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Chamber Music for Adults is a performance class for pianists, string and wind players. We play beautiful and interesting music, we work hard and we have a lot of fun!
By way of the mêlée of instruments, we cover a wide range of chamber music repertory from standards such as Beethoven piano trios, to music of contemporary composers (some of whom visit the class to coach their music) to lesser known wonders such as Reynaldo Hahn’s Romanesque for flute, viola and piano.
As it is a performance-oriented class we rehearse intensively and work on various issues of chamber music performance, including the technique of playing chamber music. This extends from basics such as how to give a cue to how does an individual violin, piano or flute part fit into the whole?
This last question segues neatly into another question: how does one go about reading a full score of a piece of chamber music? In the classes, emphasis is placed on learning the parts of the other musicians to the fullest extent possible.
As we explore the scores as a class, we can also glimpse into the wholeness of great works – how does a singular flatted 7th, as we see in the opening bars of the first 2 movements of Beethoven’s Piano Trio Op. 1, no. 1, blossom into an entire section later on in these 2 movements?
Furthermore, in studying the scores, a violinist, pianist or flutist also learns how to negotiate alto or tenor clef or parts of a transposing instrument (clarinet, French horn, etc.);
We also tackle the psychology of performing, e.g., how to be a supportive and, at the same time, a critical colleague; how to, in a ‘mind over matter way’ extend one’s awareness from playing an individual instrument to playing in an ensemble.