Alex, Zenas, Tobin, and Jess enjoyed a wonderful day of visiting schools around the South and East Bay Areas today! We started our day off by returning to Lynbrook High School, where Chamber Music by the Bay worked with Mr. Pakaluk’s class and rehearsed the Mendelssohn Octet with Christy, James, Caroline, and Kevin in preparation for Sunday’s performance. The group sounds great, and CMB is so looking forward to performing with these terrific LHS students on Sunday!

Next, Chamber Music by the Bay headed to Monta Vista High School, where we met John Galli and worked with his fabulous chamber and string orchestra classes! The students offered up some great suggestions when asked to help the quartet develop concrete ideas and characters for the “March” from Britten’s Three Divertimenti and the opening of Dvorak’s “American” Quartet. It was helpful to be reminded of the artistic freedom that we, as musicians, can take in interpreting music through images and storylines! Thank you to both classes for all of their terrific ideas. Tobin, who graduated from Monta Vista in 2005, definitely received a hometown hero welcome!

Finally, we had our one and only elementary school visit, which was incredibly fun! Third graders definitely have more energy than high school students who are in the middle of studying for final exams (sorry, high school students)! The students helped us build numerous string quartet “pizzas”: “food “pizzas” that illustrate the layers of a string quartet, with the cello as the crust, viola as the tomato sauce, second violin as the cheese, and the first violin as the topping. We hope the students continue to remember how these parts all come together in a string quartet, in chamber music! To get up close with the students, Alex, Zenas, Jess, and Tobin came away from the stage, and instead worked from amidst the students, which was definitely exciting! A day of many school visits for Chamber Music by the Bay!

Stay tuned for our preparations for Sunday’s concert!