Oxford Chamber Music Course: Millie aged 15

Many thanks to the Joan Dickson Chamber Music Fund for the bursary that was awarded to me this year. With this bursary, I have been able to attend the Oxford Chamber Music Course where I had an amazing experience despite the current situation!

During the chamber course, I had the privilege of playing a Haydn quartet (the finale, Presto) which I thoroughly enjoyed. Here, we spent a great deal of time adding character to the piece and practising eye contact in order to help us stay together and feel part of a group. I have realised the importance of eye contact within a chamber group, as it can often be helpful to look at each other rather than your music when two or more people are entering at the same time.

In my second group we played the Andantino from Suite for 3 Cellos by de la Tombelle. In this piece, we experimented with some artistic licence while we played around with dynamics, allowing some parts to sing out more than the others. Although there were dynamics written in the piece, our coaches encouraged us to think for ourselves and decide what we thought was best for the music, which was often quite different from the score. I thoroughly enjoyed working on this piece because it felt like I could hear my input within the music and our hard work definitely paid off!

The best part of the course for me was taking part in a masterclass by David Curtis who highlighted the importance of emotion within our quartets and trios. To emphasise the jokiness of my Haydn quartet, we accentuated the range of dynamics and used short, staccato bows. His information was invaluable to me as I now know that it's not always about the technicality of the music, but how you interpret it and put this forward to the audience. Overall, I learned lots of invaluable tips and ways of thinking which has broadened my view of how music ‘should be played’!

Many thanks again,
Millie (15)