Support ACMP through holiday shopping!

Arlene Hajinlian with the ACMP Dog Mug and Scruffy the Dog, who inspired it

‘Tis almost the season! And I imagine you need some new mugs for your hot cocoa and spiced apple cider. How about your very own ACMP mug with an original cartoon by its Executive Director? How about some ACMP mugs as holiday gifts for your fellow musician friends?

You can support ACMP through holiday shopping at the ACMP Store!

(You can also get your very own mug as a thank you gift from ACMP if you make a tax-deductible gift of $250 or more.)

The dog mug was inspired by a famous ACMP dog – Scruffy, who resides with New York pianist and violist (and NAOC councilor) Arlene Hajinlian. Scruffy and Arlene are posing in the photo above with the first draft of the mug. We’ve already spiced up the design a bit:

More of a feline fanatic? Then the ACMP cat mug is for you!

We’re selling these mugs for $18 ($19.66 if you live in New York State, because of the sales tax.) Unfortunately we are only able to ship within the United States for now… 

Meanwhile, remember the cartoon from last year’s Holiday Caption Contest – with the winning caption by Raul Kottler?

Well – it’s now available as a super-cute holiday card and delightful cocktail napkin:

And we still have cards and cocktail napkins with last year’s cartoon, too!

These cards make for a unique and unusual greeting to send to your friends over the holiday season and those napkins will be a conversation starter at your holiday parties. It’s also a fun way to support ACMP and its delightful mission of supporting chamber music for pleasure.

If holiday swag is not your bag – we are also selling copies of the first edition of Lucy Miller Murray’s book “Adams to Zemlinsky: A Friendly Guide to Selected Chamber Music,” which was published by Concert Artists Guild in 2006. It’s a collection of essays and program notes about a wide range of chamber music pieces, by Lucy herself and by such esteemed contributors as renowned quartet violists James Dunham (who knew ACMP’s founder Helen Rice!) and Philip Ying, Guarneri Quartet violinist Arnold Steinhardt, and many more notable performers.

It’s hard to get a hold of copies of this book, and ACMP has a supply of brand-new copies of this paperback book that the author herself donated to ACMP last June. Thank you, Lucy Miller Murray! (Lucy is a pianist, and long-time member of ACMP.)

Lucy’s book would make a lovely holiday gift for one of your chamber music-loving friends (or maybe just for you…)

Please stop by ACMP’s new store soon, and happy shopping!

More Articles

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. 

Read More ↗

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.

Read More ↗

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.

Read More ↗

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.

Read More ↗

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.

Read More ↗

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.

Read More ↗

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.

Read More ↗

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.

Read More ↗

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.

Read More ↗

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.

Read More ↗

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.

Read More ↗

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.

Read More ↗

ACMP Members of the Month – October 2025

Playing in a regular string quartet is kind of like having a regular foursome in golf – everyone needs to be of roughly similar ability, and they also need to get along. When those two dynamics come together, the result can be a lasting chamber group that brings enduring friendships. Such is the case with our Members of the Month for October – Ruth Sklarsky, Barbara McIver, Ellen Henry and Kathy Lewis, residents of the Rochester, N.Y., area who have played in a string quartet for more than a decade. They got together and collectively answered a few questions about their musical journey.

Read More ↗

ACMP Event: Meet Harumi Rhodes

Join ACMP’s Executive Director Stephanie Griffin on Saturday, November 1 at 2pm Eastern time for a lively discussion and Q and A with violinist Harumi Rhodes. Harumi is the daughter of two famous chamber musicians: Stephanie’s former viola teacher, Samuel Rhodes (Juilliard Quartet) and violinist Hiroko Yajima (Mannes Trio.) Find out more about Harumi’s early life in that celebrated chamber music milieu, and about her journey as she established her own career as the second violinist of the world-renowned Takács Quartet.

Read More ↗

New guidelines for ACMP’s Workshop and Community Music Grant, deadline: October 24, 2025

ACMP's annual Chamber Music Workshop and Community Music grant cycle is open! Deadline: Friday, October 17. Read about the new guidelines and sign up for the Grant Information Session.

Read More ↗

A weekend of music and renewal at Chautauqua

When you first set foot on the grounds of the Chautauqua Institution in southwestern New York, it’s easy to understand the lift in Arlene Hajinlian and Sonya Sutton’s voices when they speak about their summer homes, and why they would welcome a group of ACMP members for a weekend of music-making.

Read More ↗

Optometrist by vocation, flutist by avocation

For someone who does not pay the rent as a musician, Pat Brown leads a full musical life with her flute. An optometrist by profession and a dedicated flutist, she has been a member of the Texas Medical Center Orchestra for more than 20 years, serving on the board and helping the group win national awards.

Read More ↗

The Great American Play-In: Saturday, September 13 at Opera America

On Saturday, September 13 from 2 to 6pm, the American Composers Orchestra (ACO) and ACMP are hosting a fun and festive chamber music Play-In at Opera America (NYC), focused entirely on chamber music by twentieth-century and living American composers. 

Read More ↗

A professional pianist charts new musical paths with chamber music

When it comes to chamber music, ACMP pitches a big tent, from players just starting out to those rediscovering a passion for the music they played on their younger days. But ACMP’s membership also includes a thriving community of professionals — highly trained musicians who discover a community in ACMP that is hard to find elsewhere. Grace Shepard is one such professional living in South Florida and serving on ACMP’s North American Outreach Council.

Read More ↗

How a cellist learned to love the viola, her way

Chicago-area cellist Ruth Rozen recounts her adventures with a vertical viola, opening the door to playing the inner voices in chamber music.

Read More ↗

Load More

 

All Articles By