Baltimore County, MD smARTS, 28 Mar 2016

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From YouTube: smARTS: Chamber Music in the Great Hall (Winter 2016)

Description

Meet Michael Repper, Managing Director of Chamber Music Society of Maryland, and learn about one of the longest running chamber music series in Maryland.

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Founded in 1974, "music in the great hall" is one of the longest running chamber music series in maryland.

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Here, to tell us more is michael repper,, managing director of the chamber music society of maryland.

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and welcome to smarts!.

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Yeah,, thank you very much for having me. and maybe it's not exactly fair, to say, welcome to baltimore.

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Because you've been here for a little while, but you're, not a native.

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That's right. yes,, so I'm originally from the l.a. area.

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And I went to school in northern california,, but I moved out here in 2013.

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Smart guy, went to stanford. yes, thank you., and then you came to baltimore why?.

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That's right. well,. I came here-- marin alsop,, who obviously you know, is the music director here at the baltimore symphony. Orchestra, has been my mentor.

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And great friend for a very long time.

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And I have always really wanted to study with her, and so she's been very active with the peabody conservatory.

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And her teacher, gustav meier, was the conducting teacher at peabody.

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And so I've set a goal for myself that I really wanted to get into peabody.

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So, I set that goal and it ended up working out in the end.

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So I moved here to peabody to study with gustav and marin.

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And you've expanded your work beyond just peabody.

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You're with the bso,, you have an affiliation there.. That's right. yes,, I'm the--. This is my second year as the baltimore symphony orchestra, peabody, conducting fellow.

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Terrific. yes, thank you.

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and I do work with ed polochick, as their assistant conductor.

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With the concert, artists of baltimore and baltimore's been very kind to me., I'm really learning a lot. as an artist here,. I've grown a lot as an artist here, and I find that it's a community that has lots of opportunities.

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Terrific! and then you're also very active in baltimore county with the music in the great hall series.

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That's right.. I was very fortunate to be approached by the board of the organization.

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It was music in the great hall about applying for the position of managing director,.

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Which I started two years ago.

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and it's been a blast, so far.

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we've done a lot of developments and I found that it's a series that has a lot of excellent, excellent history.

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And provides a wonderful,, casual and intimate environment.

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For people to appreciate and learn to enjoy...

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Music at a high level,, too. yes, music at a very,, very high level, -- unbelievably high level..

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Now you mentioned "was,", you said., so obviously, something's happening, is changing with music in the great hall.

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We have a lot of developments that are very, very exciting..

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Well tell us about them. we're not changing music in the great hall.. It's a series that we take a lot of pride in.

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It's our 42nd season right, now.,.

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And obviously,: it's not anything that we want to change. There,.

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But we're in the midst of actually rebranding ourselves as the chamber music society of maryland., because we see -- terrific..

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Thank you --, because we see a lot of opportunity to sort of venture out into different areas of chamber music, --.

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Not just location,, not just geography but different ways that we can approach the community.

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About chamber music, rather than just a series of chamber music.

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So, we're planning, to-- music in the great hall, is going to remain our flagship series.

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Of concerts that we're offering this year,, we ll offer next year,.

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We'll offer 20 years from now.

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So fans out there, don't be going like, "oh, my gosh! there's no--!".

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I didn't mean to imply that. no,: it's not just-- you're, just getting bigger and better.. That's right, exactly. so, for example, this year is the very first year.

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We've launched a chamber music fellowship,, a fellowship and competition for youth in baltimore.

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wow! in baltimore,, baltimore, county --. It's actually open to any youth in maryland., okay. and dc. and so,. It's an opportunity --. It's called the reinecke youth chamber, music, fellowship--.

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Competition and fellowship program. terrific! thank you! so,. We just announced the winners about a week, ago.

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Three young musicians from baltimore,, 15 and 18;.

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There are three of them.

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Can you tell me a little about them?.

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Sure, of course., I can tell you their names. Even. we've got a cellist-- excuse, me,, a pianist, seth schultheis;.

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A cellist, luka, stefanovic; and violinist, grace carney.

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All from baltimore and they're each going to receive a ¤1,000 scholarship.

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And the opportunity to be mentored by the monument piano trio,.

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Which is a very popular professional, piano trio here in baltimore.

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And they'll be mentored throughout the winter season.

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They'll start in january for a couple of months and then in april, on april 24th,, we'll present a public concert.

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Oh, terrific!, which will be recorded and we'll present, then with the scholarship that they can use for their musical studies and things like that..

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So that's just one example of a way that, as the chamber, music society of maryland,.

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We'd like to sort of branch, out. and obviously,, not doing--, not changing our format with music in the great hal.

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Of course, now, with music in the great hall, we're offering more concerts.

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We're offering six now this season,, where it has been five in the past.

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Let's talk about this season. sure, sure, absolutely., what's on the schedule? sure!.

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Well, we're right in the middle of this year's schedule and it's already been really fantastic.. We've had amit peled and noreen polera from peabody.

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Come to play and they opened our season and as normal,.

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We take great pride in our partnership with the yale gordon competition,.

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So we presented michelle shin,, who played a wonderful,, wonderful, violin, recital,, and we will continue to offer.

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The winner of the yale, gordon competition in future years.

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And we also try to offer a variety of musicians.

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At both different stages of their career and also different ensembles.

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So piano quartet,, piano, trio,, recitals, et cetera.

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So, we're offering a recital first, soheil nasseri,.

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Who made a huge splash with the recital that he did in dc this past year.

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He had a tremendous review from the washington post,. I believe.

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And we're offering a recital-- excuse, me,.

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A concert for the cooperstown string quartet with michael kannen.

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From peabody and several other peabody and julliard faculty.

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So it's terrific! you're supporting fabulous local artists as well.

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Yes, yes., that's our primary goal,. I would say.

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we never shy away from offering concerts.

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Of international musicians from all over.

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I don't want to give away any details quite yet about the next season,, but we do bring in artists from international.

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And from the national area, from all over the country.

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But we do always have a focus on baltimore musicians,, baltimore, talent.

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Terrific!, it's very important to us. well,. We wish you the best success.. We look forward to even next season and we'll have you back and you can tell us all about that.

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Yeah, thank you, yeah. thanks, so much!.

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Of course! thanks.