
The Esterhazy Machine
Trios "fatto per S.A.S. Prencipe Estorhazi"
Hall of Music, American History Museum
Lecture one hour before the concert 

See the individual listings in the Concert Schedule for complete program information for the Masterworks Series.

Some of these concerts may also be heard in Washington, Virginia, at The Theatre at Little Washington. To check the schedule, visit www.theatre-washington-va.com