PORTLAND SUMMER ENSEMBLES is an intensive five-day chamber music program offered in conjunction with Chamber Music Northwest’s Summer Festival on the beautiful Reed College campus, designed to offer young musicians the opportunity to study and perform chamber music with outstanding faculty coaches. Portland Summer Ensembles is for intermediate to advanced piano, violin, viola, cello and bass students ages 10-18.

Congratulations to all the student ensembles who performed in the July 17 recital at Kaul!
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THE FIVE-DAY WORKSHOP, July 13-17, 2009, will give students the opportunity to play, study, and perform chamber music with other young musicians of a similar level. Students will receive instruction in a variety of aspects of ensemble music-making, including practice and performance techniques, movement and singing. Each day (9 am - 4 pm) includes chamber ensemble rehearsals, coachings and master classes with the outstanding Portland Summer Ensembles faculty, and a variety of other classes. Students will also attend a Portland Summer Ensembles faculty recital, a rehearsal with CMNW artists, and three CMNW concerts.

There will also be a master class for all student chamber ensembles with CMNW artists, the dynamic Miró String Quartet, one of America’s highest-profile chamber groups.

The program culminates in a final performance by student ensembles on Friday, July 17, 2009, in Kaul Auditorium. The concert is open to the public. All workshop events will take place at Reed College. Lunch for PSE students will be provided.

IN ADDITION TO DAILY REHEARSALS AND COACHING SESSIONS, students will have two classes with the Miró String Quartet during their week residency at Chamber Music Northwest. The Miró Quartet, faculty-in-residence at the University of Texas at Austin, is one of America’s most exciting and active ensembles.

THE PROGRAM IS DESIGNED for student performers who are at the intermediate to advanced level of training, ages 10–18. Admission is held by audition CD/DVD, which should include two contrasting pieces that display the student’s artistic and technical ability, plus a written application and teacher recommendation.

The application deadline is now closed.

Conveniently located in Southeast Portland (about 10 minutes from downtown), Reed College was founded in 1908 as an independent, coeducational, nonsectarian college of the liberal arts and sciences. The 116-acre tree-lined campus features a lake and canyon with abundant wildlife and native plants, plus state-of-the-art facilities, including Kaul Auditorium.