Press Room

Our Mission

Chamber Music LA creates a thriving community of players and listeners to increase awareness and activity through collaboration.

Our Vision

Making LA the Chamber Music Capital of the World

Our Values

What defines chamber music is precisely what makes it such fun to experience. With one player per part, each line must have integrity of its own. Composers often say there’s nowhere to hide in chamber music. You can’t rely on cymbal crashes and huge orchestral swells for dramatic effect. And chamber music is certainly not about who has the melody and who has the accompaniment; it’s a far more nuanced dance than that.

Chamber music is about counterpoint—the way that each unique voice with its own integrity, rhythm, and contour relates to the others in harmonic interdependence. In other words, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

This is the core value of Chamber Music Los Angeles. We aim to be better together. While maintaining each participating organization’s integrity, we are joining forces to further the impact of the art form. At any CMLA performance, you’ll experience what makes chamber music so special. Each partner organization rightly prides itself on its unique curatorial voice and intimacy. Join us and experience the subtle magic of chamber music.

Chamber Music LA owes its vision and existence to a true lover of the art form of chamber music, Warner Wheeler Henry (1938-2020).

Warner and Carol Henry’s leadership and generosity has formed and continues to shape the rich musical landscape of Los Angeles. Organizations such as the LA Chamber Orchestra, LA Opera, Musica Angelica, the Colburn School and so many others, owe their excellence and vitality, in large part, to the Henrys.

Near the end of his life, Warner aspired to realize a decades-long vision for Los Angeles’ classical music scene. He marveled at the caliber of Los Angeles musicians and was passionate about making chamber music more visible and widely available. Ultimately, in 2017, he founded Chamber Music Los Angeles (CMLA), an association of eight chamber music organizations, brought together for the purpose of promoting the great variety of chamber music throughout Los Angeles. Warner believed that this joining of forces would enable a more robust voice for chamber music, as well as benefit each individual organization. Since 2017, CMLA has established itself following Warner’s core directives – that all efforts serve the art form of chamber music, and that CMLA functions support the participating organizations — not replace them.

It is with profound gratitude and affection that we recognize the love and spirit of CMLA’s founding father, Warner Henry, and look forward to furthering his vision in the years to come.