Illinois Chamber Music Festival Returns for 23rd Year

We sat down with Dr. Lisa Nelson, co-founder and executive director of the Illinois Chamber Music Festival held at Illinois Wesleyan University from July 13 to August 1. Now in its 23rd year, the festival offers high school and college students the chance to immerse themselves in chamber music-making, with daily coachings, rehearsals, lessons, masterclasses, electives in music theory and history, and performances by world-class faculty. Read on to learn more about the festival and what Dr. Nelson hopes students take away from the experience.

In addition to directing and serving on the faculty of the Illinois Chamber Music Festival, violist Dr. Lisa Nelson is Assistant Professor of Viola, Violin, and String Pedagogy at Illinois Wesleyan University and coordinator of IWU’s String Preparatory Department. An active chamber musician herself, she regularly appears in recitals throughout the United States and abroad. She is also a member of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, which is based in Springfield and Bloomington-Normal.

In her first year on faculty at IWU, Nelson teamed up with cello professor Nina Gordon to launch the Illinois Chamber Music Festival. Gordon was already offering a cello camp, which they expanded to include violin, viola, wind instruments, piano, and harp. The idea was to get students interested in chamber music and give them the opportunity to play in a chamber setting—something many young players never get to experience.

Nelson said that playing chamber music confers special skills that solo and orchestral playing do not, such as listening and adapting, being accountable for one’s own part, and making musical decisions collectively without a leader or conductor. Under the guidance of coaches, the student chamber groups learn how to bring their unique musical interpretations to life and present them to an audience. Nelson said the collaborative and dynamic nature of chamber playing can boost students’ confidence and musical autonomy and even lessen performance anxiety.

During the festival, students are exposed to a variety of repertoire, from quartets by Haydn and Mozart to works by contemporary composers like Jessie Montgomery. Participants perform multiple times throughout the three-week course, both in the “safe” setting of the open studio classes, where they perform for their peers, and in public concerts.

An average day in the life of a festival participant begins with morning warmup activities, such as icebreaker exercises, stretching, or vocal warmups. Then, the students go off in their chamber groups for an hour of practice without their coaches. During this unsupervised practice, “They’ll work on what they’ve been told the day before,” Nelson explains. “They’ll work together. They’ll laugh. They’ll figure things out.” Next, students practice individually or observe the faculty’s chamber rehearsals to see how they conduct themselves.

In the afternoon, students work with their coaches, attend extracurricular classes in music history and theory, play board games or tennis, or perform in open studio. In the evenings, they attend or perform in concerts or participate in fun group activities such as music trivia or barn dancing. IWU music majors supervise and lead activities as camp counselors.  

Young musicians from 11 states and three countries will descend upon Bloomington-Normal for the festival, staying at dorms on the IWU campus or commuting in if they are local. In addition to coming from diverse geographical locations, students arrive with varying experience levels and career aspirations. While some may choose to study music in college, not all students will. No matter what, Nelson says, “They love it. They want to be here.”

A testament to the festival’s success and value is that students often return year after year. “A lot of the time, [students] will hear an older, more advanced person or group and say, ‘I really want to play that piece,’ and they’ll work all year,” Nelson said. “It’s really amazing to hear when they do come back how much they’ve improved. Hopefully, part of that is because they’ve been inspired, and their progress during the year is a reflection of their own work and their teachers’ work at home, but also perhaps that inspiration that they got during the summer or the motivation to work towards the next level.”

One of the ways the festival has developed over the last 23 years is by expanding its relationship with the community. In addition to the faculty and student performances, the festival will give back to the community with a “Music for Food” concert at St. John’s Lutheran Church, Bloomington, on Sunday, July 27, at 3 pm. Music for Food is a musician-led organization that aims to combat hunger by utilizing music to raise funds for local food pantries. The proceeds from the July 27 concert will go to Center for Hope Ministries.

Another special event is the Children’s Concert, held Thursday, July 24, at 6:30 pm in IWU’s Westbrook Auditorium. Geared toward younger audiences but open to all ages, the Children’s Concert invites attendees to get up close and personal with the instruments. Festival participants perform short excerpts to demonstrate the various sounds the instruments make and even let the kids try them out. Attendees are also guided in crafting their own percussion instruments and led in rhythm exercises.

Check out the Illinois Chamber Music Festival’s website for a full listing of faculty and student concerts, which are all free and open to the public. Below, you will find a list of the faculty performances held in the Westbrook Auditorium at Illinois Wesleyan University:

Sunday, July 13, 7:30 pm

David Popper - Adagio for cello and piano

W.A. Mozart - Sonata for Violin and Piano K. 454

Franz Schubert - Auf dem Strom for soprano, French horn, and piano

Johannes Brahms - Piano Quartet in G minor, last mvt.

Sunday, July 20, 3:00 pm

Johannes Brahms - Cello Sonata in E minor

Geoffrey Dean - Dancing at Delphi: A Terpsichorean Triptych for string quintet

Darius Milhaud - Suite for clarinet, violin, and piano

Saturday, July 26, 3:00 pm

Johannes Brahms - Piano Trio in B Major

Camille Saint-Saens - Piano Quartet in Bb Major

Wednesday, July 30, 7:30 pm

Antonin Dvorak - String Sextet in A Major

Franz Schubert - Fantasie in F minor for piano four-hands