Special to The Day

You know the old joke about directions in New York City. A tourist asks a Manhattanite, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” The answer is brief: “Practice.”

There is another route to Carnegie Hall and it starts at the Chester Meeting House.

“Play at the Robbie Collomore concerts,” says Martin Nadel, chairman of the Chester-based series.

A number of Collomore artists, Nadel points out, have gone on to perform at Carnegie Hall, among them tenor Paul Appleby, who was at Collomore with the New York Festival of Song in 2008, and violinist Kuok-Wai Lio, a 2014 Collomore performer. The Attaca String quartet, which played in Chester in 2013, has gone on to be Metropolitan Museum of Art artists in residence as has the Chiara String Quartet, which performed at the Collomore last spring and was this year’s quartet in residence at the museum.

Collomore continues the music with its upcoming 41st season, but there is, nonetheless, a difference. After many years of a schedule that included two concerts in the fall and two in the spring, the Collomore series has gone to an all-fall program, starting on Sept. 27 with the cello and piano duo of pianist Aaron Wunsch and his wife, cellist Julia Bruskin. Bruskin is the newest member of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra. “We looked at what we’ve had for the past several years and we have not had a cellist and we know they are very popular,” Nadel said.

On Oct. 18 the concert will headline the blues of Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton; on Nov. 8 gypsy jazz by the Hot Club of Detroit and on Nov. 29, the classical guitar of Jorge Cabellero.

According to Nadel, under the old schedule the Collomore committee geared up for the fall concerts and then had a layover of several months before they had to gear up all over again for the spring performances.

“The lack of continuity was a problem for us and for the audience,” he says.

The Collomore concerts began as a series devoted only to classical music, but the series soon evolved into a program that features two classical concerts and two concerts from the worlds of folk, jazz and blues.

Nadel says that audiences have come to appreciate a variety of musical experiences, even in areas with which they were unfamiliar.

“Whatever we present represents the highest level of musical accomplishment. People tell us even if they don’t know the ensemble, they know whatever we have will be terrific,” he says.

Finding performers of the quality that the series has come to demand is a challenge given the organization’s financial constraints. The Chester Meeting House has a capacity of 161 sets, and though there are outside sponsors for many concerts and a small endowment, the artist’s fees have to remain in a reasonable range. The Collomore committee has had a relationship with the Julliard School in New York that brings promising young graduates at the beginning of their careers to Chester. In addition, Julliard faculty have come to perform, among them Wunsch.

Classical guitarist Jorge Caballero is a winner of the Tokyo International Guitar Competition and is the only guitarist ever to win the Naumburg International Competition Award in Germany. The Hot Club of Detroit is not a cadre of torrid weather enthusiasts but a group that takes its inspiration from the great gypsy guitarist Django Rinehardt who performed at the Hot Club of Paris.

Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton is only in his mid-20s, but Nadel said his music is reminiscent of the classic blues of the 1920s. He is literally a one-man band, playing banjo, guitar, fiddle harmonica, accordion and the bones, a castanet-like folk instrument. Paxton also sings.

Though this year’s concert schedule is changing, at least one thing about the Collomore concerts will remain the same: the prices. Series tickets for all four concerts cost $72. Tickets for individual concerts are priced at $24, with students at $5 for an individual concert and $15 for the series.

For more information and to purchase tickets to the Robbie Collomore series, go to www.collomoreconcerts.org.

IF YOU GO

What: Robbie Collomore Concert Series

When: Series begins Sunday, Sept. 27; subsequent concerts take place Oct. 18, Nov. 8 and Nov. 29. All concerts begin at 5 p.m.

Where: Chester Meeting House, 4 Liberty St., Chester

Cost: Tickets are $24 for adults ($72 for the season) and $5 for students ($15 for the series)

Info and tickets: www.collomoreconcerts.org