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Monday, January 24, 2000
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Chamber players visit B-CS
BY JEFF WOLFSHOHL
The Battalion
V iolist Miles Hoffinan founded the American
Chamber Players in 1985 in an effort to com
bine educational programs and outreach activ
ities with concert touring. Since then the group has trav
eled across the country and is making its first visit to
Bryan-College Station.
Chamber players violist Miles Hoffman, artistic di
rector for the American Chamber Players, guest violinist
Min-Young Kim, cellist Michael Mermagen, pianist Ed
ward Newman, and flutist Sara Stem will be visiting
Texas A&M this week.
"This [presentation of the American Chamber Players]
comes out of our mission to bring music to the people,”
Dr. William Rogers, member of the Friends of Chamber
Masic and a Texas Engineering Experiment Station as
sistant research scientist, said.
To fulfill the group’s effort to educate its audiences,
the chamber players will also host the Miles Hoffman
Residency program. Through the residency program, the
American Chamber Players are giving more than just a
performance — they are offering free workshops to the
students of A&M, as well as those at A&M Consolidat
ed 1 ligh School and Bryan High School.
“We always have workshops to reach people you
wouldn’t reach otherwise," Rogers said.
The workshops will take place Tuesday and Wednes
day during music classes on the A&M campus. Students
not enrolled in these classes can attend these workshops
and can contact the Department of Performance Stud
ies at 845-3355 for more information on times and lo
cations. The workshops and the performances are free.
During these workshops, the chamber players will
perform for the students and discuss their program. The
workshops will feature other topics such as modem cul
ture and music appreciation.
“Students are invited to ask questions during these ses
sions,” Rogers said. “The American Chamber Players en-
American Chamber Players
• Live Interview on KAMU 90.9 FM
at beginning at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday
•Open rehearsal from 2 to 4 p.m.
Wednesday at Bush Concert Center
• “Coming to Terms” broadcast live
on KAMU 90.9 FM at 7:30 p.m.
• Free Concert Thursday at 7:30
p.m. at the Bush Concert Center
courage conversation.”
The workshops that will take place at the high schools
will be different because the chamber players will per
form for the students, and the students’ orchestra will also
perform for the chamber players.
“The experience will be very stimulating for the stu
dents because the American Chamber Players will com
ment and encourage the students,” Rogers said.
Dr. Paul Parrish, Arts Development Coordinator and
English professor, said he believes the chamber players’
visit is a step toward fulfilling A&M’s “Vision 2020.”
"If you want Texas A&M to be among the top-10
public universities in the country, you need to have across-
the-board strength,” Parrish said.
Rogers said the live music is so powerful because of
its immediate expression and because it is a very differ
ent experience than listening to recorded music.
“It’s like distinguishing the taste of frozen mid fresh
vegetables,” Rogers said.
“The recording is frozen, while the live is fresh.”
Rogers said audiences can expect much from the
chamber players’ live performance because the mu
sicians make every concert unique.
“They play the same notes, but play [them] dif
ferently depending on how the musician feels,
(which is] similar to [changing] tone in speech.
The American Chamber Players’ free concert
will begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Bush Con
cert Center. The musicians will play “Quartet in
D for Flute and Strings” by Mozart, “Trio in G ’
for Flute, Cello, and Piano” by C.M. von Weber,
the “Madrigal Sonata for Flute, Violin, and Pi
ano” by Martinu and the “Quartet in G for Pi
ano and Strings,” by Faure.
An open rehearsal Wednesday from 2 p.m.
to 4 p.m. at the Bush Concert Center.
