ENSEMBLE BIO
Hailed by the St. Louis Post Dispatch as "One of St. Louis' most important classical organizations" Chamber Project Saint Louis is a collaborative chamber music ensemble celebrating the dynamic interactions between all members of the music-making process: from composers, to performers, to audience members.
Striving to reinvent the chamber music experience for modern audiences, CPSTL brings unique, intimate concert experiences to non-traditional venues such as tasting rooms, libraries, art galleries and more. Collaboration is at the heart of their work, frequently partnering with presenting organizations such as The Saint Louis Art Museum, The Missouri History Museum and the Contemporary Art Museum in exhibit based programming or working with up-and-coming young composers at local universities as the Ensemble-in-Residence for the Wet Ink Project at Webster University and the Young Composers Competition presented by the Community Music School. Celebrating and enriching the arts culture in St. Louis, the locally focused, donor funded Commissioning Project has brought fifteen new compositions to life by St. Louis area composers.
Weaving together music by living composers and identities historically excluded from the stage alongside traditionally celebrated works through narrated, themed concerts, Chamber Project disrupts the gatekeeping practices that have limited access and representation to generations of classical artists as well as creating an welcoming and warm concert experience for all types of listeners.
Innovative concert experiences, inclusive programming, and St. Louis- inspired musical excellence: plug into our chamber music community and refresh your passion for creative discovery, or experience a new kind of classical music for the first time.
ORIGIN STORY
How did this Chamber Project St. Louis idea take shape? Well, of course over a nice glass of wine and perhaps some cheese and maybe a little Prokofiev.... Back in 2007, Dana, Laura, Adrianne, and Jen got together to hang out. Some of us were new to town, others had been here for a while. When musicians get together, they talk about music, listen to music, and almost all conversations come back to music, and this is what happened on this fateful night.
Maybe it was the wine, maybe it was the company, but the conversation on this particular night went a little deeper than usual. We came to a consensus that we wanted to share all of this music that we love with each other and our community. So we decided to have a meeting. And a little more wine. It became clear right away that we weren't going to do this the old fashioned way.
We knew without question we wanted to things a little different than the status quo. We were determined to connect with our audience in a meaningful way. How can this group better reflect the world we live in, how can we not be boring and stuffy and how can we smash through all of those “classical” music stereotypes? We wanted to create experiences that would be meaningful to the classical music aficionado, but also to the person that perhaps has never heard a saxophone up close before or has never even heard of the viola.
Everything is non-traditional, our venues, our attitude, our instrumentation, but mostly we want our audience to know that the music was about them and their reactions, their experience with the music, and that those reactions and experiences are fascinating and important, and we wanted to hear about them.
Now, did we have the courage to do it? To be vulnerable and put this musical product out there and hope people will come and want to listen? A leap of faith and several brainstorming meetings later, we were ready to take the plunge. With great joy we discovered that YES, people want this to be a part of their lives as much as we want it in ours! There is not a way to describe the feeling of creating something from a place of passion and seeing people reach out and want to hear more. It is a lot of work, but it is worth every minute.
We love what we do, we love our audiences and we want to connect with our community of music lovers and create a new listening and thought provoking experience at every Chamber Project Saint Louis concert. We hope you'll join us.