Hear what students have been learning at UVa Summer Chamber Music Festival

By The Daily Progress Staff

Published: June 19, 2008

The University of Virginia Summer Chamber Music Festival will present two performances, at 3 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, to show people what participants have been learning.

The 3 p.m. concert will include string quartets and quintets by Schubert, Haydn, Prokofiev, Dvorak and Mozart, as well as a brass quintet by Ewald and a woodwind quintet by Danzi.

There also will be works for mixed groups of strings and winds by Pfeifer and Boismortier.

The 7:30 p.m. concert will include a Haydn string quartet; Dvorak’s “Quintet” for strings and piano; a trio sonata for violin, oboe and bassoon by Zelenka; Shostakovich’s “Sonata’’ for cello and piano; a work by Vivaldi for four violins; and a woodwind quintet by Ligeti.

The evening concert will conclude with an orchestral performance of Bizet’s “Carmen Suite No. 1’’ and selections from Debussy’s “Petite Suite’’ led by Kate Tamarkin, music director of the Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra.

The performers have spent five days in an intense chamber music workshop. They come from middle school, high school, college and adult amateur ranks.

Participants are from the Charlottesville area, Richmond, Tidewater and Harrisonburg, and some hail from as far away as New Jersey, New York, Missouri and Oregon.

Each day, the musicians have worked with UVa music faculty members and local professional musicians to hone their skills using a “beyond the notes” focus to concentrate on other important parts of musicianship, such as style, character, interpretation and expression.