Concert Society at Maryland records

In 1976, Eva Hornyak made it her mission to create a regular chamber music concert series for the growing community at and around the University of Maryland in College Park. The opening of the Kennedy Center in 1971 encouraged the growth of classical music concerts in the Washington, D.C. area and Hornyak turned to Martin Feinstein, then-Executive Director of the Kennedy Center, for advice. The first University Community Concerts (UCC) season saw six concerts at the auditorium in the University of Maryland University College Center for Adult Education (now the Inn and Conference Center). The opening performance, which was given on November 7, 1976 by violinist Jaime Laredo and pianist Claude Frank, seemed to emphasize both the scarcity of and hunger for professional concerts in the Maryland suburbs. Feinstein had warned Hornyak to be prepared to lose money the first season but, with ticket sales and grants, the UCC finished its first season 52 cents in the black and with almost a doubling of subscriptions for the next season.

The following seasons were forecasts of future musical distinction and saw performances by artists such as the Guarneri String Quartet, the young piano and cello duet of Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma, and The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. As the UCC grew, so did its quest for funds. The UCC sought funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, the Maryland Arts Council, local businesses, individual donors, and benefit concerts. The first of several benefit concerts was given in November of 1978 by Hornyak’s brother, violinist Isaac Stern. In 1980, the UCC board guided the development of a support group, the UCC Guild, and increased the membership of its board, adding the philanthropist David Lloyd Kreeger.

The UCC experimented with many different concert series over the years, such as a Young Artist Series that became a New Artist Series; the Olde Musicke Series; a Student Sampler Series; the Keyboard Series; the Great American Songwriters Series; and the WorldSong Series. The most popular and lasting of these were the Olde Musicke Series, started in 1982, and the WorldSong Series, which started in 1988.

Continuing to look toward the future, the UCC changed its name in 1991 to The Concert Society at Maryland, enlarged its board membership, and established the Carmen and David Lloyd Kreeger Fund for Emerging Artists and Composers. Attempts to attract patrons continued with performances in unconventional concert locations and, also, through outreach activities. In December 1993, the CSM was awarded a certificate of recognition for its generosity in donating tickets for cultural events by the Prince George’s County Public Schools Board of Education.

By 1997, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (CSPAC) was under construction at the University and the CSM hoped to be a part of that center in the twenty-first century. By 2001, CSM’s programming efforts had been absorbed into CSPAC, and CSM ceased to exist as an entity at the University of Maryland.