String & Piano Chamber Music Recital: A Night of Timeless Classics

LOGAN, Utah — The USU Department of Music will present its String and Piano Chamber Music Fall Recital at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 15 in the Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall.

Over the course of the semester, students within the String and Piano programs have studied works by Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Dvorák and William Grant Still and will bring these timeless compositions to life. They have trained under the direction of The Fry Street Quartet and the USU Piano Faculty.

Throughout the semester, each chamber music group has coaching sessions once a week from a member of the Fry Street Quartet or the Piano Faculty, according to Bradley Ottesen, Fry Street Quartet violist. They also have access to renowned guest artists, through a partnership with the Chamber Music Society of Logan, Ottesen said, but much of the work is done on their own.

“The students are responsible for running their own rehearsals and coming up with their own interpretive ideas, with faculty coaches there to help lead the process,” Ottesen said. “In the end, the students are the ones who take the stage and present their own vision.”

Music for the recital has been carefully selected with each student and their pairings in mind.

“We actually begin by matching the people first,” Ottesen said. “We take into account the strengths, personalities, and experience level of all the students involved, and then we choose the music as a custom fit for each group.”

The collaboration between strings and piano students allows for a deeper understanding of the music and lets students hear from professors in different departments.

“Playing great chamber music means really listening to each other,” Ottesen said. “String players need to think a little more like pianists in their understanding of the score, and pianists need to sense the phrasing and musical instincts of the string players.”

The Chamber Music Society of Logan over 40 years ago. This strong musical heritage is also reflected at Utah State University, which hosts an endowed string quartet-in-residence, currently the Fry Street Quartet.

For additional information, visit the online event calendar. Purchase tickets online or at the CCA Box Office located in the Chase Fine Arts Building.