Photo By Steve J. Serman

Leave the tea and sandwiches at home: Chamber Music Cincinnati hosts The Antares Quartet on Tuesday.

One of the most challenging and enjoyable jobs I've ever had was hosting a Sunday afternoon request show on Classical public radio. What amazed me most about the gig was the diversity of listeners who called in and the amazing variety of their choices.

Although the program director wanted me to stick to "the three Bs" (Bach, Beethoven and Brahms), it was worth being called into his office on Monday mornings for honoring requests for "radical" composers like Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Messiean.

I suspect my old boss won't be in attendance Tuesday evening when Chamber Music Cincinnati hosts the Antares Quartet for a concert entitled War and Peace. The program includes Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du soldat," Messiean's "Quartet for the End of Time" and the Shostakovich "Piano Trio."

The concert takes on special resonance for contemporary audiences in this age of terror given that Shostakovich composed while his home of Leningrad was under siege and Messiean was a POW. The Stravinsky, which translates as "A Soldier's Tale," is a parable about a soldier who trades his fiddle to the devil for a book that predicts the future of the economy.

Republican lame ducks and narrow-minded traditionalists might not be amused, but that sliver of audience is not the only demographic CMC President Joel Hoffman is aiming for.

"We're trying to reach all people who consider entertainment to be what can move you, inspire you and challenge you, in addition to offering fun, excitement and diversion," says Hoffman, who just recently returned from Poland. "We think there are a lot of people around Cincinnati who think this way and don't realize that this is the kind of experience that can be had from our concerts."

Although CMC might have started life in 1929 as the Cincinnati Chamber Music Society, they've come a long way since concerts were tea-and-sandwich affairs held in private homes. CMC's mission has always been to present chamber music ensembles and recitalists of the highest quality to Cincinnati audiences, but their motto is "Expanding Horizons."

And if you think chamber music is something played by musicians with one foot in the grave, guess again. Check out the Web sites of the Artemis Quartet (slated for late January 2007) or the Miro Quartet (March) and you'll see faces that would fit in as easily at the Southgate House as CCM's Corbett Auditorium, where CMC concerts are usually held.

The season concludes next April with the Imani Winds, a young ensemble of African/Latin American heritage who joined forces to explore the links between European, African and American music traditions. The Antares has twice won awards from ASCAP/CMA for Adventurous Programming.

"One of the reasons why our groups this year are younger and, if you will, hipper is because, to some extent, that's what the chamber music world looks more and more like," he says. "Our aim is to connect Cincinnati audiences to what's happening around the world, and that's part of what's happening.

"And, yes, we are trying to broaden our audience, and so we are extending our concept of 'classical chamber music' outwards. The concerts are traditional in nature, but they are also informal and offer such a great way of emerging from our Internet-connected caves and actually be with people of so many different kinds. You'd be amazed at who you can find at these concerts!"

Last April that extension included the creation of Music Now, a festival of Contemporary Chamber Music, held at the Contemporary Arts Center. The five-night series was developed by Cincinnati native Bryce Dressner (his group Clogs performed) and featured, among others, the American debut of CelloProject, a German cellist/Chilean pianist duet whose performance of tangos and film music was stunning. The festival returns next April.

"This is another part of CMC's current aim to broaden our outreach to include younger audiences," explains Hoffman. "And for this, the CAC is a fantastic space."

Hoffman admits there are two sides to his musical personality, and that's part of what fuels CMC programming. "I am a composer and so I'm constantly working with new music of all kinds, classical and non. But at the same time there is such a wealth of repertoire from the recent and more distant past that is part of my background. Without it I couldn't live. To me it's all connected and interdependent."

This is especially evident in Hoffman's CCM day job, organizing an annual music festival of guest artists and composers as well as faculty and students to present both new and not-so-new chamber works. Next June's edition, Music07, will feature film composer Michael Nyman, of The Piano and Gattaca fame, and the return of festival favorite eighth blackbird, probably the most inventive ensemble in the chamber scene today.

For the moment, however, Hoffman's radar screen is focused on CMC and programming concerts that appeal to those accustomed to standard repertoire and younger audiences who might be mistaken that chamber music is not relevant.

"It's hard work to satisfy both those who want to hear top-quality string quartets play Beethoven and those who want to hear Phillip Glass when we produce only five to 10 concerts a year," Hoffman says. "And the audience pool is limited by the fact that this is a mid-sized metropolitan area.

"But if more people come, we can do more concerts of different kinds. Consider that a challenge, Cincinnati!"