WELCOME TO SCMS

The Smithsonian is the only museum in the world with an active and long-term program of using its instruments as they were intended by their makers: for live musical performances. The nearly thirty concerts presented each season by the Chamber Music Society are held in the excellent acoustics of the National Museum of American History's Hall of Musical Instruments, and are prefaced by introductory lectures by Smithsonian curators illuminating the musical period and lives of the composers, making the total experience one available nowhere else but at the Smithsonian.

The Society's work reaches hundreds of thousands more audience members through an extensive program of recordings, broadcasts, and tours across America and in more than a dozen international settings. A broad range of additional activity drawing on this rich heritage includes publications, scholarly research, and educational outreach to students from kindergarten through college.