EarRelevant Staff | 3 SEP 2026
ATLANTA, Georgia— The Atlanta Chamber Players will mark their 51st season with three public concerts in 2026-27, combining works by composers including Brahms, Dvořák, Bartók and Schubert with contemporary music and a world premiere.
The season follows the Atlanta ensemble’s landmark 50th anniversary and continues its emphasis on both established chamber repertoire and new music. The group’s current website describes the ensemble as a mixed chamber group of strings, winds and piano, with repertoire ranging from traditional works to music by living composers.
The season opens Nov. 22 at Peachtree Christian Church with a program centered on German composers: Max Reger’s Serenade No. 2 in G major, Clara Schumann’s Three Romances and Johannes Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor. The concert is scheduled for 3 p.m.
The Reger will feature flutist Todd Skitch, violinist Helen Hwaya Kim and violist Catherine Lynn. Violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti and pianist Elizabeth Pridgen will perform Schumann’s three romances, while the Brahms quintet will bring together Moretti, Kim, Lynn, cellist Charae Krueger and Pridgen.
The second public concert, scheduled for Jan. 17 at First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, will pair three Central European works: Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances, Bartók’s Contrasts and Ernst von Dohnányi’s Sextet in C major.
The season concludes May 16 at Ahavath Achim Synagogue with Charles Loeffler’s Rhapsodie No. 1 for oboe, viola and piano, the world premiere of a new chamber work by Rolando Gomez (commissioned through the Cross-Country Chamber Consortium), and Schubert’s Quintet in A major, commonly known as the “Trout” Quintet.
Pianist Elizabeth Pridgen, the ensemble’s artistic director, will be joined throughout the season by members of the Atlanta Chamber Players and guest musicians, including players from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The ensemble’s season roster includes violinists Kim, Moretti and David Coucheron, violist Lynn, cellists Brad Ritchie and Krueger, and wind players including oboist Elizabeth Koch Tiscione, flutists Tia Roper and Skitch, clarinetist Jesse McCandless and hornist Susan Welty.
The Atlanta Chamber Players was founded in 1976 by pianist Paula Peace and flutist Melanie Cramer. Peace later became the ensemble’s founding artistic director emerita, while Pridgen succeeded her as artistic director in 2014. The group has maintained a parallel commitment to contemporary music through commissions and new-music initiatives.
One of those initiatives is Rapido!, a 14-day composition competition established by the Atlanta Chamber Players and the Antinori Foundation in 2009. The competition asks composers to write a new chamber work within two weeks after receiving specified musical parameters. The program has developed into a national competition, with five finalists performing at a national concert.
The eighth cycle of Rapido! will culminate in a National Finals Concert April 25 at the Hill Auditorium at the High Museum of Art. Five finalists are scheduled to have their works performed before a judging panel, which will select the grand-prize winner.
In addition to its public concerts and Rapido!, the Atlanta Chamber Players will continue its Soirée Series, a smaller-scale series of performances held in private homes and other venues around metro Atlanta. The coming season will include a special Soirée featuring violinist Robert McDuffie.
The ensemble says its broader mission is to bring traditional and contemporary chamber music to a broad audience while commissioning and performing new works. Its stated vision includes becoming a leading chamber ensemble in the Southeast and a national leader in the creation and performance of new chamber music by American composers. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta: chambermusicsociety.emory.edu
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