There are chamber groups, and then there is the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS).
The CMS has been hailed by many as the premiere chamber group in the country. Three members of the group's members will perform for the Hope College Great Performance Series on Friday, Nov. 9, at 8 p.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
The visiting clarinet trio will include a performance of Aaron Jay Kernis' new work for the trio, being heard for just the second time. The trio will also perform Beethoven's "Clarinet Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 11," and Brahms' "Clarinet Trio Op. 114."
The group features CMS artistic director and clarinetist David Shifrin; pianist Anne-Marie McDermott; and cellist Fred Sherry.
Recipients of the Ensemble of the Year award from "Musical America," CMS was founded in 1969 on the principle that there is more to chamber music than string quartets. Currently numbering 20 musicians, CMS plays a wide repertoire of composers from Mozart to Morton Gould.
Since its inception, CMS has been featured on "Live from Lincoln Center" and National Public Radio's "Performance Today." CMS regularly performs at the Mostly Mozart and Ravinia summer music festivals.
The "New York Times" has called CMS, "Everything chamber musicians should be."
Shifrin has been the artistic director of the CMS since 1992. He is the recipient of the 2000 Avery Fisher Prize and has recorded with countless orchestras and chamber groups, and performed with his Lincoln center colleague, Wynton Marsalis. His 1989 recording of Copland's Clarinet Concerto received a Grammy nomination.
Sherry, former artistic director of the CMS, has performed with the group more than 1,500 times. In his career with the CMS, Sherry has recorded for RCA, Columbia and Delos. He is a faculty member of The Juilliard School.
McDermott has been playing the piano since the age of five. At the age of 12, she played the Mendelssohn Concerto in G minor at Carnegie Hall. Since joining the CMS in 1995, she has performed more than 325 concerts with the group.
Tickets for the concert are $14 for regular adult admission, $12 for senior citizens and members of the college's faculty and staff, and $5 for children under 18 and Hope students. They will be available on Thursday- Friday, Nov. 8-9, at the ticket office in the theatre lobby of the DeWitt Center, which is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and can be called at (616) 395-7890. Any remaining tickets will also be available at the door.
Dimnent Memorial Chapel is located on College Avenue at 12th Street.