From the Chattanoogan: Lee University’s School of Music will present the Chamber Music Showcase on Thursday, Nov. 16, at 4:15 p.m. in the Squires
From the Chattanoogan: Lee University’s School of Music will present the Chamber Music Showcase on Thursday, Nov. 16, at 4:15 p.m. in the Squires Recital Hall. The event will be co-directed by Dr. Muen Vanessa Wei, assistant professor of piano, and Dr. Gloria Chien, artist in residence at Lee.
Lee University’s chamber music program focuses on classical music performed by small ensembles. The participating students audition and are placed into duos, trios, or other groupings. Throughout the semester, these ensembles meet with faculty members from Lee’s School of Music each week for coaching and critique. The Chamber Music Showcase highlights the achievements the chamber ensembles have made throughout the semester.
“Chamber music is a special form of art that students get to collaborate with each other,” said Dr. Wei. “The students have been working hard with the faculty coaches James Frost, Brian Reichenbach and myself, as well as our co-director Gloria Chien all semester to prepare for this showcase.”
The ensemble includes instrumentalists on violin, trumpet, and piano, as well as vocalists. The student musicians will perform a variety of pieces, including “Trio for Trumpet, Violin, and Piano” by Eric Ewazen, “Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac” by Benjamin Britten, and “Petite Suite” by Claude Debussy.
The instrumentalists and vocalists in this semester’s ensemble include Arami Anderson Antunez, violin; Robert Arneson, piano; Li Chang, piano; James Frost, associate professor of voice, as tenor; YeEun Kim, piano; Garrett Miller, trumpet; Amanda Phillips, mezzo-soprano; and Gavin Taylor, piano.
Dr. Wei joined Lee’s School of Music in 2021 as an assistant professor of piano and teaches courses such as applied piano, collaborative piano, and chamber music. She has collaborated with many great musicians including Lynn Harrell, Ian Hobson, Peter Lloyd, and Joel Smirnoff. Wei also has a debut album titled “Im 3/4 Takt” that was considered “one of Centaur’s finest releases to date” by Fanfare.
Dr. Chien is the co-artistic director of Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon, as well as the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont, along with her husband, violinist Soovin Kim. In the fall of 2009, she launched String Theory at The Hunter, a chamber music series at the Hunter Museum of American Art in downtown Chattanooga, as its founder and artistic director. She frequently appears with the Chamber Music Society and is a Steinway Artist.
The concert is free, non-ticketed, and open to the public. The concert will also be available via livestream at leeu.live.
The Squires Recital Hall is located in the Humanities Building on Lee’s campus.
For more information about this performance or other School of Music events, contact the School of Music at 614-8240 or musicinfo@leeuniversity.edu.
