The ETSU Department of Music held a Chamber Music Concert on Friday, Nov. 30. The concert was held at Brown Hall Auditorium, and it was the perfect place to listen to the orchestral pieces come to life as the acoustics in the auditorium added something extra to every note.
The concert was performed by Department of Music faculty members. Pianist Yi-Yang Chen, cellist Sean Hawthorne, violinist David Kovic and pianist Esther Park performed. The faculty was accompanied by guest artist William Shaub, a violinist and Concertmaster of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. Hawthorne, Shaub and Chen all overlapped at Juilliard, however, due to their different disciplines and instruments, they hardly saw each other. The trio never played together at Juilliard but took the this event as their opportunity.
There were several diverse pieces included in the program, such as “Serenade for String Trio, Op. 10” by Erno Dohnányi, “Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor, Op. 90, B. 166 ‘Dumky’” by Antonín Dvorák, and “Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-Flat Major, K. 493” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The performances walked you through the ages with these timeless pieces that can only be experienced a certain way as chamber music.
“For me, chamber music is a musical celebration where you can see many musicians at once. I love chamber music because all of the players have an equal part but also are trying to make conversation with twists, intertwining and containing lots of emotion,” said performer Yi-Yang Chen.
Emotion was definitely present as the musicians performed.
“Playing Dvorák trio is like looking at a man’s life,” said Chen about one of the pieces and his own experiences. “We go through different things in various stages of life. Each movement contains its own character and story, along with the folk element he used in the piece. It really makes the work a masterpiece.”
