“Gentle Giant Of Chamber Music In America,” Anthony Checchia, Has Died At 94

Anthony P. Checchia, 94, a onetime bassoonist from Tacony who made Philadelphia one of the top cities in the nation for chamber music, died Saturday, Sept. 7, at his home on Rittenhouse Square. He had been in declining health over the last several years, according to a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, which announced his death.

Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Checchia showed the deft touch of an impresario early in his career. He brought hundreds of artists into schools as director of the local branch of Young Audiences and presented Richard Goode when the pianist was just 16 years old. He served as administrative director to Rudolf Serkin when the famed musician was director of the Curtis Institute of Music.

But it was his leadership at PCMS and its sister organization, Marlboro Music, that fixed Mr. Checchia’s place as the gentle giant of chamber music in America. Marlboro, cofounded by Serkin in southern Vermont, is a revered summer retreat created to incubate small ensembles, and PCMS, where Mr. Checchia became founding artistic director in 1986, grew to become one of the busiest and most prestigious chamber music series in the country.

“It’s so strange that Philadelphia, which is such a wonderful musical city with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Curtis Institute, wouldn’t have [had] a proper chamber music series. Tony ran it, and ran it wonderfully,” said Mitusko Uchida, the pianist who has often performed in Philadelphia under the PCMS banner.

“There really was nothing going on,” Mr. Checchia told The Inquirer in 2010 about chamber music in the city in the 1980s when he and Philip Maneval founded PCMS. “The Coffee Concerts [a once-active presenter] had stopped, the Musical Fund Society had stopped doing concerts. Curtis had only recently opened its student concerts to the public. That was the incentive for doing it, because there was so little going on. I couldn’t believe a region of 3 million people couldn’t support this.”

It turned out the region could. PCMS expanded from seven concerts in its first year to nearly 50 today (plus master classes, children’s concerts, and other events). Ticket prices have been kept low — currently $30 or less — and this season many concerts are sold out. The organization, which shares its Philadelphia offices and staff with Marlboro Music, has never run a deficit.

Kevin Kwan Loucks, CEO of Chamber Music America, the national advocacy and service group, said Mr. Checchia had been “a trailblazer for a very long time.”

“Whether it’s ticket prices or the exceptional artistic quality, it’s a model of inclusivity that I think has inspired similar efforts nationwide.”

Tall and always impeccably dressed, Mr. Checchia graduated from Jules E. Mastbaum High School, earned a degree from the Curtis Institute in 1951, and served in the U.S. Navy Band. He performed with the Baltimore Symphony and New York City Ballet. While attending Marlboro as a bassoonist, he met Benita Valente. He and the renowned soprano married in 1959, becoming one of music’s most visible and longest-running power couples.

“He made a lot of my career happen,” said clarinetist Anthony McGill. “It wasn’t just him, it was the whole Curtis and Marlboro family that he was kind of the head of, and they welcomed me into it and changed my life.”

McGill, a Curtis graduate, was 18 when he first attended Marlboro and just a little older when he performed for PCMS. Today, at 45, he is principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic. “I always knew the importance of who he was in the field of classical music, but he was also, just in his presence, a mentor and father figure for so many, and for me especially.”

Mr. Checchia was widely perceived as a generous colleague, even while scrupulously tending the well-being of his organizations and the art form.

“Everyone thought Tony was so kind, and he was,” said Uchida. “And he was also one who could say no to things with no hesitation. He could have an iron fist inside his velvet glove.”

Uchida, who is co-artistic director of Marlboro with pianist Jonathan Biss, said she particularly admired Mr. Checchia’s musical judgment, which she observed when Marlboro participants were being chosen.

“Because he himself was a musician, when he was talking about musicians he knew exactly what their strengths and weaknesses were — who would play what piece well or not. And that is very interesting for me, because there are few people who had it.”

His sharp ear brought Philadelphia audiences an astonishing number of top artists — not just ensembles like legendary string quartets Arditti, Guarneri, Hagen, and Juilliard, but also individual recitalists.

PCMS kept the delicate flame of the song recital alive, presenting singers Elly Ameling, Arleen Auger, Ian Bostridge, Felicity Lott, Ewa Podles, Hermann Prey, Florence Quivar, Peter Schreier, Elisabeth Söderström, and José van Dam.

Piano recitals flourished, with artists like Philippe Entremont, Rudolf Firkušný, Leon Fleisher, Richard Goode, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Radu Lupu, and András Schiff.

And while PCMS focused on imports, it did not neglect Philadelphia singers and instrumentalists, and often commissioned new works from local composers.

At Marlboro, whose administration he shared with New York classical manager Frank Salomon, Mr. Checchia facilitated the participation of artists like Pablo Casals, Marcel Moyse, Felix Galimir, Alexander Schneider, Leon Fleisher, and Eugene Istomin, according to a biography provided by Marlboro/PCMS.

The philosophy established by Serkin continued under Mr. Checchia and Salomon, said Uchida, and it continues today — the mix of younger and more senior musicians, the emphasis on rehearsing, and the lack of predetermined programs and repertoire normally found at other music festivals.

“People are not taught as such — we make music together,” said Uchida.

Mr. Checchia received an honorary doctorate from the Curtis Institute, and was given a plaque on the Avenue of the Arts Walk of Fame near the Kimmel Center. His retirement from PCMS was gradual, and today the group is run by Maneval and artistic director Miles Cohen.

Mr. Checchia attended Marlboro every year since 1956, and this past summer was able to go one last time. “He actually showed up for the [Beethoven] Choral Fantasy,” said Maneval. “He was weak, but very astute and greeted people.”

In addition to Valente, Mr. Checchia is survived by his son, Pete, a photographer who frequently documents the work of Philadelphia arts groups.

A PCMS/Marlboro memorial is being planned for sometime this fall.