At 75, Chamber Music Columbus one of the city's longest-lived arts organizations
In the early 1970s, Columbus flutist Katherine Borst Jones first attended a concert presented by Chamber Music Columbus.
Jones, then a graduate student at Ohio State University and later a member of the Columbus Symphony and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, went to hear a string quartet performing a work by Claude Debussy.
“Here I am, a flutist, listening to a string quartet,” said Jones, 74, now Chamber Music Columbus’ board president.
“It opened my eyes to the beauty of chamber music that wasn’t with flute,” said Jones, also a professor at Ohio State University.
By the time Jones took in one of its presentations, Chamber Music Columbus — at the time known as Prestige Concerts — was already over two decades old: The organization had been bringing in national and international chamber music ensembles since 1948.
This season, the group will celebrate an even more momentous milestone: This season will be Chamber Music Columbus’ 75th, making it one of the city’s most enduring arts organizations.
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“It says something about the spiritual quality of chamber music — that it is so essential to life that people are willing to give their time and their money and their effort to keep it alive,” said Jones, reflecting on the longevity of the all-volunteer enterprise.
The new season will begin Saturday in the Southern Theatre with the American Brass Quintet, one of countless top-tier groups the organization has invited to Columbus. Other notable ensembles to perform over the decades include the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble, Imani Winds and Tafelmusik.
Chamber music defined
Distinct from music intended for orchestras, chamber music features anywhere between two and 12 players who perform without a conductor, Jones said.
“It’s kind of like a good tennis match,” Jones said. “You have to play with people who are your same basic level so that it’s really fun.”
The close collaboration is a big part of the genre’s appeal, she added.
“Everybody has an equal voice, no matter what part they’re playing,” she said.
Humble beginnings
Prestige Concerts, as the organization was called for many years, sprung from the head of a 17-year-old West High School graduate and all-around gofer for the now-defunct Columbus Philharmonic Orchestra, James N. Cain.
The young music lover and future Ohio State student managed to invite the Walden String Quartet for a series of performances in late 1948 and early 1949 at what was then the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts (now the Columbus Museum of Art). Cain died in 2011.
“I met (Cain) on multiple occasions,” said Sally Griffiths, a board member for many years. “He was just this really down-to-earth, super-nice guy who loved music.”
In the 1940s and ’50s, Cain continued to tap contacts he had developed to book talent, including the Berkshire String Quartet, the Hungarian Quartet and the pianist son of composer Igor Stravinsky, Soulima.
“My sense is that there was great hunger for those kinds of presentations back then,” said longtime board member Jay Weitz, who co-wrote a history of the organization.
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In 1962, Cain moved on from the organization, which, in the early days, was funded rather unconventionally.
“They had trustees who pooled their money together to finance each season as they went along,” Weitz said. “At the end of each season, they would pool the money and make sure that they didn’t have a deficit.”
Growing the group
In time, fundraising, donations and grants made up a majority of Chamber Music Columbus’ income, which in 2021-22, totaled $163,000, according to marketing committee chair Mark Krausz. In the aftermath of the pandemic, ticket sales account for about one-third of income, he said.
About $80,000 of the organization’s budget is allocated to paying the artists invited to perform over six concerts, Jones said. Each year, a big chunk of the money might go to a single pricy group, she said, with the remainder being split among less expensive up-and-coming groups.
“Audiences want to hear some pieces they’ve heard of before, but they’re also wanting to hear some new things,” said Jones, who, for the 75th anniversary season, planned more new music than usual: Each concert will feature a newly commissioned piece, kicking off with the American Brass Quintet playing a new work by Newark composer Ching-chu Hu.
The organization, which had performed at various venues since leaving the museum, found its permanent home in the Southern Theatre in 1999 — a major draw for touring talent, Jones said.
“(Groups) want to come back to play there because I think it’s probably one of the best chamber music halls in the region,” she said.
Also appealing are homey touches, such as post-concert parties hosted and attended by supporters.
“It’s potluck; we bring the food,” Jones said.
Going into the future
Run as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Chamber Music Columbus has faced headwinds due to the pandemic and an aging audience.
“I (oversaw) season tickets for decades, and the majority of people who purchased season tickets were older,” Griffiths said. “Unfortunately, at this point, we’re seeing a lot of those people pass away.”
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Griffiths praises Jones’ efforts to make concerts accessible to music students from Ohio State and Chamber Music Connection, a separate music education organization.
“One of the things we discussed at length . . . was making sure that the upper-balcony tickets were really inexpensive,” Griffiths said. “The older generation still dominates, but I do see other generations in there as well.”
Jones said that there is thought of reducing the number of concerts from six to four, with an additional concert co-presented with the VIVO Music Festival — an annual chamber music event run by young artists and aimed at young audiences.
Asked for her hopes for the future of Chamber Music Columbus, Jones was blunt.
“Another 75 years, I hope,” she said.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Chamber Music Columbus one of city's oldest arts groups at 75
