Mimir Chamber Music Festival

Today our 28th season officially draws to a close, capping off a remarkable two weeks of chamber music by some of the best professional and young talent in the world! 🌎

❤️ We would like sincerely to thank all of our patrons for your support, attendance, and deep devotion to the art of chamber music this year, as without all of you, our efforts would certainly not be possible. 🎶🎻🎹

Catch us for our 29th season next summer, where we are excited to highlight a commissioned work celebrating the 250th anniversary our nation’s founding. 🇺🇸

As our 28th season nears its end, we would like to give special recognition to our three Emerging Artist Groups this year! 🥳🎉🎉

Hailing from across the world, our Emerging Artist groups successfully navigated through a demanding schedule of rehearsals, coachings, and masterclasses, all culminating in two fascinating concerts featuring some of the best young talent in the industry.

We would like to thank trio_azura congquartet and amitie.quartet for their dedication this year, and please join us in wishing them the best in their future continued successes!

The Mimir Chamber Music Festival is proud to collaborate with the Amon Carter Museum, TCU School of Music, and Composer Martin Blessinger on a special concert as part of the “Classically Trained: The Gentlings and Music” feature at the Amon Carter Museum!

Featuring works by Scott Gentling alongside works by composers who influenced him (arr. by Martin Blessinger), our musicians will take you on a captivating journey exploring Scott and Stuart Gentling’s artistic engagement with the Age of Enlightenment, a period of intellectual and creative flourishing that took place in Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries.

This special concert will occur on Tuesday, July 8th at 7pm in TCU’s Van Cliburn Concert Hall. Register now at calendar.tcu.edu!

📸 📸Our opening night concert on Tuesday was a resounding success, with our faculty artists performing music by Gabriela Frank, Bridge, and Beethoven! 🎻🎹

Come see our faculty perform at our second concert tonight at 7:30pm, another stunning program featuring music by Carlos Oliver Simon, Jr., Bartók, and Elgar.

Inspired by the work of Peruvian photographer Martín Chambi (1891-1973), Gabriela Frank’s Sueños de Chambi (“Dreams of Chambi”) captures the spirit of early 20th century Andean art and culture. Written in 2002 while living in Houston, TX, Frank sought to interpret the natural curiosity and unassuming nature of Chambi’s craft into musical sound, depicting seven of his paintings into a tantalizing seven-movement work for violin and piano. The beauty of this works stems from the organic approach Chambi took to his craft, and the dedicated study Frank took to Chambi’s photos and Andean folk culture.

Our Mimir Artists will be presenting this one-of-a-kind work, along with a complete spectacular program, at our opening concert tomorrow @ 7:30pm in TCU’s Pepsico Recital Hall. You don’t want to miss it!

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: Curt Thompson

Violinist Curt Thompson performs throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia as a soloist, recitalist, concertmaster, and chamber musician in such prestigious venues as Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Salle Gaveau (Paris), Teatro Naçional de Costa Rica (San José), Shanghai Concert Hall, and others. Concerto appearances include the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra (China), Medellí­n Philharmonic Orchestra (Colombia), the Corpus Christi, San Angelo, Las Colinas, Arlington and Garland symphonies, and the Texas Chamber Orchestra.

Dr. Thompson has been a featured artist in the Copland/Shostakovich Festival (Rio de Janeiro), the Festival de Primavera (Oaxaca, Mexico), the Seventh Centennial Festival of Villarobledo (Spain), Inter-Harmony International Music Festival (Hinterzarten, Germany) and Clefworks Chamber Music Festival (Montgomery, AL). In addition, he has been Concertmaster of the Corpus Christi, Las Colinas and San Angelo Symphonies, the Texas Chamber Orchestra, and has served as Concertmaster of the Fort Worth Symphony (by special invitation).

Curt Thompson is Founder and Executive Director of the Mimir Chamber Music Festival, which will celebrate its 28th season in Fort Worth June 30-July 11. Featuring an array of internationally recognized performing artists, the festival also instructs Young Artists from across the globe. Mimir has enjoyed critical acclaim by North Texas audiences and media.

Thompson joined the faculty of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music/Victorian College of the Arts in 2012. He has served on the faculties of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and for fifteen years at the TCU School of Music. He has given master classes and presentations at several prestigious institutions including the Royal Academy of Music (London), The Juilliard School, the Bulgarian State Academy of Music, El Escorial Conservatory (Spain), Beijing Central Conservatory, Shenyang Conservatory, and the University of Sãu Paulo (Brazil).

Curt holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees and the prestigious Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rice University.

🚨MIMIR 2025 TICKETS ARE LIVE NOW🚨

Please visit our website (link in bio) to view ticket options for our five Mimir Artists concerts and our two Emerging Artist concerts!

🎹🎻Our 28th season brings an extraordinary program of top chamber music selections played by some of the foremost musicians of our era, and we cannot wait to bring our next chapter to life this season. Please support our efforts and the future of chamber music by becoming a part of our festival today!

⏳🎶 The One-Week Countdown to Mimir 2025 Begins!

We’re officially one week away from the 28th season of the Mimir Chamber Music Festival! Get ready for:

🎻 World-class performances by celebrated musicians.
🌟 Inspiring appearances by Emerging Artists.
🎶 The unmatched intimacy of chamber music in a beautiful setting.

📅 Don’t miss it: June 30 – July 11, 2025
📍 Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas

Follow along as we count down the week and share more exciting updates about what’s to come, and please visit our website (link in bio) for more information about our schedule and concert tickets. Let the anticipation begin!

