NEWS RELEASE

9/25/01

Beth Youngdoff, Music Department (650) 723-5981, beth.youngdoff@stanford.edu

Etienne Benson, News Service (650) 725-1948, ebenson@stanford.edu

Music Department launches new chamber music initiative

The Music Department has launched a new initiative aimed at raising the profile of chamber music on campus.

Chamber Music LIVE! consists of two parts: a series of performances in conventional venues such as Dinkelspiel Auditorium and an ongoing outreach program that will bring faculty performers into classrooms, dorms and other venues.

"The main thrust of the initiative is to create a link between chamber music and other disciplines on campus," said Beth Youngdoff, publicist for the Music Department.

Organizers of the initiative hope that faculty and students in a variety of disciplines will use the initiative to enrich their classes.

For example, students in Introduction to Humanities (IHUM) classes that are focusing on a particular era could listen to music from that period performed live in the classroom, and those in science classes might discuss the acoustic properties of the instruments that produced a piece.

Chamber Music LIVE! will kick off Oct. 7 with a week of concerts that range from 18th- to 20th-century works performed by ensembles ranging from duos to a 16-member chamber orchestra.

"If you were to attend all four concerts, you would hear just about every kind of chamber music that can be made," said Jennifer Lane, a senior lecturer in the Music Department and chair of the initiative's organizing committee.

The opening concert will feature the Harmida Trio (violinist Dawn Harms, cellist Emil Miland and pianist Laura Dahl) performing works by Schubert, Lou Harrison and Smetana. Harrison, who will be in attendance, recently was named composer of the year by Musical America magazine.

On Friday, Oct. 12, mezzo-soprano Lane will join with tenor Gregory Wait, director of the Memorial Church Choir, and guest performers to stage Samuel Barber's chamber opera A Hand of Bridge. The opera, which Lane calls a "10-minute gem," will be preceded by a selection of vocal chamber works.

The next day, Stanford's piano instructors will perform Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, Morton Feldman's Piece for Four Pianos and other chamber piano works. Dahl, George Barth, Thomas Schultz and Frederick Weldy will perform.

The last of the kickoff concerts, on Monday, Oct. 15, will feature cellist Stephen Harrison, violist Harms and the St. Lawrence String Quartet, which is beginning its second year in residence at Stanford. They will perform works by Tchaikovsky, Vaughan Williams and Jonathan Berger.

Harms, Dahl, Wait, Barth, Schultz, Weldy and Stephen Harrison are all faculty members in the Music Department.

All concerts in the opening series begin at 8 p.m. in Dinkelspiel Auditorium. Tickets are available through the Stanford Ticket Office at (650) 725-2787 and at the door. The concerts are free for Stanford students, $4 for non-Stanford students and $8 for general admission.

Faculty or students interested in organizing interdisciplinary performances should contact Beth Youngdoff at (650) 723-5981 or beth.youngdoff@stanford.edu.

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By Etienne Benson,