Coming up in Philly Music: The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society opens its 34th season

The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society brings international stars to Philadelphia but it doesn’t neglect the world-class performers who happen to live here. The Society will open its 34th season with a concert featuring a local favorite, pianist Cynthia Raim. In the last three decades, Raim has become a mainstay of the Philadelphia chamber music scene while she pursues a wide-ranging international career as a soloist, accompanist, and chamber musician. For her 42nd appearance with PCMS, she’ll kick off the season with a program that includes items like Schumann’s Carneval—a piece that combines a challenging technical display with a portrait of a masked ball.

The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society is the largest presenter of chamber music in the United States outside of New York—and one of the cheapest, thanks to a staff noted for their determined efforts to keep down costs. This season PCMS will present 52 concerts. Raim will be followed on October 20 by one of the headliners of the international chamber music circuit, the Brentano Quartet. The other visitors scheduled for the pre-Thanksgiving period include violin virtuoso Christian Tetzlaff; the highly popular East Coast Chamber Orchestra; an internationally acclaimed percussionist, Colin Curie, playing with an innovative string quartet called the Jack Quartet; and six other chamber music acts playing various combinations of strings, winds, and keyboard.

What, When, Where:

The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society will present pianist Cynthia Raim on Friday, October 18 at 7:30pm at the American Philosophical Society, Benjamin Franklin Hall, 427 Chestnut Street. Tickets are $20 and they’re available online and at the door.