I just got an email a couple days ago from Susan Franklin, who along with former OSO concertmaster Amy Schwarz Moretti, has founded the Portland Summer Ensembles program at Reed College. Here’s a bit of what she had to say about the program and its genesis:
Amy and I started talking about having a chamber music camp in Portland several years ago. There are wonderful Chamber Music Workshops and Fesitvals all ove the country but nothing significant here in Portland. We have a beautiful city, great Summer weather and lots of high level music and musicians, it is about time! We both believe that introducing young people to chamber music and giving them the skills to do it enables them to keep music in their lives, whether they pursue a music career or go on to something else.
They joined forces with Chamber Music Northwest to provide this program for young musicians to study chamber music in an intimate setting and in a wonderful city during our beautiful summer season.
The faculty for the first season will be some of the best players both in Portland and from around the country:
Violin:
Amy Schwartz Moretti (Director, Robert MacDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University),
Jun Iwasaki (OSO concertmaster)
Viola:
Joël Belgique (OSO principal viola)
Cello:
Nancy Ives (OSO principal cello)
Piano:
Susan Smith (concert pianist)
Guest Arists:
Miro String Quartet
The week-long program will have differing tiers for players of different levels of experience and proficiency:
We intend this camp to be fairly high level, which does not exclude beginning chamber music players. We will have 3 levels, with the top level we hope being the good PYP type players and the 3rd level being kids who can play but are inexperienced. The week will consist of coachings, groups classes in things such as movement, rhythm and singing, a 2 hour workshop with the MIRO String Quartet, a faculty concert, attending CMNW rehearsals and 2 concerts – and will culminate in a student workshop open to the public in Kaul Auditorium.
For this debut session, they are looking locally for participants, as they are not set up for providing housing for out-of-area students, but they plan on expanding the program in succeeding years to a residential situation attracting high-level young players from around the country. They also hope to expand the length of the residency and provide an adult chamber music workshop program as well. Very exciting!
Enrollment is limited to 30 participants, and the deadline for applications is the end of January, so anyone who is interested should check out the program’s website right away for details: http://www.cmnw.org/summerensembles.html. While there you can download and print out application and financial aid forms. If you have further questions, contact Susan Franklin at 503.819-8357.