Chamber music camp
I just got back from Play Week East, a summer camp for chamber music players. I spent a week playing the music of Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert. What I enjoy most about this camp is that quartets are assigned to work together for several days, to dig in, understand, and perfect a particular work. I had a morning group, which met for 2 and a half hours every morning for six days, and two afternoon groups, each meeting for 2 hours over three days. Then in the evenings, I found pick-up groups to play through quartets or quintets without really stopping to correct the errors.

I'm very attracted to chamber music. When I play in a large orchestra, I might be one of 6 or 8 musicians all playing the same part. It's easy to hide in a big viola section. In contrast, in a string quartet, everyone is playing their own part, and the success of the music depends critically on everyone's contribution. When things go right, it's a wonderful feeling.

I took my laptop with me to demonstrate Intonia to the other participants. I didn't get quite as good a response as I hoped, but I did manage to sell a few copies.

I've got other music camps planned for the rest of the summer. In less than a week, I'll be going down to North Carolina for two weeks: Fiddle Week at the Swannanoa Gathering, followed by Celtic Week at the same place. In August I'll be headed for Balkan Music Camp in upstate New York.