Uptown chamber music moves, adds admission fee

After more than a decade of free chamber-music concerts that made it an uptown institution, Charlotte Chamber Music -- formerly named Chamber Music at St. Peter's -- says it's merging with the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, where its monthly concerts will gain a home and an admission charge. 

The group's main series will open its season Oct. 2 in its new location, the gallery on the Bechtler museum's fourth floor. The added value of the museum visit explains the admission fee, Bechtler vice president  Christopher Lawing says.  The 12:10 p.m. performance will be free for Bechtler members, $5 for others. The 5:30 p.m. performance, which includes an after-concert reception, will be $15 for museum members, $20 for others. The concerts will continue through May on the first Tuesday of each month. 

Charlotte Chamber Music reached "a crossroads," the announcement on its website says. 

"We have had to confront a challenge that many nonprofit organizations eventually face: becoming a viable entity that exists beyond its founder and early roots," the letter from CCM executive director Elaine Spallone says. 

The group is "confronting the realities of the present," the letter says.  "Beyond our own walls, the Charlotte area has been roiled by economic and civic upheaval. ... The economy has severely affected all of us in the nonprofit industry and the arts especially."

When the concerts begin Oct. 2, they'll be "under the management of the Bechtler Museum," the letter says. But CCM's artistic director, former WDAV head Ben Roe, will "continue to be involved in programming." 

The Oct. 2 concert will feature the Bechtler Ensemble in works by Francis Poulenc, Igor Stravinsky and Erik Satie.