🎻🎶Our 2025 Concert Schedule is here! You don’t want to miss the captivating and world-class chamber music program we have coming to TCU’s campus in short time, continuing the strong tradition of legendary chamber music we have here in Fort Worth.

MIMIR ARTISTS CONCERTS:

Concert #1: Tuesday, July 1st, 7:30pm
Concert #2: Thursday, July 3rd, 7:30pm
Concert #3: Sunday, July 6th, 2:00pm
**Concert #3 will occur at the Renzo Piano Pavilion at the Kimbell Art Museum**
Concert #4: Wednesday, July 9th, 7:30pm
Concert #5: Friday, July 11th, 7:30pm

EMERGING ARTIST CONCERTS:

EA Concert #1: Saturday, July 5th, 7:30pm
EA Concert #2: Thursday, July 10th, 7:30pm

All concerts, except otherwise noted, take place in the stunning Pepsico Recital Hall at TCU, providing a supremely intimate environment for audiences to engage with our musicians. Please stay tuned for our official ticket announcement coming soon!

Introducing the Harmonium! This year’s Mimir Chamber Music Festival will feature a notable and exciting addition to our standard lineup of chamber music instruments when our faculty performs Antonin Dvorak’s Bagatelles, Op. 47 for two violins, cello, and harmonium.

Written in 1878, Bagatelles originated as a commission from Czech cellist Josef Srb-Debrnov, who frequently organized chamber music concerts featuring Dvorak’s music. Upon the news of this commission, Dvorak found that, rather than a piano, he only had a harmonium at hand, and hence this unusual instrumentation was born.

The Harmonium, also referred to as the “reed organ”, is similar to a standard organ but smaller in size. Upon depressing keys and pedals with the hands and feet, air is produced and set to vibrate through a column of reeds, with each reed tuned to a different pitch. The instrument can produce a wide variety of timbral colors, and the performer can manually adjust the size and shape of the air columns to achieve their desired sound. Most harmoniums feature an impressive six-octave range!

This season at Mimir we are excited to bring Dvorak’s Bagatelles, Op. 47 to life! Pianist Rieko Aizawa will be playing on an electric Hinner’s harmonium, an instrument that has been used many times by distinguished ensembles such as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Come see our faculty play this exciting work as part of an overall fascinating program at our Faculty Concert #4 on July 9th at 7:30pm in Pepsico Recital Hall!

FACULTY ARTISTS SPOTLIGHT: The Horszowski Trio

Giving performances that are “lithe, persuasive” (The New York Times), “eloquent and enthralling” (The Boston Globe), and described as “the most compelling American group to come on the scene” (The New Yorker), the Horszowski Trio has quickly become a vital force in the international chamber music world. Since their debut performance in New York City in 2011, they have toured extensively throughout North America, Europe, the Far East, and India, traversing the extensive oeuvre of traditional piano trio repertoire and introducing audiences to new music that they have commissioned and premiered.

The Trio takes its inspiration from the musicianship, integrity, and humanity of the pre-eminent pianist Mieczysław Horszowski (1892–1993); the ensemble’s pianist, Rieko Aizawa, was Horszowski’s last pupil at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Described as “power players” by the Los Angeles Times, the Horszowski Trio’s repertoire includes works by many of the composers with whom Mr. Horszowski had personal interaction, including Gabriel Fauré, Enrique Granados, Bohuslav Martinů, Maurice Ravel, Camille Saint-Saëns and Heitor Villa-Lobos.

The ensemble has performed the complete cycles of piano trios by Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms. They also actively cultivate hidden treasures from the repertoire, works by Arno Babajanyan, Leonard Bernstein, Vincent d’Indy, Arthur Foote, Germaine Tailleferre, and Morton Feldman. The Horszowski Trio is a passionate advocate for the music of our time. They have worked with the legendary composers John Harbison, Charles Wuorinen, and Joan Tower, for whom the Trio recorded “For Daniel” in celebration of her 75th birthday.

The Horszowski Trio is based in New York City. It is the Ensemble-in-Residence at the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and of the Leschetizky Association in New York City.

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: Jessica Thompson

Violist Jessica Thompson is a passionate chamber musician who performs regularly throughout the United States and abroad as a member of the Daedalus Quartet. Praised by the New Yorker as “a fresh and vital young participant in what is a golden age of American string quartets,” Daedalus has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, the Library of Congress and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Abroad, the quartet has appeared in leading venues in Vienna, Cologne, Amsterdam, Paris, Tokyo, and Shanghai. The quartet has won numerous awards, including Grand Prize of the 2001 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the 2007 Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center, and the 2007 Guarneri String Quartet Award from Chamber Music America. Daedalus has been in residence at the University of Pennsylvania since 2006. The quartet has been recognized for its commitment to new music and has premiered works by composers such as Fred Lerdahl, Vivian Fung, Joan Tower, Richard Wernick, Anna Weesner, and Lawrence Dillon.

In addition to her appearances with the Daedalus Quartet, Ms. Thompson has performed at numerous festivals, including Aspen, Taos, Marlboro, the Portland, Charlottesville, Newport, Skaneateles, and Halcyon Chamber Music Festivals, Bard Summerscapes, and Chamber Music Northwest. She has toured with Musicians from Marlboro and performs regularly as a member of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Thompson has appeared as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra and in recital in New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Washington, DC, and Princeton. A dedicated educator, she currently teaches at Princeton University and Columbia University, and serves on the faculty of the Maine Chamber Music Seminar. She is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Karen Tuttle. Ms. Thompson performs on an instrument made in 1818 in Milan by Giacomo Rivolta.