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In Memoriam

Remembering Founding Member Charles Treger

January 26, 2023

CMS joins an international community of artists mourning the recent death of American violinist Charles Treger on January 12th. Of special significance to CMS is the fact that Treger was a founding Artist Member of the Society, among a handful of musicians chosen to form the artistic core of the organization in 1969. As a frequent performer at CMS, Treger appeared with fellow artists such as cellist Leslie Parnas, pianist/founder Charles Wadsworth, flutist Paula Robison, and with countless illustrious guest artists.

Charles Treger, second from left, with the original members of CMS

Treger was a model musician, the kind of which all who are dedicated to the art aspire to be: a star soloist (the only American to ever win the Wieniawski Competition), a dedicated teacher (director of the the Meadowmount School among other positions), an expert chamber artist (CMS and the Iowa String Quartet) and as an arts advocate (The National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation).

We’d like to close with these words of great wisdom from Treger, which appeared in a tribute article on the Violinist.com web site:

"A life in art is not a matter of arrival, it is a matter of intention. The important thing is the process: you have to love the process of being with the instrument and working with this wonderful music. You do this your whole life, always finding new things, never being satisfied" (not because you are dissatisfied) "but because the closer you get, the more you see that is there."

David Finckel and Wu Han