If you’ve been meaning to go to Chamber Music on Main, now’s the time

For nearly 70 years, the Columbia Museum of Art has provided patrons with classical music. And that will continue.

But not with the Chamber Music on Main series.

The concert series will end after this 16th season, but the museum will host classical performances in coming years.

For now, classical fans can savor the remaining three concerts in the Chamber Music on Main series, the next one scheduled for 7 p.m. on Nov. 7. The other concerts are scheduled for Jan. 30 and March 6.

This final season features the return of many of the popular musicians who have played throughout the years and will play again under the leadership of cellist Edward Arron, during his final season as artistic director at the Columbia Museum of Art.

Here are five reasons to take in the final concerts:

1. The music

This next concert will feature Arron on cello, Tara Helen O’Connor on flute and Phillip Bush on piano. They will perform:

▪ J.S. Bach’s Sonata in E-Flat Major for Flute and Keyboard, BWV 1031.

▪ Arvo Pärt’s Fratres for Cello and Piano.

▪ Philippe Gaubert’s “Trois Aquarelles” for Piano, Flute and Cello.

▪ Debussy’s “Syrinx” for Solo Flute.

▪ Carl Maria von Weber’s Trio in G Minor for Piano, Flute and Cello, Opus 63.

O’Connor is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a two-time Grammy Award nominee. She is a season artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Bush is a pianist with a repertoire extending from the 16th to the 21st centuries. A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory, he has appeared as a recitalist worldwide. He has been a member of the piano and chamber music faculty at the University of South Carolina School of Music since 2012.

2. Mix art and music

Satisfy your artistic cravings times two, as you listen to classical music in the DuBose-Poston Reception Hall, surrounded by renowned artwork.

“The setting is definitely part of the fun,” Columbia Museum of Art spokesman Milena Engh said. “Our reception hall has the remarkable quality of being a big space that still feels intimate, so you still get that chamber feel even though you’re in a crowd. Also, the acoustics are great.”

3. Happy hour

Why not enjoy a different sort of happy hour? It’s a cash bar with beer and wine. The galleries are open during happy hour (check out the Matisse exhibit), so attendees are encouraged to stroll through between drinks (but leave drinks outside the galleries).

4. Say farewell to Arron

This is Arron’s final season as artistic director. He joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2016 and has served on the faculty of New York University since 2009.

“I am as excited as ever to be returning to my musical home away from home for another season of joyful and festive music making,” says Arron. “This will be my farewell season as the artistic director of CMA Chamber Music on Main, but please know that, as I pursue new projects, I will never be a stranger to the city of Columbia.”

Arron graduated from the Juilliard School.

“Eddie is like family to so many of us, and we wish him the best as he embarks on his new adventures at the University of Massachusetts and beyond,” said Joelle Ryan-Cook, CMA deputy director and director of external affairs.

5. It’s the last season

Of course one reason not to miss the final three concerts of the Chamber Music on Main series is that they are your last chance.

But while this 16th season is the final of the concert series in its current form, classical music will continue at the Columbia Museum of Art, as it has since the museum opened in 1950.

“With renovations now underway, we are taking the opportunity to look at longtime initiatives like this one with a fresh eye,” Ryan-Cook says. “We’re excited about the possibilities our renovated spaces afford us to create a new vision for classical music at the CMA, and we look forward to inviting Eddie back to perform in the future.”