Dallas Chamber Music Society

INTRODUCTION

The Dallas Chamber Music Society (DCMS) was founded by Dorothea & Bartram Kelly in 1945 with a mission to cultivate a diverse, sustainable audience for great chamber music. Bringing the world’s most esteemed chamber music ensembles to the city of Dallas, the DCMS continues the tradition of making North Texas an international center for chamber music.

OVERVIEW 

With this project, the DCMS continues to fulfill its mission of cultivating a diverse, sustainable audience for great chamber music by expanding its community experiences & educational initiatives for music lovers of all ages. In addition to our season's primary performance series, including the Brentano String Quartet, Fauré Quartett, David Finckel and Wu Han and the legendary Shanghai Quartet, this project further develops the DCMS's community outreach initiative by engaging the high caliber artistry of local musicians. Furthermore, this year will host the second of our Next Gen Artists Residency, the award-winning Viano String Quartet, engaging in extensive interactive performances and educational workshops for students of local middle & high schools, universities and after school programs that will reach an anticipated 200+ students.

OBJECTIVE:

This initiative tackles the current challenges of audience diminishment and diversification in classical music by expanding the DCMS's community outreach programs, presenting chamber music performance workshops to local schools, community centers, retirement communities, hospitals and residential treatment facilities. Through our Community Artists and Mentorship Program, local musicians as well as world renowned artists from our season’s roster will mentor participating student ensembles on artistic performance, presentation techniques, relevant career skills and instructional resourcefulness.

These opportunities aim to showcase the fundamental values of chamber music - diversity, collaboration, communication and inclusion through a democratic working process, in return inspiring participating ensembles to be active participants in the local community. Consequently, this enhancement of our educational & artistic offerings expands the DCMS’s chamber music activities, highlighting the aforementioned values and notably intimate nature of the medium while also growing our organizations audience and network.

In tandem with our featured performance series, our organization continually presents pre-concert lectures before each of our subscription-series concerts. Designed for the musically curious and lifelong learners, these educational opportunities are presented by local experts such as Dr. Peter Kupfer (Southern Methodist University) as well as other esteemed musicologists, performers and budding graduate students. 

OUR VISION

to make North Texas an international center for chamber music through superb performances, creative programming, and community engagement.