Midwest Young Artists Chamber Music Program is recognized as a national leader in chamber music training for young musicians. Over the past 17 years, MYA’s chamber groups have won 13 medals at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and have been featured on broadcasts including NPR’s From the Top radio program numerous times, ABC, CBS, Music da Camera, WFMT 98.7 FM, and WFN 720 AM. With more than 60 chamber ensembles, MYA recognizes the value of chamber music training at every level and encourages its students to experience the excitement of performing major chamber works in venues across Chicago.
MYA prides itself in offering the most comprehensive, yet fully individual and personalized, Chamber Music Program possible for our students. Very few programs in the nation are as large as MYA and no other youth program has experienced the competitive success that MYA has had at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition over the past 17 years - both indicators of the quality that MYA offers our students.
Chamber music is an integral part of a well-rounded musician’s education. Often it is both the most long-lasting activity as well as the highlight of a "classically-trained" musician. Avid lifetime amateur chamber musicians included Albert Einstein and Thomas Jefferson. MYA believes that the chamber musician is the most flexible musician. They are leaders when the part calls for it; they are responders when others are in the position to lead; they are joiners when they play the same part as others; they are cooperators when their part fits with or into another. Chamber musicians who have learned to listen to fit their part with others make the best orchestra musician as well as the best soloists!
All of MYA’s Symphony and Concert Orchestra members must be available for placement in MYA’s Chamber Music Program. When requested, every attempt is made to place interested Philharmonia Orchestra students as well. In addition, some students audition to be considered just for the Chamber Music Program.
Chamber Music Program Offerings
Ensemble Chamber Music - trios, quartets, quintets, sextets, septets or octets. Often this is what we traditionally think of as chamber music. MYA has expert coaches and ensembles for the following:
- Percussion
- Saxophone
- Strings & Piano
- Woodwinds
- Brass
There are two expectations/participation levels in MYA’s Chamber Music Program.
- Standard
- prepare music outside of rehearsals
- perform on a minimum of one Sunday Soiree per semester
- in the event that a student is absent from their chamber music coaching, they are expected to find a substitute
- Intensive
- commit to rehearsing with their ensemble at least one hour each week outside the regular coaching
- possible participation in chamber music competitions
- perform on a minimum of two Sunday Soirees per semester
- Sonata Class - Sonata Class is a wonderful opportunity for 3-5 students to meet with a coach/pianist and discuss sonata form while working on a sonata piece of their choosing, usually selected in consultation with the student’s private teacher, and performed on a special Sonata Class recital each semester. Sonatas are considred chamber music because there is much more "interplay" between the piano and solo part than between the solo and orchestral part as in a concerto. The sonata can be for any instrument so the Sonata Class can be for mixed instruments (e.g. violin, oboe, trumpet, tuba).
- Technique/Performance Classes - Part of the Orchestra Program, but listed here because some of the classes perform works for cello choir, bass ensemble, etc., MYA offers Violin, Viola, Cello and Bass Classes which include: work on technique, feedback on solo performances, orchestra excerpts, and sometimes works for ensembles.
Audition for Chamber Music
Chamber Music Questionnaire - to be considered for MYA’s Fall Chamber Music Program, all current MYA Members must fill out the Chamber Music Questionnaire. Please note: All Symphony & Concert Orchestra members are required to participate in chamber music if placed. Filling out the Chamber Music Questionnaire facilitates preferences for placement.
Coachings
Ensembles are coached one hour per week by a member of our faculty. Intensive chamber music ensembles are coached more often and have a coach for each instrument over the semester. Intensive chamber music ensembles also have preference on participation with master class teachers that MYA brings in.
Performances
Sunday Soirees! & Beyond the Fort , Chamber Music Series
Throughout our 2009-10 Season, join us for several inspirational afternoons of chamber music at MYA and beyond! Free and Open to the Public!
Click here for more information.
Master Classes
Throughout the year MYA students have the opportunity to work with outstanding musicians. In 2008, MYA welcomed the following master teachers:
Avalon String Quartet Gavriel Lipkind (Solo Cellist)
Illinois Quartet (University of Illinois faculty) Charlie Pikler (Chicago Symphony Orchestra)
N-E-W Trio (2008 Fischoff Winners) Alice Schoenfeld (Professor Emerita of Violin, University of Southern California)
Barbara Butler (Chicago Chamber Musicians) Rami Solomonow (Chicago Chamber Musicians)
Carrie Dennis (Berlin Philharmonic) John Bruce Yeh (Chicago Symphony Orchestra)
3:00 PM Saturdays or 11:30 AM Sundays
MYA Center at Fort Sheridan
Free and Open to the Public
Click here for more information.
Awards & Accomplishments
Although not the goal of the Chamber Music Program, MYA has been very successful in chamber music competitions.
Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Junior Division
Fischoff Web Site
- 2009 2nd Place, Trio Coterie
- 2006 1st Place, Beat 3 Percussion Trio
- 2006 3rd Place, Alethea String Quartet
- 2005 2nd Place, AYM Piano Trio
- 2005 3rd Place, BAM Quartet
- 2004 1st Place, Rattan Percussion Trio
- 2002 1st Place, Orion Piano Trio
- 2001 2nd Place, Versailles Piano Quintet
- 2000 3rd Place, Karma Quartet
- 1998 1st Place, MYA Quartet
- 1997 3rd Place, Chonky Quartet
- 1996 1st Place, MYA String Quartet
- 1994 2nd Place, MYA Sextet
Rembrandt Chamber Players Chamber Music Competition
- 2008 1st Prize, Trio Vita
- 2000 1st Prize, MYA Brass Quintet
- 1999 2nd Prize, Armbrust-Chung Duet
- 1998 1st Prize, Inas Quartet
- 1998 Honorable Mention, Neo-Classical Woodwind Quintet
- 1997 1st Prize, Yellow Luck Quartet
- 1997 Honorable Mention, AW Woodwind Quintet
- 1996 1st Prize, Manchriskybeth Quartet
- 1996 Honorable Mention, Yellow Luck Quartet
Coleman Chamber Music Competition
Coleman Competition Web Site
- 2001 Finalist, Favrile Piano Quartet
Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop, Carnegie Hall
- 2001 Favrile Piano Quartet
