Chamber Music Society Gets New Director

Non-Cliburn-related classical music news: The Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth recently announced that Gary Levinson will be their new artistic director. Levinson is a former current senior principal associate concertmaster of Dallas Symphony Orchestra and former violinist for the New York Philharmonic. He succeeds longtime director Robert Davidovici. “We wanted a personable individual who would fit in with our hardworking board, and represent us well in the community, as well as a respected musician with good contacts in the chamber music world both locally, nationally, and internationally,” said the society’s president John Forestner in an e-mail. “We felt an immediate match with [Levinson’s] credentials and his dynamic personality, and he was our unquestioned first choice for the job.”

Local music lovers will see the Chamber Music Society’s new outlook in the 2013-14 season, as the society’s homepage bears a message to its fans saying that these next few concerts will feature less piano music than there has been under the previous management. On one hand, is it wise to ignore such a rich resource in a town with so many good pianists? On the other hand, there are lots of places to hear piano music in Fort Worth, and it might be nice for other instrumentalists to have an outpost of their own. The coming season will bring us performances by the Miró Quartet and the Vermeer Quartet. We’ll see how the music fares.