Although the name of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center might suggest that most or all of its activities take place on the Lincoln Center campus, in fact the majority of its concerts take place on tour. In addition to our mainstage programs in Alice Tully Hall and our other offerings (such as recitals and new music) in the Rose Studio, CMS artists are busy throughout the year performing all over the country and around the world. During the 2024–25 season, for instance, CMS will present more than 70 concerts on tour, and 51 in New York City. Such an expansive presence brings a much broader audience from around the US and the world into the CMS community of classical music lovers.

Touring at CMS takes on a variety of forms, one of which involves residencies with other organizations. To name a few examples, CMS has had long-running partnerships with the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) in Saratoga Springs, and the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago. And just last season, CMS began a new three-concert residency at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at Long Island University Post, further expanding our audience.

Beyond appearing with various partner organizations who present CMS in concert, CMS has begun self-presenting performances at Drew University in New Jersey and at Trinity Episcopal Church in Vero Beach, Florida. In the self-presented model, CMS takes on the whole process independently, including all decisions regarding programming, marketing, fundraising, and ticketing.

In yet another touring format, CMS musicians appear in concerts at locations around the world. Last season saw CMS concerts on tour in Asia in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, and other locations in China; in October 2024 our musicians will return to Hong Kong before venturing to Macau. Through multiple concerts as well as master classes in each location, such tours enact CMS’s mission to bring chamber music to as many people as possible.

“The goal is always to create communities around chamber music,” says Rebecca Bogers, CMS’s Director of Touring and Artistic Planning. “CMS has such a strong community in New York; we know chamber music is an art form that brings people together, so we look for the right model to establish with each partner to help those communities to thrive."

Touring has been a part of CMS since the organization’s third season. Its first tour program took place on December 11, 1971, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. It was one of four performances outside New York City that season, plus an in-city runout at the Century Association. Over the years, the scope of CMS touring has grown tremendously, as the upcoming season’s schedule of more than seventy tour dates attests.

“CMS’s mission is to advance chamber music,” says Co-Artistic Director Wu Han, “and to do that, we aim to enlarge audiences’ appreciation for it. Our partnerships allow us to curate ongoing series so that audiences can have a regular diet of chamber music performed at the highest level. What we have noticed is that in each place, the audience has grown not only in size, but also in appreciation and appetite for the music.” A case in point, she says, is the Saratoga Performing Arts Center; what began as a summer residency in 2014 has now expanded to year-round programming, thus affirming Saratoga Springs as an important destination for world-class chamber music.

In addition to growing audiences, the chance to revisit locations also enriches the performing lives of CMS musicians by expanding the communities in which they take part. “It’s wonderful for our artists to return to a city and see the same smiling faces in the audience,” says Wu Han. “We really feel like we’re coming home to play for different families.” Furthermore, she says, touring provides an opportunity for the musicians to grow together and influence each other. “That kind of deep relationship is not possible from playing just one or two concerts in New York City."

Co-Artistic Director David Finckel observes that touring improves the symbiotic relationship between performers and listeners: “Audiences are keen to follow musicians as they evolve. If our artists only played in Alice Tully Hall and never went anywhere else, they would not be bringing back to New York and to themselves new perspectives, new experiences, new ideas, and new influences in their own playing. When we come home from a good tour, we are stronger musicians, we're more well-rounded, and we're more eager than ever to share what we've learned and experienced. To call yourself a world-class artist, you have to tour the world."

Finckel points to another benefit for musicians: a vocational clarity catalyzed by the meditative, almost spiritual, focus that only a tour can provide. "When you're on tour, your life simplifies quite a bit, becoming almost monastic. Your main objective all day is to get someplace and play the best concert that you can. There's very little else to distract you, as there often is at home."

For readers living in or near upstate New York, the next CMS tour dates at the time of publication are a the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs. Concerts include an appearance by the Escher String Quartet with incoming Bowers Program artist Anna Geniushene (July 14); a program of wind instruments and piano (July 21); a spotlight on Beethoven, Ravel, and Schumann (August 11); and the chamber music version of Saint-Saën's Carnival of the Animals (August 18). Additional tour dates and locations can be found here. 

And for those staying in the city this summer, CMS still has concerts in Alice Tully Hall. Tickets are on sale now for the Summer Evenings, in six concerts (up from four last year) throughout the month of July.