Chamber Music

Chamber Music at Middlebury College 

The department fosters the creation of chamber music groups on campus by offering coaching and performance opportunities. Students who want to play in a chamber music ensemble are required to audition, in order to ensure placement in an appropriate group. Chamber music groups are offered free coaching by the music department’s applied faculty. Schedules will be designed around the availability of the students in each group, and participating students will be asked to commit to attending at least eight coachings during the semester and to practicing individually to master their own parts. Middlebury College Chamber Music placement is open to pianists and to players of all orchestral instruments: strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. Questions: Andrew Massey, amassey@middlebury.edu

The Music Department offers two performing chamber music courses during the 2009-10 academic year:

MUSC 0240 Performing Chamber Music (Fall)
Students will play in small ensembles with intensive coaching by the professor and affiliate artists.  We will discuss practical performance matters. At least one class meeting per week will be devoted to analysis of the works being performed within the appropriate historical perspective.  Students will be asked to do research on the biographical details of the composers and the place of the works within the composer's oeuvre.  Ensembles to be formed will be limited to the 'classical' repertoire  (i.e., no jazz or popular styles) comprising instrumentalists and vocalists.  Pre-existing ensembles are welcome.  The course will culminate in a public performance.  Approval Required. (Ability to play an instrument or sing.  If you are interested in this course, please contact Greg Vitercik at vitercik@middlebury.edu.) 3 hrs lect/disc ART (G. Vitercik)

MUSC 0241 Performing Contemporary Music (Spring)
Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century, composers have sought to express the ever changing sounds of society and describe the accompanying emotions through music. We will focus on the performance and investigation of this body of work by exploring the extended techniques found in the orchestration. We will examine the ever-developing sense of harmony, the wealth of expression possible on the instruments, and the extension of this vocabulary into the realm of electronic music. In the practice rooms we will hold weekly coaching sessions and informal presentations leading to a public concert at the end of the semester. Students may take the course as members of formed ensembles. Choice of repertoire to be discussed with instructor. (Approval required; MUSC 0160 or equivalent; auditions will be held in the first week of November) 3 hrs. lect./disc. ART (S. Tan)