Chamber Music Society of Logan to Receive National Award

The Chamber Music Society of Logan is celebrating its 26th season this year. It also has something new to celebrate — a national award from Chamber Music America.

Prior to the Nov. 15 performance by the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the society will receive the CMAcclaim Award, presented by Margaret Loi, CEO of Chamber Music America. Loi travels from New York City to present the award.

 

"The Chamber Music Society of Logan has long added to the cultural vitality of Cache Valley and this national award is well deserved," said Sergio Bernal, a professor in the department of music and conductor and director of the USU Symphony Orchestra.

 

USU’s Music Department collaborates frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Logan, especially during art visits and master classes.

 

The award’s presenter, Chamber Music America, is a national service organization that promotes all aspects of the chamber music world — performers, educators, composers and musical training programs. The CMAcclaim award is presented annually to only two organizations nationally. More than 200 musical societies were eligible for the award, and the 2006-07 awards went to the Chamber Music Society of Logan and the Upper Valley Music Center of New Hampshire.

 

The prestigious award celebrates groups’ contributions to enhancing the cultural life of their respective regions.

           

The Chamber Music Society of Logan was established in 1980, after Eastman Hatch — then a USU physics professor — returned from a sabbatical in Germany. Hatch wanted to replicate in his hometown the chamber music offerings he experienced in Germany. In the early years, thanks to his efforts, musicians performed gratis and like-minded volunteers worked to build the Chamber Music Society of Logan. A grant from the Marie Eccles Caine Foundation greatly contributed to the organization’s growth and success, and today, top ensembles and quartets regularly perform in the society’s new home — the Manon Caine Russell Kathryn Caine Wanlass Performance Hall on the USU campus.

 

Marilyn Wagner, who has quietly worked behind the scenes for 25 years, guides the board of directors. She attends music conferences, books artists and agents and coordinates master class offerings by guests for USU music students and Cache Valley youth.

 

A number of the original Chamber Music Society of Logan board members, including Hatch, Wagner, Reed Stock and Raymond Sanders, will attend the Nov. 15 award presentation and concert. Following the presentation, the St. Lawrence Quartet takes the stage for a program that includes work by Mozart, contemporary Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer and Ravel’s only string quartet, “String Quartet in F Major.”