What people say about At the Heart of Chamber Music.

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WHAT DOES THE HEART OF CHAMBER MUSIC ACTUALLY DO?
The past two years we have concentrated on two avenues to achieve our goal of making chamber music more accessible and enjoyable for players, coaches and audience members:  we supported the creation of the DVD, AT THE HEART OF CHAMBER MUSIC, and raised scholarships for young musicians to attend summer music festivals.

We present chamber music workshops with coaches of the highest caliber. We often incorporate “complementary” practices (acting, yoga, tai chi, Alexander technique) to enable players to become less “self” conscious and more fully enter the music.  We have collaborated with New England Conservatory, the Cape and Islands Chamber Music Festival and le Fondation des Etats Unis in Paris. 

Founder and Director Gillian Rogell

Gillian Rogell founded the Heart of Chamber Music Institute in 1999, first developing chamber music workshops which were aimed at providing a supportive, non-judgmental environment where players could more fully understand the intimate language of chamber music.  These workshops incorporated “complementary” practices (acting, yoga, tai chi, Alexander technique) to help players lose their “self” consciousness and more easily become the music. 

Ms. Rogell has developed both practical and conceptual coaching techniques based on the musical language found in the repertoire itself.  She herself was coached by master chamber musicians:  the original Hungarian Quartet, Edgar Ortenberg of the Budapest Quartet, and her mentor, Eugene Lehner.

She studied viola with Karen Tuttle while earning her BA from the University of Pennsylvania, and received her Master's degree with Honors at New England Conservatory where she studied with Scott Nickrenz. Active as a violist and chamber musician in the rich Boston musical life, she has also taught and performed at festivals in Israel and Czech Republic, and in the United States at Castle Hill Festival, Killington Music Festival and the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts. 

Ms. Rogell has been a member of the viola and chamber music faculties of New England Conservatory Preparatory School since 1977, and now also directs the chamber music department at NEC's School of Continuing Education. She is on the faculty of the Walnut Hill School in Natick and maintains a private chamber music studio in Brookline, MA. 

Heart of Chamber Music Institute Advisory Board:

Donald W. Allen
Mark Churchill
Nancy Cirillo
Gretchen Graef
Paul Katz
Sylvia Memolo
Marvin J. Rabin
Gunther Schuller
Gwendoline Thornblade
Benjamin Zander

The Jupiter Quartet:
Nelson Lee
Meg Freivogel
Liz Freivogel
Daniel McDonough