Music Conservatory to present chamber series

Musicians from across the nation have been brought together by the Coeur d’Alene Music Conservatory to instruct, and now to perform, in a professional chamber music series presented by the conservatory, with performances monthly from March through June, and hopefully beyond.

“The mission is to bond,” said Jim Sullivan, the chamber coordinator for the conservatory.

He’s introducing the series in collaboration with conservatory board president Kent Kimball and director Julienne Dance to bring chamber and classical music to the Panhandle.

“We want to bring world-class music here,” Sullivan said.

The repertoire for the first performance, featuring a woodwind quintet, will introduce the series with a selection of pieces spanning 130 years and multiple musical styles. The players in the quintet are from across the country and have found a home in both Coeur d’Alene and the conservatory, and an avenue for personal expression as a part of a whole.

Chamber music is a broad term encompassing many styles, but is generally considered somewhat smaller and more intimate than an orchestral performance. The medium allows broader expression from the artists as well as strong connection to the audience for a tailored and unique performance each time.

“They don’t need a conductor,” Kimball said. “They don’t want a conductor. It’s about empathy and connection.”

Producing chamber performances is a natural progression for the conservatory, Kimball said. When musicians come together to teach, they inevitably talk and discuss what they’d like to play and gig performances follow. So when Sullivan was brought onto the conservatory roughly seven months ago, the chamber series was a natural next step.

“The chamber program will enlighten the public,” Dance said.

The vision for this series is to bring world-class musical performances to Coeur d’Alene, but the long-term goals are also in budding stages. Through the spring, the chamber performances will foster connections in the community, which could inspire a chamber program through the conservatory, and even future performances featuring students – but those ideas are all still in dream phases.

“The timing is right to bring in chamber performances,” Dance said.

The conservatory was founded in 2020, prior to COVID-19, so the timing was not ideal to start concerts designed for small spaces, but it's perfect now. The team of conservatory musicians is world-class, and shows will offer a reprieve from the silence that came from COVID, Sullivan said.

“The music of the chamber transcends time and space,” he continued. “It connects us to the past and through today.”

Chamber performances will celebrate sound, starting with the introductory quintet March 10, followed by a cello and piano duo April 8 (featuring Sullivan on the clarinet), a large marimba group May 7, and a duo between percussionist composer and again featuring Sullivan on clarinet June 2.

Musicians who will perform in the shows have moved to Kootenai County from Utah, Illinois, Michigan, California and Ohio to find their new musical home at the conservatory.

The chamber series will evoke a spirit of individualism, as well as shared identity, bringing connection and intimacy to the community and audiences.

“Chamber music is beyond a definition,” Kimball said. “What (Sullivan) has done is brilliant and very much desirable in the flow of what we need to do. It’s bright mainstream stuff. We really haven’t done that before.”

So the series will explore what chamber music can be, with musicians ready to explore what they can be a part of.

Information and tickets: cdaconservatory.org/events/