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Year: 2019

Year: 2019

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A New 5-Day Summer Home for Adult Chamber Musicians in Brevard

 Brevard Music Center is launching the inaugural Adult Chamber Music Workshop, June 3-8, 2026, and we could not be more excited to welcome adult amateur musicians to our beautiful mountain campus in Western North Carolina. The program features focused rehearsal time, inspiring coaching, great colleagues at your stand, and the simple joy of spending time immersed in chamber music.

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Charles Hsu – oncologist, violist, luthier

 Charles Hsu has packed a lot into his 33 years. Born in the New Jersey, he grew up in Taiwan, moved back to the United States to attend MIT, and, after a stint as a management consultant, pursued his medical studies at Yale and Harvard. Today, he is Dr. Hsu, a junior attending medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. But through all of these pursuits, there is his love of chamber music.

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The Oregon-Washington ACMP Play-In

 On January 17, 2026, 45 chamber musicians, ages 23-80, met at Portland State University's Music School Hall in Portland, Oregon for a Play-In organized by NAOC councilor Virginia Feldman.

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For the Love of It: A Legacy

 What to do with all that music, when you finally, reluctantly, stop playing? At 99, Phyllis Booth decided to gift her collection to Golden Chamber Music at Sleepy Hollow, where she and her late husband Wayne Booth had a long, joyful connection since shortly after its founding in 1969.

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Everything you always wanted to know about bows but were afraid to ask

 Join Gabriel Schaff - violinist, scholar and author of "The Essential Guide to Bows of the Violin Family" for an illuminating journey through the history of the bow to everyday tips (no pun intended) about caring for your bow, choosing a new one - and....everything you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask!

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Kayana Jean-Philippe: The serious business of an amateur oboist

 When it comes to the oboe, Kayana Jean-Philippe is what you might call a serious amateur – someone who pursues her passion at a high level,  but does not make a living at it. One of her most consistent musical outlets has been the United Nations Symphony Orchestra, which she joined 10 years ago and is principal oboist. Another musical outlet is ACMP, which she said has connected her with new people and new musical opportunities.

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Announcing the 2025 Holiday Caption Contest Winners!

 ACMP's 4th annual Holiday Caption Contest was a success, with 69 captions from 41 ACMP members. This year's winners are Valerie Matthews, Peggy Reynolds, and Matthew Greenbaum. Congratulations to everyone who came up with so many wonderful captions for this year's cartoon!

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Announcing ACMP’s 2026 Workshop/Community Music Grantees

 ACMP is proud to announce its 2026 Chamber Music Workshop and Community Music grantees. This year we awarded $168,000 in grants to 73 chamber music workshops and semester- or year-long programs in 10 countries, and 31 US states. (Photo by Claire Stefani.)

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Mystery Donor Reveal: An interview with Louise K. Smith

 An anonymous member of ACMP recently spearheaded a fundraising initiative for ACMP in the two week lead-up to Giving Tuesday, offering a $25 gift for each donation received from November 18, 2025 through Giving Tuesday (December 2.) This mystery donor just revealed her identity: Thank you, Louise K. Smith! I asked Louise some questions about her background as a pianist, involvement with ACMP over the years, and about her recent matching grant idea. 

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A Bridge from West to East – The Chamber Music of Reena Esmail

 After a recent visit to her father's hometown in India, ACMP member pianist Sonya Subbayya Sutton returned to the United States with a renewed curiosity about her Indian culture and music. This led her to explore the music of Indian American composer Reena Esmail. Read about Reena's own voyage of discovery in Indian music and check out links to her scores and recordings.

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ACMP Member of the Month: Kwame Lewis

 Kwame Lewis is not your typical accountant. Born and raised in Trinidad, he emigrated to the United States in 2003 at the age of 23 and set about building his career. Along the way, he lived in the Washington area for an extended period, got married, had two boys who are now 5 and 3 years old,  and since 2019 has lived with his family in Melrose, Mass., near Boston. One constant through his journey, though, has been his love of the clarinet and chamber music.

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Chamber music for a cause: amateur musicians support Music for Food

 ACMP member pianist and violist Arlene Hajinlian is as active a chamber music organizer as she is in sharing her time and space for social causes. This Thanksgiving holiday weekend she came up with a way for adult amateur chamber musicians to have a lot of fun while raising money to support New Yorkers in need: three consecutive chamber music parties as a benefit for Broadway Community through Music for Food.

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Remembering Kate “Kitty” Bigelow Benton (March 29, 1935 – November 2, 2025)

 ACMP mourns the loss of Kitty Benton (1935-2025), a former board member, board secretary and longtime editor of the ACMP newsletter. Read about Kitty's life and watch a video of Kitty telling her favorite stories about ACMP in June 2021.

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New Video – Meet The Artist: Harumi Rhodes

 ACMP Executive Director Stephanie Griffin hosts a lively Zoom conversation with violinist Harumi Rhodes about her musical upbringing and career with the world-renowned Takács Quartet.

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ACMP Strategic Plan for 2030

 For the past several years, ACMP’s membership has grown dramatically, as has the popularity of its programs. Building on this momentum, ACMP’s Board and Executive Director completed a strategic plan to chart a course for the organization for the next five years. ACMP’s Board and Executive Director developed a new vision for the organization and a plan to strengthen member services, grants, operations, and finances to advance ACMP’s mission by 2030 and beyond.

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Drab, Inconspicuous, and Quiet No More

 Washington, D.C.area pianist and choral conductor Sonya Subbayya Sutton is a passionate advocate of the work of women composers. Read about some of her favorite women composers and discover new chamber repertoire from her list.

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Andrew Brush: An amateur cellist with a global reach

 After ACMP’s modest beginnings nearly 80 years ago, ACMP has grown to have a global membership, and perhaps nobody embodies this boundary crossing more than Andrew Brush. With his cello in tow, he splits his time between his home in Columbus, Ohio, and Buenos Aires, with visits to Europe and Istanbul, where his wife is from. Along the way, he has developed diverse musical interests, with influences ranging from Argentina to Mali. We caught up with Andrew recently after he had returned to Columbus, where he serves as a member of the ACMP North American Outreach Council.

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Befriending Performance Anxiety: simple tips for success

 Performance anxiety is a universal experience, a survival mechanism that is hard-wired. Many of us react with shaky hands, lack of focus, shallow and fast breathing, rapid heart rate, and even feeling queasy. This is all perfectly natural - our protective sympathetic nervous system comes online to save us from danger, real or imaginary! Join Dr. Xenia Pestova Bennett for a free online webinar about managing performance anxiety on Thursday, October 30th at 6pm UK/Ireland time.

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The Great American Play-In: ACMP and ACO

 On Saturday, September 13 ACMP embarked on its first collaboration with the American Composers Orchestra (ACO). Together we organized a Play-In focused entirely on music by twentieth and twenty-first century American composers. Over the course of three hours, forty-five musicians discovered sixteen pieces or sets of pieces by a wide range of American composers, spanning from 1896 through 2025.

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Just Play Concert: Exploring New Voices and Old Masters with the Tarka String Quartet

 Thanks to a “Just Play” grant from ACMP, the Tarka String Quartet—Sue Soong and Julie Park on violin, Kevin Jim on viola, and Angus Davol on cello—recently shared a program in San Diego that reflected their passions: exploring new voices by women composers alongside the great works of the quartet tradition.

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