What Is Chamber Music?

"What Is Chamber Music?" Find out in a conversation with Festival Director Melvin Chen and Yale School of Music Professor Paul Berry. This is a chance for both the classical music novice and the experienced concertgoer to enjoy an engaging and informal discussion on what exactly is chamber music and how it all began. Questions are welcome and encouraged! Conversation recorded live June 25, 2020.
Return next Thursday (7/2/20) at 7 p.m. for another conversation with Melvin and Paul as they discuss “Why Chamber Music?”
Join us for our Virtual Concert Series every Saturday in July at 7 p.m. Each concert will begin with a conversation between Melvin Chen and that evening’s artists. They’ll discuss a variety of topics ranging from their own musical experiences, life on and off stage, the history of music in Norfolk, and much more.
music.yale.edu...
We’re delighted you could join us during these streamed presentations of the 2020 Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. We would greatly appreciate your support of these and other programs during this summer through a tax-deductible contribution to the Festival. Together we can keep great music alive, and find inspiration, solace, and joy during these challenging times.
Donate at: music-tickets....
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A native of Tennessee, Dr. MELVIN CHEN has received acclaim for solo and chamber performances throughout the United States, Canada, and Asia. Chen’s performances have been featured on radio and television stations around the world, including KBS television and radio in Korea, NHK television in Japan, and NPR in the United States.
At the Yale School of Music Chen serves as the Deputy Dean, is a Professor in the Practice of Piano, and is the Director of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival-Yale Summer School of Music, where he also performs. Previously, Chen was Associate Director and on the piano faculty at the Bard College Conservatory of Music and served as Artistic Director of the chamber music program at the Hotchkiss School Summer Portals.
Chen earned a doctorate in chemistry from Harvard University and holds a double master’s degree from The Juilliard School in piano and violin. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry and physics from Yale University, where he also studied with Boris Berman (piano), Paul Kantor (violin), and Ida Kavafian (violin/viola).
Chen’s notable solo recordings include Beethoven’s “Diabelli” Variations (Bridge Records), which the American Record Guide described as “a classic,” piano music by Joan Tower (Naxos Records), and sonatas and other pianos works by Shostakovich (Bridge Records), among others.
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A historian of chamber music and song in 19th century Germany and Austria, Dr. PAUL BERRY received his bachelor’s degree and doctorate from Yale University. His first book, Brahms Among Friends: Listening, Performance, and the Rhetoric of Allusion, was published in 2014 by Oxford University Press; his essays and reviews have appeared in books and scholarly journals in the United States and the United Kingdom. Berry is an active tenor specializing in early music, German lieder, and 20th-century compositions. From 2007 until 2010, he served on the faculty of the University of North Texas College of Music.
At Yale, Berry teaches a wide array of courses, including “Difference In and Around the Classical Canon,” “Text, Form, and Narrative in Program Music,” and a historical survey of common-practice repertoire. He also oversees the first semester of the DMA Seminar and serves as Coordinator for Academic Studies. During the summer, Berry presents weekly pre-concert conversations at Norfolk.