2025-2026 Season

Ensemble Chaconne enthralls audiences with dramatic period-instrument performances of music from Renaissance and Baroque Europe. Peter Bloom (renaissance/baroque flutes), Carol Lewis (viola da gamba), and Olav Chris Henriksen (lute, theorbo and early guitar) bring a theatrical intensity to an intimate chamber setting.

Confero is a Latin verb that means “to bring together, unite, and contribute”, and this is precisely what moves the Trio Confero.

Members Maksim Shtrykov (clarinet), Julia Kang (cello), and Misuzu Tanaka (piano) have been praised for their "sparkling virtuosity" and "outstanding talent" by Ponca City News.

Julian Schwarz has been heralded from a young age as a cellist destined to rank among the greatest of the 21st century. Julian’s powerful tone, effortless virtuosity, and extraordinarily large color palette are hallmarks of his style. Julian plays a Neapolitan cello made by Gennaro Gagliano in 1743 and American bows by Paul Martin Siefried.

This unusual Cincinnati ensemble – piano, trumpet and trombone – was founded by pianist Mika Komuro in 2022.  The trio performs arrangements of classical vocal music without the lyrics, looking to communicate the music’s emotional depth “without a word.” Trumpeter George Carpten and trombonist David Roode join Komuro.

Fulfilling our goal to present West Virginia artists when possible, we open our new season with the young vocal ensemble Maestri Vocale. The singers share a passion for making quality music in a wide range of genres and styles. Established in the summer of 2019 the ensemble was created not only to promote and share excellent music in West Virginia but also for members as singers, conductors, and makers of music.

The Frisson Oboe Quartet features oboist Tom Gallant who last performed for us in June of 2019 with the Tesla String Quartet at the Robinson Grand in Clarksburg. This violin, viola, cello and oboe quartet will present a mixed program of eighteenth through twentieth century works showcasing a myriad of rarely performed masterworks and new music.

We welcome back the Zodiac Trio who last played for us in 2015. The clarinet, violin, piano trio enjoys an international concert schedule that consistently spans three continents and is recognized by many to be one of the foremost ensembles performing today. Since their first touring season over a decade ago, the Zodiac Trio has performed in nearly 40 states, as well as Canada, Sweden, Scotland, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Japan and notably in over 30 different cities in China over the span of 4 extensive tours.

To close our season we present a true jewel of a West Virginia musician in pianist Barbara Nissman who was inducted into the WV Music Hall of Fame in June of 2023. She has performed with the leading orchestras ofEurope and America and worked with some of the leading conductors of our time. She has been hailed as “one of the last pianists in the grand Romantic tradition of Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Rubenstein.” Her recordings of Prokofiev, Bartok and Ginastera are considered “definitive.” Born and raised in Philadelphia, she now calls West Virginia home and lives on a farm in the Allegheny mountains.

Our new season opens with Ensemble Aubade (Peter H. Bloom, flute; Francis Grimes, viola; and Steven Sussman, piano), a distinguished chamber group from Boston. The acclaimed trio will provide an exhilarating tour of chamber music by European and American masters, and they have enthralled audiences across the United States with their virtuosity, versatility, and electrifying performances.

They’ve been praised for “intensity, imagination, skill, and finesse” (St. Lawrence University, New York) and their music has been called “dynamic, expressive, richly colored and affecting” (Loretto Community, Kentucky).

The Georgetown Quintet

This woodwind quintet has been nominated for a Washington Area Music Award as Best Chamber Ensemble of 2009, they have entertained audiences at Strathmore Mansion,  the Old Town Hall of Fairfax, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts, and Black Rock Center in Germantown, MD. and
individual artists of The Georgetown Quintet have performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the Williamsburg Symphony, the National Philharmonic Orchestra, and R&B icon Ray Charles. 

The Atlas String Quartet, based at Frostburg State University, includes the concertmaster of the U.S. Marine Band’s White House Chamber Orchestra, a member of the National Symphony Orchestra and faculty of Frostburg State. In addition to formal concerts, they focus on music education throughout the mid-Atlantic area.

To close our season we are pleased to bring back Les Délices. the early music group who played for us in 2014. They have built a national reputation as a leader in the field of early music and have been featured on WCPN, WCLV and WKSU in Ohio, WQXR in New York, NPR’s syndicated Harmonia and Sunday Baroque, and had their debut CD featured as part of the Audio-guide for a special exhibit at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.