Boston Symphony Chamber Players
Biography Boston Symphony Chamber Players
Boston Symphony Chamber Players
One of the world's most distinguished chamber music ensembles sponsored by a major symphony orchestra and made up of principal players from that orchestra, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players include first-chair string and wind players from the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Founded in 1964 during Erich Leinsdorf's tenure as BSO music director, the Chamber Players can perform virtually any work within the vast chamber music literature, expanding their range of repertoire by calling upon other BSO members or enlisting the services of such distinguished artists as pianists Leif Ove Andsnes, Emanuel Ax, and André Previn. The Chamber Players' activities include an annual four-concert series in Boston's Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory, regular appearances at Tanglewood, and a busy touring schedule. In addition to their appearances throughout the United States, they have performed in Europe, Japan, South America, and the Soviet Union. In September 2008, sponsored by Cunard® Line, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players performed on the Queen Mary 2's transatlantic crossing from New York to Southampton, England. The Boston Symphony Chamber Players celebrated their 50th Anniversary Season in 2013-14. To mark that milestone anniversary, the Boston Symphony Orchestra commissioned new works for the Chamber Players from Gunther Schuller, Yehudi Wyner, Sebastian Currier, Kati Agócs, and Hannah Lash, and reissued as downloads on BSO Classics the historic recordings made by the ensemble's original membership for RCA between 1964 and 1968. Their most recent recordings, on BSO Classics, include an album of Mozart chamber music for winds and strings; a disc of chamber music by American composers William Bolcom, Lukas Foss, Michael Gandolfi, and Osvaldo Golijov; and "Profanes et Sacrées," a Grammy-nominated disc of 20th-century French chamber music by Ravel, Debussy, Tomasi, Françaix, and Dutilleux.
