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Young chamber music ensembles from across the globe gathered in South Bend, Indiana, on May 8 through May 11 to showcase their talents. Two of them hailed from the Bienen School of Music.
Chamber music is a form of classical music characterized by small instrumental ensembles, and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition stands as one of its most prestigious honors.
“This competition is the most prestigious one that you can look into for chamber music,” Bienen sophomore Henry Lazzaro said. “There is no name that is better recognized than this competition.”
Fischoff distributes more than $60,000 to chamber ensembles each year for excellence in various categories, ranging from the Lift Every Voice Prize awarded to ensembles with best performances of a piece by a historically underrepresented composer, the American Brass Quintet Brass Ensemble Prize for outstanding performances by brass ensembles and the Grand Prize for the best performing chamber ensemble.
An average of 129 ensembles apply each year, with 59 ensembles advancing to the live quarter-final rounds this year. Ensembles compete across Senior Winds, Senior Strings, Junior Winds and Junior Strings divisions, which accommodate different age brackets and ensemble instrumentations.
This year, two chamber ensembles from Bienen advanced to exhibit their skills in Indiana: QUINTESSENCE in the Senior Winds category and the Forst Quartet in the Senior Strings category.
QUINTESSENCE is a woodwind quintet that competed in Fischoff for the first time this year. The quintet is comprised of five wind musicians: Bienen senior Miguel Rodriguez (flute), Bienen junior Ryan Ha (oboe), Lazzaro (clarinet), Bienen junior Jon Mandrell (french horn) and Bienen senior Alexander Lake (bassoon). The members of the quintet said they quickly bonded after their frequent rehearsals.
“My favorite part of playing chamber music is the connections I get to make with other people,” Lazzaro said. “It’s a small enough group where you get to know everybody.”
The ensemble started preparing for the competition in early January to submit its first set of pre-screen recordings by Fischoff’s mid-February application deadline. The group continued to rehearse for months even after its application in preparation for the live rounds in May, learning a total of four pieces for their repertoire requirements.
Neil Kimel, who plays horn for the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra, serves as one of QUINTESSENCE’s coaches.
“They are five very talented players individually, but as a group, they’ve grown so much and become a unified group,” Kimel said.
After all the hours and dedication, QUINTESSENCE reached the semifinals this year and was the only woodwind quintet to advance to this stage of the competition.
The Forst Quartet, the other ensemble competing at Fischoff from Bienen this year, formed after Bienen senior Joel Kang met two of the other members at a summer music festival after his freshman year. The ensemble is made up of four string musicians: Bienen senior Brian Zhan (violin), Kang (violin), Sarah Chong (Bienen ’24) (cello) and Bienen senior Sanford Whatley (viola).
The quartet also said they had lengthy and frequent rehearsals. Despite the difficulties of balancing upcoming recitals, auditions and traveling between each of the group members, the group still managed to rehearse for months to submit recordings for the competition to advance to the quarter-finals.
This year is the third that the ensemble has been together and its second year competing at the Fischoff.
“Chamber music is quite sophisticated in many different ways than regular music that we play as soloists,” Kang said. “It offers more aspects of music that you become more aware of when you isolate everything into just four string members.”
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— Stringing along: Bienen’s student composers concert showcases students’ musical journeys
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