Fall Chamber Music Festival shines

By Angelica Hernandez     11/19/24 10:54pm

Serenades and sonatas rang through the hall as the Shepherd School of Music hosted its annual Fall Chamber Music Festival this past weekend. Students took the stage in small groups, performing on clarinet, piano and more.  

The Fall Chamber Music Festival, first held in 2005, allows students to perform  in chamber music groups. Chamber music is a form of small ensemble performance performed without a director, usually featuring a variation of a piano and string instruments. The nine-concert event took place over three days. 

According to violinist Will Joseloff, performers worked through a demanding schedule and received coaching from professors in preparation for the festival. Chamber music performances are required for music students, as well as orchestra and solo work. 

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“We worked really hard … there’s four movements in the piece, and we just worked on it slow at first,  then we came up with musical ideas, and then we performed it a few times in preparation for the concert,” Joseloff, a Sid Richardson College junior, said. 

Joseloff said his group rehearsed for hours every week, in addition to one-hour coaching sessions with professors. Prestin Kim, a cellist, said he felt the coaching was crucial for the success of the performances.

“Coaching was helpful because, besides the usual fine-tuning and technical things, Professor [Desmond] Hoebig gave us a lot of inspiration for unique musical ideas and phrases,” Kim, a Lovett College freshman, said.

In addition to the coaching, Joseloff said that the collaborative nature of the chamber music also challenged the students to perform in different ways.

“Chamber music is different than solo performances because you have to collaborate with different people and you have to listen to other people’s ideas. Solo performance, you can kind of do whatever you want,” Joseloff said.  “It’s a very collaborative experience.”

Students performed 12 different composers and music across multiple centuries, blending a variety of musical ideas and eras in each concert. The performances began with Schubert: String Quintet in C Major (D. 956), and ended with Dvořák: Quartet No. 11 in C Major. Audience members said they appreciated the high-level chamber repertoire.

“I was blown away by how beautiful the performances were tonight … how intentional each player was on stage and how engaged they were with each other,” said Miyabi Henriksen, a McMurtry College junior.  

“The performance was beautiful,” said Minji Kim, a Wiess College freshman. “The balance between the instruments was so clear.

“All of the expressivity was so beautiful, and everything matched very well.” 

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