CHAMBER MUSIC’S FUTURE
Alive and Kicking
To the Editor:
Re “Music That Thinks Outside the Chamber” by Anne Midgette [June 24]:
As a 15-year-old violinist, I was drawn to your article about the death of chamber music. Chamber music may very well be moribund in the concert hall setting. But I can report from the trenches that it is alive and well. My string quartet, Seraphina, has performed in its share of concert halls, but our liveliest, most appreciative audiences have been in nontraditional settings.
Recently, after playing for a group of philanthropists in a luxurious apartment, we went out to Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia and played until dusk. The crowd that gathered included commuters, joggers, homeless people and children.
Whenever we do this, the response is overwhelmingly positive. If there is such apparent love for chamber music when it’s presented in a nonthreatening, unpretentious manner, how can it be dead?