Chamber Music

Brass

There are a number of ways that USF’s Brass Students gain experience and expertise in chamber music. The first is through playing duets in and out of lessons, formally and informally in all styles. Duets can be written or improvised. Students often choose to form Trios, Quartets, Quintets, Octets, and Choirs of like instruments, and often choose to add percussion or full rhythm sections. Students are encouraged to compose and/or arrange for their ensembles, and to spend a great deal of time listening to recordings and watching live performances of all genres.

It is equally important for brass students to work with pianists in juries and recitals. It is our philosophy that pianists are not “accompanists”, but rather are collaborators in a chamber music setting. These parings can be tremendously rewarding and can lead to creative and exciting performances.

Brass Quintets and Choirs are strongly encouraged both formally and informally. These ensembles are often coached by faculty and graduate assistants. Not only do the students gain experience for working professionally in these settings but they gain listening skills and ensemble experience making playing and music making much more gratifying in the large ensemble experience.

Our faculty is comprised of active musicians who have toured and recorded professionally in numerous chamber ensembles including: Rhythm and Brass, The Florida Orchestra Brass Quintet, the USF Faculty Jazz Ensemble, and the USF Faculty Brass Quintet. This enables them to provide world-class instruction on how to rehearse, prepare, and present in a wide variety of musical genres and settings. Ultimately, they collectively strive to make their students better soloists, ensemble players, and human beings! Brass students leave USF with musical, entrepreneurial, and creative skills to increase their chances of succeeding as touring musicians, recording artists, and educators!

The Trumpet Studio forms several trumpet ensembles throughout the year. We have been fortunate in recent years to send several of these ensembles to compete at the National Trumpet Competition. For more information please contact Dr. Jay Coble.

Members of the Trombone Studio are placed each semester into Trombone Octet, (performing arrangements and compositions, mostly classical in nature), Trombone Choir, Bone Bands I and II (trombone groups of 4 or more w/Rhythm Section performing mostly Jazz arrangements and compositions). These groups often tour in the summer nationally and internationally performing at Music Conferences and International Jazz Festivals by invitation only. For more information please contact Tom Brantley.

We have a thriving Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble primarily made up of music majors, but open to non-majors by audition and when numbers allow. The ensemble performs regularly each semester as part of studio recitals, festivals, and other events. A wide variety of repertoire is performed that includes original compositions and transcriptions of iconic works from all eras of the repertoire. New music is a hallmark of the group—including compositions written by members of the ensemble. Themed concerts—such as recent "Shaken, Not Stirred: The Music of James Bond" and “Stranger Things”— are mainstays of our annual Octubafest! series. For more information please contact Joseph Alvarez.

Percussion

Members of the University of South Florida Percussion Ensemble perform a multitude of works ranging from historical works and transcriptions to new music and everything in between. This ensemble will allow students to become familiar with unique percussion instruments and techniques in addition to applying their studies in lessons and masterclasses to the more customary instruments. The USF Percussion Ensemble has performed at the Ewha International Percussion Festival in Seoul, at MENC state, regional and national conventions and for the Percussive Arts Society International Conference History of the Avant-Garde. Among the most recorded ensembles of its genre, the group has received high critical acclaim in American Record Guide, Fanfare and the Gramophone prestigious Best Recordings of North America. This group is open to all percussion majors and non-majors (by audition). For more information, contact Kevin von Kampen.

Strings and Piano

Chamber music is a primary focus of both the undergraduate and graduate performance programs at the University of South Florida, with emphasis on the literature for piano and strings. A separate program for a Master of Music degree in Chamber Music has been established, in addition to the Master of Music degree in Performance.

Students in the chamber music program at USF receive coaching with all members of the string and piano artist-faculty and have benefitted for decades from the richly diverse roster of guest artists who regularly are in residence on the USF campus. In recent seasons, ensembles such as the Aspen String Trio, Baumer String Quartet, Veronika String Quartet, Green Mountain Chamber Players and Fischer Duo have performed, taught, and collaborated with members of the USF community. Chamber artists such as violinists James Ehnes and Jorja Fleezanis, violists Geraldine Walther and Carol Rodland, cellists Bonnie Hampton and Adriana Contino, and pianists Pascal Roge, John O’Connor, and Richard Goode have presented master classes and performed in residence.

The Joan and Daniel Rutenberg Chamber Music Series has, for years, ensured a robust series of concerts and master classes, given both by venerable ensembles and by emerging groups and artists, and perpetuating a chamber music legacy at the USF School of Music that dates back to the Guarneri String Quartet’s celebrated annual residencies throughout the 1970’s.

Woodwinds

Woodwind students at USF play and create a variety of mixed chamber music experiences to develop collaboration skills through one-on-a-part playing. Our students often establish cohort-based trios, quartets, and quintets early in their degree, and choose to continue playing together as they individually and collectively develop from year to year. Each studio also plays together as an ensemble ranging from duos to large choirs. Through these groups, students create original music, work with the USF composition studio and other composers, arrange a variety of music styles and genres, and secure performing opportunities on and off-campus.

The USF woodwind artist-faculty have extensive national and international chamber music experience as both teachers and performers. We model chamber music collaboration as the core of contemporary music-making and promote this principle in our teaching.

For more information please contact Francesca Arnone.

Chamber Music Faculty

Joseph Alvarez, Tuba/Euphonium
Phone: (813) 974-2311| jalvare3@usf.edu

Dr. Francesca Arnone, Flute
Phone: (813) 974-2311 | francescaa@usf.edu

Tom Brantley, Trombone/Jazz Orchestra I
Phone: (813) 974-2311 | brantley@usf.edu

Dr. Jay Coble, Trumpet
Phone: (813) 974-2311 | jcoble@usf.edu

Svetozar Ivanov, Piano
Phone: (813) 974-2311 | svetozar@usf.edu

Kevin von Kampen, Percussion
Phone: (813) 974-2311 | kvonkampenmusic@gmail.com

Carolyn Stuart, Violin
Phone: (813) 974-2311 | cstuart@usf.edu