| Now in its Eleventh Season, the Andover Chamber Music Series has been a jewel in the cultural landscape of the Merrimack Valley since 1997. Its world-class musicians perform unique thematic programs of chamber music, from beloved masterpieces to rarely heard gems, in combinations of strings, winds, voice and piano. Its mission is to make world-class chamber affordable and accesible to all, including children, elderly and underserved families. ACMS concerts are celebrated for their tendency to be unstuffy, slightly eccentric, impassioned, and committed to invigorating old traditions with an ever-youthful perspective.
The ACMS was founded in 1996 by flutist Julie Scolnik and her husband, physicist Michael Brower. Music lovers quickly responded to the outstanding performances and innovative programming presented in the intimate stone West Parish Church, the ACMS's first home. The curved pews of the church enveloped the artists and enhanced the communication between them and the audience. This was chamber music at its best.
In no time at all the ACMS developed a loyal and devoted following of concertgoers from Massachusetts and New Hampshire who returned time and again not only for the high caliber of the performances but also for the personal element that Scolnik brought to the concerts.
After three years scores of people were being turned away at the door, and it was time to make a change. In the fall of 2000 the ACMS moved into the new Rogers Center for the Arts at Merrimack College. The new hall had wonderful acoustics and sightlines and enabled the ACMS to perform to a larger audience.
In the years to follow ACMS expanded to other venues in Lowell and Cambridge. The annual holiday concert of Baroque concerti is held in the festive South Church of Andover where Christmas trees and candles add to the holiday spirit. Once a year ACMS returns to the intimacy of the West Parish Church for a special concert in its first home.
The ACMS is proud to present programs that are almost always connected by a common theme and allow listeners to hear the works in a new way--from
The Gypsy Spirit, Legends and Tales, and Romance in the Belle
Epoque, to Marcel Proust's Salon and Reflections &
Elegies. Once or twice a year the ACMS expands to perform works for small chamber orchestra, always performed without a conductor, as in the chamber music tradition.
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Michael Brower,
Co-founder
and
Chairman of the Board,
and
Julie Scolnik,
Artistic Director
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