The Richardson Chamber Players was founded in 1994-95 as a special project of Princeton University Concerts during its Centennial Season. Since then, the Chamber Players have become an integral part of the musical life of the region, performing more than thirty concerts in repertory ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach to Luciano Berio.
The original mission of The Richardson Chamber Players was to perform chamber works scored for unusual combinations of instruments and voices, music which otherwise would have remained unheard in our community.
The Artist Roster is largely made up of the excellent professional musicians who teach instrumental music and voice at Princeton University, all of whom also have active careers with the Northeast’s most prestigious chamber and orchestral ensembles. These range from the New York Philharmonic to the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, from the New York New Music Ensemble to Musicians from Marlboro, and from the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra to Orpheus. From time to time, guest artists and the most talented Princeton students perform with the Chamber Players. Michael Pratt and Nathan A. Randall are Artistic Co-Directors.
Over the course of the past decade, The Richardson Chamber Players has provided an opportunity for these fine musicians to work together on musical programs drawn from a remarkably diverse repertory. Each program has a specific focus, providing unique insight
Last season, for example, The Richardson Chamber Players presented Berlin: Three Centuries of Chamber Music featuring programs drawn from the Court of Frederick the Great, the circle of Joseph Joachim (for whom Brahms composed the Violin Concerto and “Double” Concerto), and The Last Laugh, a program of music by composers who survived Nazi persecution and had significant careers after the war.
In May, 2004, Xochipili: Chamber Music of Latin America featured works by Ginastera, Revueltas, Villa-Lobos, as well as a rare performance of Xochipili: An Imagined Aztec Music composed by Carlos Chávez for the ground-breaking exhibition of Mexican art at the Museum of Modern Art in 1940.
Other programs have featured the complete Liebeslieder Waltzes of Brahms, An Evening at Schubertʼs, Music of Erik Satie and Francis Poulenc, Stravinskyʼs A Soldierʼs Tale and William Waltonʼs Façade.
During its 2005-2006 Tenth Anniversary Season, The Richardson Chamber Players will present a very special series of programs devoted to American Chamber Music entitled From the New World, in honor of the great Czech composer Antonin Dvorák, who encouraged American composers to find America’s own unique musical voice.
In addition to well-beloved works like Aaron Coplandʼs Appalachian Spring, the programs include rarely-heard gems of the American repertory mined from little-known sources. One such work is the Piano Quintet in F-sharp Minor by Amy Cheney Beach, first performed at Princeton by the Kneisel Quartet with Mrs. Beach at the piano. Another is the astonishing Third Violin Sonata of Trenton native (and musical enfant-terrible) George Antheil.