JCC announces finale of chamber music series
Leaders cite costs, stress they remain devoted to classics
, NJJN Staff | 04.10.08

While maintaining a commitment to providing a concert venue for small instrumental ensembles, the Chamber Music MetroWest committee has decided to end its long-running performance series.

  The Tokyo String Quartet, the Chamber Music MetroWest series’ longest-running group.
 

The Tokyo String Quartet, the Chamber Music MetroWest series’ longest-running group.
   

The end of the 65-year JCC MetroWest series, which has regularly booked top-flight classical performers, was announced in a letter to subscribers signed by the committee’s chair, David M. Kristol of Summit.

The March 31 letter described shrinking audiences and declining subscription renewals and donations as the reasons for the decision.

Kristol added, however, that the JCC’s Gaelen Center for the Arts will continue to feature chamber music recitals and performances in future seasons.

“JCC MetroWest remains committed to presenting chamber music,” the letter stated. “We are in the planning stages for a concert next year to honor the founders of the series, Rose Parsonnet and Leonard Shiman.”

In an interview with NJJN, Kristol said he started attending the concerts when he moved to New Jersey in 1981. At the time, the series’ subscriptions would sell out and single tickets were hard to come by.

After sending a letter to organizers suggesting that offerings include more than string quartets, he was himself recruited as a volunteer and was asked to help plan the next series. He has now chaired the series “for more than 10 years, probably closing in on 15,” he said.

Kristol said the series’ core audience is of the World War II generation, “and they’re dying or moving away.” A younger audience has been elusive. “It’s very painful to have watched it tailing off for many years,” he said.

  Show times

The 2007-08 Chamber Music MetroWest season, its last, includes two more concerts at the Leon & Toby Cooperman, Ross Family Campus, in West Orange.

Windscape, a quintet of woodwind musicians, will perform Sunday, April 13, at 7:30 p.m.

The Amelia Piano Trio will perform Sunday, May 4, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for each concert cost $32, $28 for JCC members, seniors, and students.

To purchase tickets, call 1-800-494-TIXS or visit www.boxofficetickets.com/jccmetrowest.
   

“Unfortunately, it just came down to finances,” said Gaelen Center director Julie Rossi. “The groups are getting more and more expensive.” Combined with the sharp drop in subscriptions and lagging single ticket sales, “it became cost-prohibitive,” she said.

The series staged five or six concerts each year; regular performers have included the Emerson String Quartet and the Brentano String Quartet. The Tokyo String Quartet began performing in MetroWest shortly after the ensemble was formed more than 30 years ago. Having appeared for more than 25 years in a row, the Tokyo is the series’ longest-running group, said Rossi.

She “absolutely” sees the quartet returning in the future.

“We want to continue to bring in chamber music because we have a dedicated audience, but we have to do it in a way that’s fiscally responsible,” Rossi said.

She said the committee’s decision to end the series was difficult and came after years of discussion on the topic.

“We need to start fresh,” said Kristol, “and it’s my hope that that may actually happen.”


Local stories posted courtesy of the New Jersey Jewish News