Ottawa Chamber Music Society

In just fifteen years, the Ottawa Chamber Music Society has turned heads across Canada and around the world. The OCMS is a not-for-profit organization with charitable status, dedicated to presenting chamber music of the highest artistic quality.
The Society introduces new listeners to chamber music and provides affordable world-class concerts.
Over the last 15 years, more than 1,000 artists have performed for the Ottawa Chamber Music Society. In this period of time, the Society has presented over 7,000 different musical pieces including works by over 300 Canadian composers.
The Society’s major activity, the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, is world-renowned and one of Canada’s most important cultural events.
In 2007, the Festival was named one of the Top 50 festivals and events in Ontario. The Society is the only cultural organization to win the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for the Arts seven times. In 2007, it won Large Company of the Year Award at the Ottawa Tourism Awards. The Society was one of 6 finalists out of 190 nominees for the Premier's Award for Excellence in the Arts.
The Society runs a successful fall/winter Concert Series.
Family Music Fair is presented one day each fall. Children and music-lovers of all ages experience over 100 short concerts, meet musicians, ask questions, participate in a treasure hunt, and try instruments of every description. Admission is free.
CMS Classics, our record label,was launched in December 2001 to celebrate Canada’s talented musicians.
CMS Classics’ first CD, Schubert’s String Quintet in C majorreceived widespread acclaim and is often played on CBC Radio. "If you require only one version of this quintet, then this is the one." – Rated five stars and the top choice of the year for five-star recordings – Richard Todd, The Ottawa Citizen.
CMS Classics second CD, Joseph Haydn's Seven Last Words of Christ, has followed in the steps of the first. "This is a beautifully played performance, devout, moving and sincere... I give it 5 stars out of 5." – Rick Phillips, Sound Advice on CBC Radio.
Seven Last Words of Christ concert was recorded in 2004 for television and has been broadcast across Canada on VisionTV in 2004, 2005 and 2006 for Easter. In 2006 WPBS broadcast Seven Last Words of Christ on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. This concert has also been aired by EWTN, that broadcast the program to 127 different countries through 7 satellites, Sirius Satellite Radio and audio/video streaming on the Internet, radio and ipods.
OCMS concerts are broadcast across the country by CBC Radio.