Guide to Chamber Music Coaches

In order to participate in the chamber music program successfully, you must be coached by a member of the faculty. Many of the faculty at I.U. coach chamber music in addition to their private students.

Faculty Permission:

One member of each group must speak to your intended faculty coach before you sign the group up via the webpage. The coordinator will then verify with the faculty that your group has contacted them and that they have agreed to be your chamber music coach. If you fail to cantact them, you will not be able to study chamber music with that coach. All grades for chamber music are given by the coach that you are studying with. If you wish to study with a visiting faculty member, please contact the coordinator. He will give you the necessary permission to study with either James Dunham or Earl Carlyss.

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Obtaining a Coach:

The best way to obtain a coach is to ask their permission in person. It is advisable to already have a complete chamber music group, before asking for a faculty coach. The best ways to get in touch with faculty members are: e-mail, the phone, and knocking on their door. If you choose the latter alternative, please do not disturb other student's private lessons, but wait until between lesson times to ask permission for chamber music coachings.

Faculty Who Coach Chamber Music:

This list is by no means definitive, but it will go some way to helping those of you who are in desperate need of ideas. Faculty included in this list are not obliged to coach your group.

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Guide to studying chamber music with a visiting chamber music faculty member.

Introduction

This year IU chamber music students will have the opportunity to be coached by two highly distinguished visiting professors; Professors Earl Carlyss and James Dunham. Students who were involved in chamber music last year will remember the masterclasses and coachings that Profs. Carlyss and Dunham gave during the Spring Semester. If your group is interested in having either Prof Carlyss or Prof Dunham as your faculty chamber music coach, contact Prof Andrew Barnes, the chamber music coordinator after you have read the instructions below.

Instructions for studying with a Visiting Faculty Member

First steps

Check with the chamber music coordinator to make sure that there is space available in the visiting faculty member's chamber music studio. Check that your group is available on the dates that your visiting faculty coach is in town. Profs. Carlyss and Dunham will be in Bloomington for the most part over weekends. If any of the members of your group are members of gig orchestras (Evansville Phil, Owensboro Sym, Columbus Indiana Phil) it is advisable that you either find a coach available during the week, or, if you wish to study with Profs Carlyss or Dunham, drop your commitment with the afore mentioned gig orchestras.

Class requirement

If you study with a visiting faculty member, the chamber music class requirement stays the same. You are required to take seven coachings with the visiting faculty member of your choice and to perform at least one movement of a work you have been studying. Studying chamber music with a visiting faculty member will fufill your chamber music class requirement.

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Earl Carlyss

Visiting Professor of Chamber Music

Coaching Schedule

First semester

Second Semester
  • Feb 4th - 5th
  • Feb 11th - 12th
  • Mar 6th - 7th
  • Mar 11th - 12th
  • April 10th - 11th
  • April 17th - 18th
  • April 24th - 25th
Between 1966 and 1986, Earl Carlyss was a member of the Julliard String Quartet, during which time he performed over 2100 concerts and recorded more than 100 works. Three of their recordings, the Debussy and Ravel quartets, the Schoenberg quartets and the Beethoven quartets, received Grammy rewards for the "Best Chamber Music recording of the Year". Since 1960 the quartet has been in residence at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and, for nine years at Michigan State University. In 1984 they were awarded the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts at MSU.

Mr Carlyss, who was born in Chicago, began violin studies at the age of ten and at twelve won a grant from the "Epstein Fine Arts Fund", administered by the Boys' Clubs of America. Between 1955 and 1957 he attended the Paris Conservatoire, studying violin with Roland Charmy and chamber music with Jacques Février. Returning to the United States in 1957, he entered the Julliard School as a pupil of Ivan Galamian and in 1962 he made his recital debut in New York. He went on to serve as teaching assistant both to Galamian and to the Julliard String Quartet.

Mr Carlyss is the director of the Aspen Center for Advanced Quartet Studies, a summer program designed for intensive study by young professional string quartets.
In 1986 he joined the Peabody Conservatory as coordinator of the String and Chamber Music Departments. He is the first holder of the Sidney M. Friedburg Chair in Chamber Music. In addition to his duties at Peabody, Mr Carlyss is also on the faculty of the Julliard School in New York City, where he teaches Violin and Chamber Music.

He is married to Ann Schein, with whom he plays frequent concerts and duo recitals.

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James Dunham

Visiting Professor in Chamber Music

Coaching Schedule

First Semester

Second Semester
  • Jan 23rd - 24th
  • Feb 13th - 14th
  • Feb 27th - 28th
  • Mar 27th - 28th
  • April 3rd - 4th
  • May 1st - 2nd
Soloist, chamber musician and teacher, James Dunham is a member of the viola faculty of the New England Conservatory, Boston. He is active internationally as a recitalist and guest artist, and spends summers at a variety of festivals including the San Diego Mainly Mozart (Principal Viola), Aspen, Musicorda and Ernen (Switzerland) Festival der Zukunft. Violist of the Cleveland Quartet from 1987 through to its final recording and concerts in December 1995, he performed throughout the US, Canada, Europe, the Far East and the former Soviet Union. In March 1997, the Cleveland Quartet was honored with the "Best Chamber Music Performance" Grammy Award for their Telarc recording of John Corigliano's String Quartet, written for their final tour. A founding member of the Naumberg Award winning Sequoia Quartet, Mr. Dunham formerly taught at the California Institute of the Arts and the Eastman School of Music. In 1991 he received the first Distinguished Alumni Award from the Cal-Arts Music School, where he received his BFA and MFA degrees.

His viola is a Gaspar da Salo, ca 1585.

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