In addition to the concert and workshops
Hoffman will also broadcast his radio show,
“Coming to Terms,” a show on musical com
mentary, which appears on National Public
Radio’s “Performance Today,” from the
Bush Conference Center beginning at
7:30 p.m. During the “Coming to Tenns”
event, audience members can submit a 1
question on a musical term for Hoffinan
to address and he will accept questions photo courtesy of friend’s of chamber music
from the audience. Before the broadcast The American Chamber Players will host a free concert at The
there will be a reception at the conference Bush Concert Center and workshops on the A&M campus, as well
center beginning at 6:30 p.m. as Bryan High School and A&M Consolidated High School.
cus in Brid
ications
:udent Ser
Audiences should not let media form opinions for them
ts<, ► JACOB'S LADDER
rsity has sew-
"V x Te live in an age
ant SOSttllHA/ that cherishes the
a ;. ss . College ® T Y right to express
College of font's opinions. And that's
" Campus. S: really stupid. One cannot
,ide. mak such statements with-
Of s are avy, out fear of reprisal in just
ivernnxmt Ase am country. Here in modem
’7 Kokfus StuOSAmerica, “the people” have
it senate.! the privilege of being able to
> )tis are duefiabadmouth any thing from argyle socks to the Pope
Contact and to go about their Saturdays full of sugary ce-
> Tempore at l. reals and inspirational infomercials without wor-
at (o.i' T.mqyine about receiving a visitor from the Vatican
ration.
ROBERT HYNECEK/l iik Battalion
who is making a quick stop to
“bless you’s knees wit’ this here
pew leg.” Indeed, in some countries
the slightest sideways comment
about government-issue cheese
could result in one being thrown
into the streets and pelted with sun-
dried goat droppings.
The American dream of the
opinion is beautiful, however iron
ic. What Joe and Chloe Shmoe
might not realize is that in a land where personal
opinion is king, opinion is rarely, if ever, person
al. The most extreme reformist, the most strin
gent traditionalist, the most vocal social critic has
an opinion not entirely his own. It is an accepted
fact that the media has a strong influence on
spending patterns, detennining whether con
sumers should spend their hard-earned two
weeks-worth of booze money on tire children’s
teeth. So could mainstream America’s sacred
opinions and personal tastes — its very personal
ity — be swayed and set by the media?
Can flashy editing make one support a
position on gun laws? Can visual effects
bring one to take a stand against stan
dardized testing? Can a clever jingle help
a candidate win the election?
So how does one formulate his or her
own opinion, free from the tyranny of the
media? One must become completely
alienated from influencing mediums. One
must tear oneself away from those cushy,
lovable appliances, those digital, radiating sur
faces, those dials, those knobs.
The wann, glowing wanning glow of televi
sion, the swooning croon of radio, the agitated
blinking of the modem, even the reprimanding
tingle of the lip-hair remover.
And when one does succeed in developing
one’s own opinion concerning any of the aspects
of life and its many touchy issues, there are count
less ways to force that opinion onto others. Reader
response letters, for example, are a reliable way of
expressing one’s opinions.
But while one’s message may be strong, its im
pact could easily be diminished if the writer does
not follow the reader response letter protocol. Pro
tocol for such letters is akin to the very founda
tions of American free speech.
A certain order and rank of statements must be
followed as such: Accusation, soap-box session,
See Audience on Page 6.
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Dustin Camp.
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du> Editor
Ediior
. (ir.iphlcs Editor
(iraphics Editor
lit News Editor
f. Radio Producer
. Web Editor
iener <V Technology6” B
i, Bradley Atchison. KimW
Turner, Patric SchneiderC*
nith. Elirabeth 0’ Farrell.^
anueva A Susan Redding
renes. Eric Andraos, Jeffrey „
Richard Horne. David Sp^
;vin Turner, Sean Gillespie
it: Cristina Padron; Beth AW- 1
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Carrie Jacobs. Melissa M** 1
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oni Srldhara; Whitney SW* 1
.ocker, Chris Carter.
v - Judy White, Scott Jenl* s!
(I.
i Division of Student Media,'’H
ione: 845-3313; Fax: 845# ;
on For campus, local, and na®*' V
Pi Reed McDonald, and olf«
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IM University, Periodicals
McDonald Building, Texas
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