Palladium chamber music series celebrates 10 years

There was a time, and not so long ago, when chamber concerts – classical music performed by a small group of musicians, as opposed to an orchestra – were few and far between in St. Petersburg.

Violinist Jeffrey Multer, who became part of The Florida Orchestra in 2006, had been a member of two of New York’s most acclaimed chamber groups, the Oxford Quartet and Elements Quartet; he was (and is) artistic director of chamber music – and head of the violin faculty – at the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina (it’s his summer gig).

He has performed numerous times at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Weill Hall, Merkin Hall and the National Gallery, as well as many of the most prestigious global concert venues.

“When I moved to this area to join The Florida Orchestra,” Multer reflects, “when I was lucky enough to win that job, after a year or two a lot of the people in the community that I got to know realized that my life before the orchestra was as a chamber musician. And would I consider starting a series here in town? So it was actually the community’s idea.”

After a few years programming this show or that, Multer was approached by the Palladium Theater’s executive director Paul Wilborn about putting together something more permanent.

“There were lots of great chamber music concerts going on before I got here – it’s not like I re-invented the wheel – but Paul gave us access to the Palladium, and gave us administrative staff, made it possible,” Multer says. 

The Palladium Chamber Series began in 2013 and has featured “world-class artists and great repertoire,” at Multer’s insistence, without missing a season.

The series’ 10^th anniversary concert Wednesday (Jan. 11) will not only feature the same quartet that performed on that first night a decade ago, but the exact same program: Beethoven – Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 16; Dohnányi – Serenade in C Major for Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 10; and Brahms -Piano Quartet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 26.

Along with violinist Multer, the musicians are Danielle Farina, viola; Edward Arron, cello; and Jeewon Park, piano.

These days, explains Multer, “We have a core group of artists that are pretty frequent. Danielle, Jaewon and Ed formed the group that we had for the first year. Then we started bringing in guests, and we’ve been rotating it around, and now we’ve incorporated several other artists as part of our core group.”

The 2023 spring series also includes concerts from the Juilliard String Quartet (Feb. 21) and the youthful trio Time For Three (March 8).

Coming April 12 is the Mile-End Trio, with Multer, cellist Julian Schwarz and pianist Marika Bournaki (the husband-and-wife musicians are also part of the core group of Palladium players).

Along with great musicianship and interesting repertoire, Multer’s founding vision for the Palladium Chamber Series included a large subscriber base that would enable the series to be self-sustaining. “And we’ve done that,” he says. “And even during the Covid hiatus, which was really hard on many, many audiences, especially chamber music audiences, we did very well. And this season, we kind of feel like we’re back to where we were.

“That was kind of a blip. Otherwise, the growth has been fantastic.”

Multer credits Wilborn, and Palladium Project Manager Laurel Borden, with invaluable, unflagging support for the chamber music series.

“Having their help, things have grown and hopefully will continue to grow,” he believes. “That’s what I was hoping for; something that would continue to grow and become part of the community.

“And then when it was time for me to step back from it and retire – which is not super-far away from now, but not right away – then somebody wonderful would take it over and inherit a pretty good, smooth machine that they can then mold into their vision.”

Tickets for Wednesday’s Palladium concert are here.