Radius Ensemble is a classical music chamber group based in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

. The mission of Radius Ensemble is to reinvigorate classical music for a new generation.
Accessibility is a fundamental philosophy of Radius. The group eschews the stuffiness and elitism often associated with chamber music and seeks to attract a new, generally younger and more informal, audience to its performances. The ensemble's primary performance venue is MIT's Killian Hall with occasional outreach concerts at various locations in the Greater Boston

Greater Boston

Greater Boston is the area of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts surrounding the city of Boston. Due to ambiguity in usage, the size of the area referred to can be anywhere between that of the metropolitan statistical area of Boston and that of the city's combined statistical area which includes...

 area. Radius Ensemble also performs one free family-oriented concert every spring.

Radius was founded in 1999 by Jennifer Montbach who (as of the 2008-2009 season) continues as the group's artistic director and oboist.

Personnel

There are nine core members of the Radius Ensemble. The core personnel for the 2008-2009 season are Sarah Bob on piano, Miriam Bolkosky on violoncello, Sarah Brady on flute, Eran Egozy

Eran Egozy

Eran Egozy is the Chief Technical Officer and VP of Engineering of Harmonix Music Systems, a company he founded with Alex Rigopulos in 1995.-Personal:Eran is a native of Israel. He moved to Lexington, MA at the age of 12, from Israel...

 on clarinet, Anne Howarth on French horn, Jae Young Cosmos Lee on violin, Jennifer Montbach on oboe, and Gregory Newton on bassoon. The ninth core position (viola) is not filled for the 2008-2009 season. Additional musicians are engaged as the repertoire demands.

Artistic Diversity

Radius Ensemble plays a diverse blend of standard repertoire and more modern music, occasionally venturing into realms that could be classified as experimental. Further variety and flexibility is added to each performance by using a range of ensembles: solo instruments, smaller ensembles, and larger groups are regularly included in the same concert.

Radius further enhances its artistic diversity by promoting works of living and younger local composers. A composer in residence program has featured Jonathan Bailey Holland (2008-2009 season) and Curtis K. Hughes (2007-2008 season).

Guest artists have contributed to the increasing popularity of Radius Ensemble. For the 2008-2009 season guest artists include Robin Young (of radio station WBUR

WBUR

WBUR refers to two radio stations in Massachusetts, WBUR AM and FM, both owned by Boston University. WBUR is the largest of three NPR member stations in Boston, Massachusetts, along with WGBH and WUMB-FM, and the only one to focus exclusively on news and talk...

) as narrator for the Holocaust-inspired There is wind and there are ashes in the wind by Osvaldo Golijov

Osvaldo Golijov

Osvaldo Noé Golijov is a Grammy award–winning composer of classical music.-Biography:Osvaldo Golijov was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family that had emigrated to Argentina in the 1920s from Romania and Russia.Golijov has developed a rich musical language, the result of...

, Robert D. Levin

Robert D. Levin

Robert D. Levin is a classical performer, musicologist, and composer, and is the Artistic Director of the Sarasota Music Festival.-Education:...

 on piano for the Mozart Quintet in E-flat major for piano and winds, K.452, Marcus Thompson

Marcus Thompson

Marcus Thompson is a violist and viola d'amore player known for his work as a recitalist, orchestral soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and educator....

 on viola for the Brahms String quintet in F, Op. 88, and Fenwick Smith

Fenwick Smith

Fenwick Smith is an American flautist. He studied under Joseph Mariano at the Eastman School of Music, graduating from there in 1972. Shortly thereafter he became a member of the New England Woodwind Quintet and began a thirteen year membership with Boston Musica Viva...

 on flute for Shulamit Ran

Shulamit Ran

Shulamit Ran is an Israeli-American composer. She moved from Israel to New York at 14, as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music. Her Symphony won her the Pulitzer Prize...

's Mirage for Five Players.

Media Reviews

Radius Ensemble has received positive reviews and accolades over its 10 year history from The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...

,
Harvard Magazine,

The Boston Musical Intelligencer,

and other publications.