Dear All,

I am participating in the current chamber music workshop. Thanks a million to Toyiabe Chamber Music Society for offering such a wonderful opportunity to make music with others, and learn from a gifted teacher.

Hats off to the organizers who were able to improvise and find a workable solution after the original workshop location dropped out. I guess that is exactly what “agile project management” means!!

I hope you will be able to do more workshops AND performances with Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio. What an exceptional musician was I able to hear yesterday evening, and what an exceptional program that incorporated so many women composers and modern era music!

Thank you for all you are doing for the cultural life of the region!

Marisa

Since 2016, TCMS has made a priority of providing educational opportunities to area musicians. While we initially focused on workshops for students in the Washoe County Schools, we have now broadened our outreach to include musicians of all ages, and developed programs directly engaging our audiences.

To begin our 2023 season, we presented a guitar workshop and master class at North Valleys High School conducted by the renowned Brazilian Guitar ensemble Duo Violão Brasil Plus One. Focusing on the history of “choro,” Brazil’s classical music with Baroque roots, students worked on two original arrangements by Rogerio Souza and learned traditional Brazilian rhythm, composing styles and harmony for strings and orchestra, as well as jazz band. The guitar ensemble later performed for an enthusiastic audience at Craft Wine and Beer in Reno.

In the summer of 2023, TCMS presented a string workshop for advanced players, conducted over two weekends in June, coached by violinist and violist Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio and members of the UNR Nightingale String Quartet. The event culminated in a performance by the workshop ensembles. The success of this event was reflected in the enthusiastic comments of participants requesting a repeat for 2024.

Hey Laurentiu!

I just wanted to drop by with a quick workshop review.

It was a great experience, it was definitely scary due to it being my first time performing but all of the coaches were very helpful and I was definitely more at ease for the performance after the 2 weekends of coaching!

I never realized how much effort was involved with ensemble playing, and all of the sub-communications required between musicians to keep everything on track.

It definitely helped my solo practice as well, focusing a lot more on timing and breathing was a huge help overall, as well as being a fantastic time to practice playing through passages in a performance context, not stopping for every blip or error.

Overall, it was a fantastic and educational 2 weeks and I will absolutely be joining the workshop next year!

Thank you again,
Robert

Returning to the informal venue at Craft in August of 2023, we presented our innovative program “Violin Is A Violin?,” treating the audience to an engaging variety of violin solos and duets combined with a hands-on demonstration of a violin’s “anatomy” presented by Reno’s own master violin maker, Tim Dodd. Mr. Dodd’s presentation included a lively Q&A session and generated so much interest that we are repeating the program in 2024.

Past educational programs included master classes with violinist Yuki Numata Resnick, founder of the Buffalo String Works, and violinist Justin Bruns, the Associate Concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. In spring of 2018, we hosted a weekend-long cello workshop with guest instructors Katharine Knight and Zachary Sweet and also held an audition workshop for students planning to audition for the Reno Philharmonic youth orchestras.

We also recently offered a class with internationally acclaimed percussionist Lynn Vartan and presented a String Quartet Workshop for high school students coached by Justin Bruns, Associate Concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, together with local artists, Ruth Lenz, Dustin Budish and Eileen Brownell.