The REBEL quintet will play music from the Baroque period, including Vivaldi and Telemann, as part of the Candlelight Concert Society’s concert series on Dec. 1. Photo by Chris Fanning

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Young piano prodigy Nathan Lee will perform on Oct. 27 as part of the Candlelight Concert Society’s 46th season.

The Candlelight Concert Society is celebrating its 46th year of bringing chamber music by renowned musicians and groups to Howard County audiences.

What began in 1972 as a venue for local music teachers and musicians to perform, has expanded over the years to feature world-class artists like cellist Yo-Yo Ma, mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, the Emerson String Quartet, and the Billy Taylor trio, led by the late Kennedy Center jazz director.

“There’s just something special about attending a chamber music concert,” said Phillip Press, the Society’s current treasurer and former president. “You see the musicians interacting with one another, the expressions on their faces, things that are not available at big symphony orchestra concerts.”

Concerts are generally presented at the Smith Theatre, one of the performing arts venues at the Horowitz Center at Howard Community College. The theatre has an intimate feel despite its capacity of 424, enhanced by the lit candle that always adorns the stage at Society concerts.

Recently, the Society has also begun to offer occasional concerts in Baltimore at Linehan Hall at UMBC.

Ticket prices are kept moderate (with free companion tickets for youth) thanks to the large role donors play in supporting the organization and its concerts.

Started small, continues to grow

Press said the Society got underway when Howard County private music teachers Virginia Steigler (piano), Olga Brunner (violin) and Ann Slaccavento formed a chamber music trio, the Belle Arte Ensemble, to present four recitals a year.

Later, they added five additional concerts by local musicians to get the Candlelight Concert Society underway. The group registered as a nonprofit organization in 1975.

Its performances attracted many local residents who, while not musicians themselves, were chamber music fans, said Press, a chemical engineer and statistics expert.

For example, Press noted that the late Norman Winkler, an early Columbia resident and community organizer who worked for the defense department, “loved, and had a deep knowledge of, chamber music. He was a Renaissance man,” Press recalled.

In the 1980s, the Society expanded its offerings to include internationally known artists. Its artistic director Irina Kaplan Lande, who has taught piano and chamber music on the faculty of the Peabody Institute for over 20 years, selects the varied program.

In store this season

Its upcoming concert at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 27 features Nathan Lee, the 17-year-old piano phenom who won the 2016 Young Concert Artists competition in New York at the age of 15.

Lee, who hails from the Seattle area, made his Washington, D.C. debut in April at the Kennedy Center. A Washington Post review found the young man “immensely self-assured” and his playing “virtually note perfect …poised …persuasive…a model of clarity.”

Lande, herself a noted pianist trained in St. Petersburg, Russia, said that at a recent recital she noticed “not only his technical efficiency and understanding of the music, but also the sheer joy everyone in the audience felt when he was playing.”

The following concert, on Saturday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m., features the New York-based REBEL ensemble for Baroque music, whose work has been called “sophisticated and beguiling” by The New York Times.

The Society’s five remaining concerts for the 2018-2019 season include: pianist Nikolai Lugansky Saturday, Feb. 2, at 3 p.m., Smith Theater; Doric String Quartet, Saturday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m., Smith Theater; Italian Saxophone Quartet, Sunday, March 31, at 3 p.m., Smith Theater; Ecco Chamber Orchestra, Saturday, April 13 at 7 p.m., Linehan Concert Hall at the University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus; concluding with the Escher String Quartet with Christopher Shih, piano, on Saturday, May 11 at 7 p.m., Smith Theater.

Outreach to youth

Throughout its history, the Society has also presented special programs at schools to interest children in music and encourage them to grow up to be concert-goers.

For example, the REBEL ensemble will appear on Nov. 30 at both Patuxent Valley Middle School and Centennial High School, while the Italian Saxophone Quartet will be performing on April 1 at several schools in the county. These programs, which include brief performances, a question-and-answer session, and individual or small group tutoring, are not open to the public.

However, the Society also reaches out to the public at large with performances in hospitals, public libraries and senior centers. The 2018-2019 musical outreach sessions, which got underway last summer with five musical programs at the Miller Library geared to families with small children, will continue Feb. 9 with a family “CandleKids” program at the Howard County Conservancy.

REBEL group members will also present a lecture on Baroque art, architecture and music on Wednesday, Nov. 14 at the Howard County Center for the Arts. This program is open to the public free of charge.

And the Doric String Quartet will hold a master class for student string groups on Sunday, Feb. 24 in a semi-private venue. The master class is being co-sponsored by the American String Teachers Association and Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

Candlelight is hoping to soon schedule at least two more programs open to the public at county senior centers, according to Mina Hilsenrath, the society’s outreach and education chair.

Ticket prices cover only one-third of the Society’s operating costs, with the rest raised from donors and through the group’s annual gala fundraiser. For more information about benefits for donors and the gala, call the Society’s office.

Tickets for the formal Candlelight concerts are $35 for adults; $12 for students. (Beacon readers get a 10% discount; use the code BEAC10 online or mention the Beacon when calling.)

Children ages 9 to 17 get a free ticket when accompanied by a paying adult. Tickets may be purchased at the Society’s website, www.candlelightconcerts.org, or by calling (410) 997-2324.