News
Please scroll down the page to see the following news items:
--HJCMS Outreach
--Event photos from the 25th Anniversary Gala Reception
--Opportunities to support HJCMS
--Letter to HJCMS Members from Linda & Quentin
--HJCMS Outreach
--Event photos from the 25th Anniversary Gala Reception
--Opportunities to support HJCMS
--Letter to HJCMS Members from Linda & Quentin
HJCMS Outreach
The Harry Jacobs Chamber Music Society is a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring world-class chamber musicians to Augusta, to provide a forum for local musicians through its Hausmusik concerts, and to educate and inspire young people by taking music into the community. Several times a year, as the schedule permits, master classes, mini-performances, lecture-demonstrations, and other outreach activities are provided. Most of them are public events, all are free, and they are announced both in public advertising and at our formal concerts. The music-loving public is cordially invited to attend these educationally stimulating events. Among our recent outreach programs are an interactive concert for students at Monte Sano Elementary School, master classes by the Spanish Brass and pianist Alexander Schimpf, a lecture demonstration by the Harlem Quartet for Paine College music students, a concert at the AU Cancer Center, and mini-concerts at the Jessye Norman School of the Arts and Walton Oaks Community. |
Pictures from April 2015 concert and 25th Anniversary Gala Reception.
OPPORTUNITIES TO SUPPORT HJCMS Opportunities for several kinds of financial support for the Harry Jacobs Chamber Music Society are available. - Quarter-page, half-page, and full-page ads can be reserved for the program booklet. - Financial responsibilities for artist fees and related concert expenses can be underwritten in part or full. - Outright grants for overall program support will be willingly received. 
If you subscribe to any of the social media network regularly (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), it would be beneficial to post information about the Harry Jacobs Chamber Music Series. In addition to your personal statement, you could direct your correspondents to the HJCMS website, which is hjcms.org.
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Letter to HJCMS Members
The task of choosing five ensembles and one pianist for each season of the HJCMS is both joyful and daunting. The joyful part derives from our love of chamber music in almost all of its forms. The responsibility of listening to the many different options gives us an opportunity to enjoy a great deal of music we might never have heard. Much of what we find is music we would like to share with the members of the Society and guests, but there are only the six concerts to schedule.
One of the most important criteria that guides our selection is finding a balance of different ensemble instrumentation. String quartets and piano trios are the staples of the chamber music world. A balanced series, however, has to sample some of the great variety of chamber ensembles that is available today. Saxophone quartets, woodwind quintets, and small vocal ensembles, for example, have appeared on our series in the recent past. Two goals help to define our choices for these groups: 1) we only choose ensembles that meet the high standards of the Society; and 2) we hope that new patrons, attracted specifically because of the variety of programs we are able to present, will return, and perhaps become long-term members.
We have sometimes been asked whether we have any input into what music the ensembles perform. In fact, we often do make suggestions. In these cases, our objective is always to foster balanced programming. Music that can be defined as "chamber music" has been composed for several centuries, and more is being created every day. We believe that it is our responsibility to ensure a listening experience that includes a broad spectrum of the musical ideas of western civilization.
Those who attend Jacobs Series events regularly will recognize that many concerts consist of at least one selection from each of the preceding three centuries, while regular readers of the program notes for these events will remember that this trichotomy is often described as three different musical world views as interpreted through music by the composers. Music is, among many things, a form of communication. Composers express through their music their reactions to events, emotions, or philosophies that affect them--war, outrage, love, distress, peace, etc. If we listen carefully to the communicative powers of music and know something about the environment in which the music was created, we will always learn something about the environment in which the music was created, we will always learn something about our past, the history that brought the world to its current situation, the emotions of those who preceded us, and perhaps even the outlooks and ideas that have shaped us and our civilization.
Two points need to be made here: 1) Great music was created for many centuries before Haydn and Mozart; 2) Great music has continued to be created since the death of Brahms: our own twenty-first-century society has a different way of looking at the world than that of the nineteenth century, so we should expect the music of our world to reflect this. Listeners can learn much about music--and about the world--by opening their ears and minds to music that is temporarily out of their comfort zone. There is beauty in all music if only we are willing to listen for it.
Linda Banister & Quentin Kuyper
The task of choosing five ensembles and one pianist for each season of the HJCMS is both joyful and daunting. The joyful part derives from our love of chamber music in almost all of its forms. The responsibility of listening to the many different options gives us an opportunity to enjoy a great deal of music we might never have heard. Much of what we find is music we would like to share with the members of the Society and guests, but there are only the six concerts to schedule.
One of the most important criteria that guides our selection is finding a balance of different ensemble instrumentation. String quartets and piano trios are the staples of the chamber music world. A balanced series, however, has to sample some of the great variety of chamber ensembles that is available today. Saxophone quartets, woodwind quintets, and small vocal ensembles, for example, have appeared on our series in the recent past. Two goals help to define our choices for these groups: 1) we only choose ensembles that meet the high standards of the Society; and 2) we hope that new patrons, attracted specifically because of the variety of programs we are able to present, will return, and perhaps become long-term members.
We have sometimes been asked whether we have any input into what music the ensembles perform. In fact, we often do make suggestions. In these cases, our objective is always to foster balanced programming. Music that can be defined as "chamber music" has been composed for several centuries, and more is being created every day. We believe that it is our responsibility to ensure a listening experience that includes a broad spectrum of the musical ideas of western civilization.
Those who attend Jacobs Series events regularly will recognize that many concerts consist of at least one selection from each of the preceding three centuries, while regular readers of the program notes for these events will remember that this trichotomy is often described as three different musical world views as interpreted through music by the composers. Music is, among many things, a form of communication. Composers express through their music their reactions to events, emotions, or philosophies that affect them--war, outrage, love, distress, peace, etc. If we listen carefully to the communicative powers of music and know something about the environment in which the music was created, we will always learn something about the environment in which the music was created, we will always learn something about our past, the history that brought the world to its current situation, the emotions of those who preceded us, and perhaps even the outlooks and ideas that have shaped us and our civilization.
Two points need to be made here: 1) Great music was created for many centuries before Haydn and Mozart; 2) Great music has continued to be created since the death of Brahms: our own twenty-first-century society has a different way of looking at the world than that of the nineteenth century, so we should expect the music of our world to reflect this. Listeners can learn much about music--and about the world--by opening their ears and minds to music that is temporarily out of their comfort zone. There is beauty in all music if only we are willing to listen for it.
Linda Banister & Quentin Kuyper
