Chamber Music Series at The Kate on Four Fridays in August

Chamber music is played by ensembles, usually from three to 10 players, with no conductor. “It’s a musical conversation really between different soloists,” explains pianist Mihae Lee, a longtime performer at Chestnut Hill, who has stepped in for Artistic Director Ronald Thomas for the past several years.

Thomas, a cellist, suffered a stroke three years ago and has not resumed administrative duties but is scheduled to play on the program for both the Aug. 18 and 25 concerts.

The program on Aug. 25 features works by Dvorak and Schumann. On Aug. 18, the composers, though from different eras, will have one very basic thing in common, the letter B: Brahms, Beethoven, and then a B from a more modern era, Benjamin Britten. The Beethoven selection is the composer’s famous “Ghost Trio.”

A Beethoven work will also be featured in the Aug. 11 concert, the composer’s serenade for flute, violin, and viola. The program that evening also includes a performer and a performance very special for Lee, Bartok’s Romanian Folks Dances for cello and piano.

The cellist, Mihai Marica, was the first performer Lee selected as an emerging artist when she began featuring a young musician as a part of the Essex Winter Series, of which she is the artistic director. And there is something else about the performance of Romanian Folk Dances that delight her: the performer, Mihai Marica, is himself Romanian.

The first concert of the Chestnut Hill series, on Aug. 4, an all-Schubert performance, includes perhaps the most famous of all chamber music pieces, The Trout Quintet. Despite the popularity, which means the piece is one musicians perform often, Lee said musicians do not tire of playing it. “It is such an audience pleaser, and it is always fresh,” she said. “It is a little bit different every time you play it.”

According to Lee, expert as their playing is, even the best of musicians make occasional mistakes, among them forgetting to repeat a section. “I’ve done that,” Lee admitted. “Your colleagues cover quickly until you get back. Things can happen when you are performing.”

The unexpected, however, does not have to be the unwelcome, Lee emphasized. “New things are always happening on stage; that can make things beautiful.”

For Lee, the concerts are about more than music. Many of the performers stay with her and her husband, French horn player William Purvis, at their home in Deep River. She is not only playing and practicing but cooking and hosting as well. “It’s really a family affair,” she said of the musicians who play in the series summer after summer. “We are all so happy to see each other, and we have great times rehearsing.”

When she rehearses by herself, Lee is not completely alone. An avid New York Yankees fan, she often has the game on her cell phone nearby. “The American League East is an incredibly hard division, and now with Aaron Judge injured, we’ve been having a hard time winning,” she said, referring to the Yankee star out with a toe injury.

“Tampa Bay looks unstoppable. What can I tell you?”

Chestnut Hill Concerts on Friday, Aug. 4, 11,18, 25. For tickets, visit www.thekate.org. For information, visit www.chestnuthillconcerts.org.