Steve Wogaman Named New President of Chamber Music Society of Detroit

Farmington Hills, MI, February 26, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Chris Rossman, Chairman of the Board of the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, today announced that Steve Wogaman has been appointed President of the Chamber Music Society of Detroit. The appointment follows an extensive, months-long nationwide search. Mr. Wogaman becomes only the fourth chief executive in the distinguished 67-year-old organization’s history, succeeding Lois Beznos, who resigned in December, 2010 after serving as President since 1995. Mr. Wogaman will assume his position on May 1.

Of his appointment, Steve Wogaman said: “I am thrilled to become associated with one of the most knowledgeable and sophisticated chamber music audiences in America. Lois Beznos and the Chamber Music Society of Detroit board have created a truly enviable culture of musical excellence and a stellar international reputation. I know that the best years of my professional life will be built upon the foundation of their great work.”

Steve Wogaman served for seven years as the chief executive of two orchestras: he was Executive Director of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra in Pennsylvania and its historic Symphony Hall. More recently, he has been President and CEO of the Canton Symphony Orchestra in Canton, Ohio.

In the 1990’s, Stephen Wogaman and his wife Michele developed New Performing Arts, a non-profit music outreach organization that has reached an audience of nearly two million Kentucky children with live performing arts programs in their schools. He performed personally for thousands of these children, often taking along his own grand piano on a rented truck. He also developed programmatic partnerships with the nation’s classical music training institutions, including the Eastman school of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, Indiana University Opera Theater, New England Conservatory, New World Symphony, and others.

Stephen Wogaman has performed as piano recitalist, chamber musician and teaching artist throughout the eastern United States as well as Spain and Central America. As pianist of the Whitney Trio, he made his performing debut in 1989 in a live broadcast concert at the National Gallery of Art in his home town of Washington D.C. He was trained at the Eastman School of Music, the University of Louisville and the Indiana University School of Music, where he completed a Doctor of Music degree. His teachers have included Menahem Pressler, Cecile Staub Genhart and Lee Luvisi, and he has coached extensively with members of the Cleveland Quartet.

The Chamber Music Society of Detroit, founded in 1944, is one of the most prestigious presenters of world-class chamber music in the United States today. The tenth oldest of such organizations recognized by Chamber Music America, the Chamber Music Society of Detroit remains dedicated to presenting the world's most outstanding composers and performers of standard classical repertoire and contemporary works. Past presidents of the Chamber Music Society of Detroit are founder Karl Haas (1944–1968), Zalman “Tiny” Konikow (1969–1994) and Lois R. Beznos (1995–2010).

The Chamber Music Society of Detroit is a non-profit organization committed to presenting the highest quality chamber music performed by musicians of international stature in acoustically outstanding venues. The Chamber Music Society of Detroit is recognized locally, nationally and internationally for the high caliber of its presentations.

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