Fivesparks hosted its eighth annual Chamber Music Festival between Sunday, June 15, and Saturday, June 21, with events held in various venues around town. Instrumental groups of graduate students or recent graduates who intend to make a career in music apply and are selected to participate in the festival each year.
The festival offers the musicians various skill training activities, including master classes, daily rehearsals and coaching sessions, two speaker presentations, and two concerts. Many of these activities are open to the public. A celebration concert was held at the Harvard Unitarian Universalist Church on Saturday, June 21, to end the week. At the concert, the instrumental groups performed select pieces of music that they had worked on during the week.
The festival hosted six instrumental groups who worked under artistic co-directors and coaches Judith Eissenberg and Rhonda Rider, with guest coach David Russell. Eissenberg and Rider are professors at the Boston Conservatory, where they teach chamber music. Many of the participants in the festival have studied with them at the conservatory. There was also a master class on Friday with composer, violinist, and curator Michi Wiancko. The music groups included the Ancroft String Quartet, the FIKA Quartet, the Fenway Trio, the Still River Duo, the SNL Trio, and the 213 Quartet. There were a total of 20 participants involved in this year’s festival.
Second-year participant Anne McKee took on the role of a festival assistant this year. In her new role, McKee helped with the initial organization for the festival. She also acted as a bridge between the coaches and the musicians to help with communication. Her other duties included unlocking the doors each morning and leading a workshop for some of the students at the Hildreth Elementary School.
‘An amazing source of energy’
McKee attended the festival as a member of the Still River Duo, where she plays the violin and Jerrel Martin plays the cello. McKee told the Press she appreciated how most of the festival’s events were open to the public, and she said Harvard seemed like a very artsy town. She said participating in a festival is a great opportunity for college graduates, since forming a career in music is not always easy, and performing chamber music was a fulfilling experience for her. “To just get everybody together and just playing-–it’s a really amazing source of energy,” she said. McKee plans to start her own music festival where she lives in Maine.
Victoria Skinner and Donovan Vega of the Ancroft String Quartet. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Eissenberg and Rider hosted a talk, open to the public, on Wednesday afternoon, titled “Conversations with Ourselves: What, How & Why of Their Lives as Musicians and Teachers.” They discussed their experiences as musicians and shared video clips of performances and pieces by various musicians who have inspired them. They followed the videos with commentary on the music and techniques used by the musicians. During the event, one of Eissenberg’s comments was, “The ultimate dissonance gives the deepest meaning to our lives.”
Later that evening at a master class, Rider shared insightful feedback with the musicians. She told them to experiment with their music and try new things when in a group setting. She said experimenting helps to achieve the final result of the piece, adding, “Don’t forget to play and make a mess. It’s OK. You’ll learn so much from making a mess together.”
Violist Victoria Skinner participated in the festival this year as a member of the Ancroft String Quartet. Skinner told the Press that the daily coaching allowed her more time to focus on the details of her music. She said concentrated music festivals like these help improve skills by teaching musicians to create elaborate music more quickly because of the speedy pacing and the constant coaching. She also said these festivals allow her to form stronger connections with her fellow quartet mates, which ultimately improves their musical performances.
When asked why she cares about her craft as a musician, Skinner said, “[Musicians] preserve the past because we play classical music. We play a lot of stuff that’s very old, and so we hold on to a lot of traditions. But we also like to change things. We like to explore new ideas within things that are classics … and we also try to promote a lot of new music.”
The musicians lived with host families during the week. The first concert of the festival was held Thursday night at Fivesparks and was a private event for the host families. Reflecting on the concert, Skinner said, “I think [music is] important because art is always going to be a source of comfort and, … it’s a home for a lot of people. Last night at the concert, there were so many people coming up to us, and they were on the verge of tears because they were so moved, and I think especially in times of trouble, [music is] what people go to.”
Mia Guaetta is a student intern at the Press. She attends UMass Amherst.
