[photo credit: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center]
The Coleman Chamber Music Association, which presents the 3:30 p.m. Sunday concert, has been bringing world-class chamber music to Pasadena since 1904, making it the oldest independent chamber music series in the country. The series began with Alice Coleman, a pianist who had studied in Boston with B.J. Lang and returned to Pasadena determined to share her passion for chamber music with her community. The first of “Miss Coleman’s Chamber Concerts” took place on January 25, 1904, at the old Elks Hall.
The November 9 program gathers violinists Stella Chen and Alexander Sitkovetsky, violists Paul Neubauer and Matthew Lipman, and cellist Jonathan Swensen.
Chen won first prize at the 2019 Queen Elisabeth Competition and was recently appointed to the Juilliard School faculty. Neubauer made history as principal violist of the New York Philharmonic when appointed at age 21.
The program spans three centuries, opening with “Fugue for String Quintet, Op. 137” by Beethoven, and including Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “Phantasy Quintet,” York Bowen’s “Two Duets for Two Violas,” Brett Dean’s contemporary “Epitaphs,” and concluding with Mozart’s “String Quintet No. 3 in C major, K. 515.”
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center maintains a roster of more than 130 leading international musicians and delivers 77 concerts annually by 103 composers across 350 years.
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will perform on Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025, at 3:30 p.m. at Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium, 332 S. Michigan Ave., Pasadena. For more information, call (626) 395-4652 or visit http://www.colemanchambermusic.org/event/chamber-music-society-of-lincoln-center/. Ticket prices: $40-$70; youth 18 and under, $25.
