Chamber Music at the Conservatory

Open to all music students!

Chamber Music at the Conservatory

About Our Programs

The Conservatory offers chamber music opportunities for beginner, intermediate, and advanced music students in the greater Milwaukee area. Each chamber ensemble is curated based on the student’s musical experience, and matched with a Conservatory faculty member who serves as a mentor and coach for the ensemble. Students gain experience playing in a small, self-directed ensemble while receiving constructive feedback in technique, musicality, and non-verbal communication.

 

Advanced high school students are invited to audition for the Advanced Chamber Music Institute during the Conservatory’s annual Scholarship Audition day held in spring. Students admitted into the program receive weekly coaching from the world-class musicians of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. This unique program provides an intensive chamber ensemble experience for the most promising young high school artists in the state.

 

Violin

New to Chamber Music?

Chamber Music Inquiry Form

Are you a new student interested in chamber music opportunities? Have you been playing for a while and are looking for a group of musicians to play with? Fill out our chamber music inquiry form and the Education Team will work to match you with other interested students of similar age and ability levels. Students do not need to be a current WCM student to participate!

 

Chamber Music Inquiry Form

Student Playing the Cello

What You Can Expect

Advanced Chamber Music Institute Program

The Advanced Chamber Music Institute is an intensive program for high school musicians to rehearse and perform in small ensembles coached by musicians from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Admittance into the program is by audition. Students who are accepted into the Advanced Chamber Music Institute will be placed into a small ensemble (string quartet, piano trio, etc.) and receive:

  • Two full recitals a year at the Conservatory, plus multiple performance opportunities in the community and at MSO events
  • Special ticket offers to MSO concerts and local chamber music concerts
  • Weekly coaching and guided rehearsal time with a member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
  • Weekly masterclasses and performance seminars with MSO guest artists and other special guests

Auditions for the 2024-2025 school year will take place on March 3, 2024. 

MEET THE ACMI FACULTY   SCHOLARSHIP AUDITION information

Advanced Chamber Music Institute Audition Requirements

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Piano

  • Sonata-allegro movement from a classical sonata by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, or Schubert

  • Romantic solo work

  • Sight-reading

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Strings

  • One movement of a Bach sonata, partita, or suite

  • Complete first movement of any standard concerto

  • Sight-reading

Woodwinds & Brass

  • Two contrasting movements from a standard concerto, sonata, or other solo work, OR two contrasting works by different composers

  • Sight-reading

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Percussion

  • One movement of a work by Bach on keyboard percussion (4 mallets)

  • One contemporary work on keyboard percussion OR multiple percussion setup

  • Sight-reading

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Advanced Chamber Music Faculty

Meet Our Teachers

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Susan Babini

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Susan Babini

Cello

Chamber Music

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Beth Breslin

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Beth Breslin

Viola

Chamber Music

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Stefanie Jacob

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Stefanie Jacob

Piano, Chamber Music, Prometheus Trio

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Alexander Mandl

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Alexander Mandl

Chamber Music, Violin

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Talia Oriana Pavia

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Talia Oriana Pavia

Coordinator, Chamber Music

Violin & Viola, Chamber Music

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Susan Babini

Cello

Education

  • Graduate Diploma | The Juilliard School
  • Bachelor of Chamber Music | San Francisco Conservatory of Music
  • Master of Chamber Music | San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Background

  • Holds the Dorothea C. Mayer Principal Cello Chair with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
  • Has appeared as Guest Principal Cello with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
  • Performed solos with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Century Chamber Orchestra, and the Princeton Symphony.
  • Gave the East Coast premiere with Symphony in C of Aaron Jay Kernis’s Colored Field for Cello and Orchestra.
  • Performed as cellist with the Cavani String Quartet on the Detroit Chamber Music Society series and at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
  • While in Milwaukee she has performed on the Frankly Music series and with the Philomusica String Quartet.
  • Participated in the Marlboro Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, and the Yellow Barn Music Festival

Beth Breslin

Viola

Education

  • Master of Music | Cleveland Institute of Music
  • Bachelor of Music | Oberlin Conservatory

Background

  • Member of the viola section in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
  • Member of the viola section in the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago.
  • Was a member of the San Antonio Symphony, and is currently a substitute with the Saint Louis Symphony and Houston Symphony.
  • Performs with the 414 Quartet and the Prospect Quartet.
  • Performer at festivals such as the Tanglewood Music Center, the National Repertory Orchestra, Kneisel Hall, and The Round Top Festival Institute.
  • Has also performed as a soloist with the Cleveland Institute of Music, National Repertory Orchestra and the New World Symphony.
  • Primary teachers include Robert Vernon (Cleveland) and Peter Slowik (Oberlin).

Stefanie Jacob

Education

  • A.B. in Music, Harvard University
  • M.M. in Piano, Indiana University
  • doctoral studies, Indiana University

Background

What year did you start working at WCM?

1987

Why did you choose to work at WCM?

I wanted colleagues, and to be a part of something larger than just having a home studio.

Describe a musical experience or teacher that had a positive impact on you.

When I was 12, my piano teacher suggested that I might like to try playing chamber music. She had heard good things about a small music camp in the Berkshires that emphasized chamber music. I went that summer, and I was hooked–getting to play music with FRIENDS! It’s still my favorite form of music-making, these many years later.

Alexander Mandl

Education

  • D.M.A. – University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • A.D. – Yale University School of Music
  • M.M. – Yale University School of Music
  • B.F.A. – Carnegie-Mellon University

Background

What year did you start working at WCM?

2003

Why did you choose to work at WCM?

Teaching is one of the joys that fulfill me as a musician. The WCM shared the model of other music schools that I had work for in the past. With a superb faculty, it was just a perfect fit for me.

Describe a musical experience or teacher that had a positive impact on you.

Performing with the great cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

saschamandl.com

Talia Oriana Pavia

Coordinator, Chamber Music

Education

  • Bachelor of Music | Northern Illinois University
  • Master of Music | Northern Illinois University
  • Performer’s Certificate | Northern Illinois University

Background

What year did you start working at WCM?

2018

Why did you choose to work at WCM?

Mentoring Milwaukee’s string students and diligently developing their musical and character skills to realize their full expressive potential, is central to my professional mission to cultivate a love for learning.

Describe a musical experience that had a positive impact on you:

Being whisked away on tour to Europe with Camerata Chicago as Associate Principal Second Violin, was a life changing experience. Meeting and sharing music with people of many languages and diverse traditions was both empowering and highly rewarding. Touching the hearts of people on the other side of the world was a poignant reminder to share one’s gifts and appreciate the ones we are sent in return.

 

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