By Destiny Diggs
Staff Writer
For the past seven years, student chamber music ensembles have performed in the Hillwood Recital Hall to showcase music that they have rehearsed all semester. This year’s performance will be directed by music professor Jennifer Scott Miceli. The ensemble consists of undergraduate and graduate music majors, who work on pieces from their repertoire written for the group of instruments they are assigned for the semester.
Three chamber ensembles will perform, featuring students playing the cello, flute, saxophone, and violin. The music department looks forward to bringing vocalists to the concert in the near future, according to Lisa Meyer, production and recruitment coordinator. The students will perform classical music, but the song selections will not be revealed to the audience until the day of the performance.
Students began rehearsing for the performance at the beginning of the spring 2018 semester. Music majors rehearse with a faculty member once a week and rehearse as an ensemble two to three times a week.
The concert gives students an opportunity to perform for an audience and teaches them how to dissect and perfect challenging music in a short period of time through vigorous technical coaching, according to Meyer. “The goal of this course is to increase each student’s caliber of performance, both as a soloist and as a member of the ensemble,” she said. “By the time of the concert, there is usually marked improvement in their technical and musical skills.”
Many students have already performed at least once with an ensemble. “Some have been involved in chamber music ensemblesfrom their first semester,” Meyer said. Each student musician is assigned an individual part to perform; they are a soloist within the context of playing with others in a small, intimate ensemble. “Chamber Music is the best of both worlds: playing as a soloist but still collaborating with others to bring the music to life from the written page,” Meyer said.
The performance will include chamber music dating from the 1700’s to today in various combinations of instruments that are not commonly heard.
The concert, which acts as a final exam for the students, will take place in the Hillwood Recital Hall on Wednesday, April 11, at 12:30p.m. Admission is free.
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