Chamber Music Program

The Chamber Music Program (CMP) exists to foster expertise in, and love for, playing chamber music. Students in this program will develop leadership, verbal and non-verbal communication, problem-solving, time management, and negotiating skills as they explore great works of music in conductor-less ensembles. The CMP provides a fun, intensive, and rewarding learning environment that will help students grow musically and more broadly in their lives.

The CMP groups alternate their weekly meetings between coaching sessions and self-directed rehearsal sessions. Coaching sessions are led by our esteemed faculty members with decades of professional teaching and performance experience. Students identify areas for improvement and develop musical and technical rehearsal strategies during self-directed sessions, in which all members of a chamber group work together as an autonomous unit. All chamber groups will perform in both the Fall and Spring Chamber Music Program recitals. In addition, chamber music groups are presented with opportunities to perform at special events.

For more information on the Chamber Music Program, contact Erin Gonzalez, Education and Community Partnerships Coordinator.

Program sponsored by Angela Howard

  • Eligibility

    The typical member enrolled in the Chamber Music Program (CMP) is at least 12 years of age, possess no less than 3 years of ensemble/orchestral experience and participate in one of the top two ensembles of the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Association. Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the CMP Director.

  • Faculty

    Wesley Baldwin
    Cellist Wesley Baldwin holds degrees from Yale College, the New England Conservatory, and the University of Maryland. He performs throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia as a soloist and chamber musician. As a soloist with orchestra he has appeared with the Laredo Philharmonic, the Oregon Mozart Players, the Symphony of the Mountains, and the Aberdeen, Bemidji, Bryan, Chattanooga, Florence, Germantown, Johnson City, Hot Springs, Knoxville, La Porte, Oak Ridge, Manchester, New River Valley, Salisbury, Wintergreen, and Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestras, among others. His passionate and charismatic performances have been widely lauded.

    An advocate for great music from all eras, Mr. Baldwin is one of the only performers of several little known and new concerti for cello, including recently those by Sollima, Wagenseil, Jacob T.V., Behzad Ranjbaran, and Alan Shulman. His recording of music for cello by Alan Shulman, released by Albany records, enjoyed widespread critical acclaim. He has also recorded for the Naxos, Zyode, and Innova labels. His most recent CD release, his fourth on the Centaur label, features the chamber music of Arthur Honegger.

    Wesley was the founder of the Plymouth String Quartet, with whom he was a top prize-winner in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and a finalist in the Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition. He was also cellist of the James Piano Quartet for five years, with residencies at both Sweet Briar College and the Wintergreen Festival. More recently he has been a member of the Edison Piano Trio. Solo and chamber music performing honors Baldwin has received include the Prix Mercure, Homer Ulrich Awards, and a Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Performing Artist Fellowship.

    As a member and principal cellist of the New World Symphony, Baldwin performed with many of the world’s great conductors and toured Japan, Scotland, England, Argentina, and Brazil. His orchestral colleagues there selected him as the recipient of the New World Symphony’s Community Board Award for artistic integrity and leadership. For many years Wesley served on New World Symphony regional audition committee panels throughout the U.S.

    Dr. Baldwin has performed chamber music at the Aspen, Cazenovia, Hot Springs, Ojai, Sandpoint, Mainly Mozart, May in Miami, Skaneateles, and Sub-tropics Music Festivals, and internationally in Italy, France, Monte Carlo, Spain, Austria, Brazil, Argentina, the United Kingdom, and Costa Rica. In 2017 and again in 2018 he had extended tours performing and teaching in China. In January of 2020 Wesley performed in a series of chamber concerts with the Ensemble D’Amici  in South Korea.

    In the summers he performs and teaches at the Michigan City Chamber Music Festival, the ARIA International Academy, and at the Wintergreen Festival, where he is the principal cellist of the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra. In 2022 he founded the Ursus String Camp held at the University of Tennessee.

    Currently Professor of Cello at UT, where he received the Chancellor’s Award for Professional Promise, Wesley previously taught at the University of Maryland and at Florida International University, where he was artist-in-residence with the Plymouth Quartet. He. His former students play and teach throughout the United States and Malaysia, and have received honors including a 2021 Marshall Scholarship for graduate study at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

    Dr. Baldwin’s commitment to string education extends beyond his work at the University of Tennessee. He founded and directs the Tennessee Cello Workshop, an annual three-day gathering of more than 170 cellists of all ages from throughout the United States held each February. After serving as conductor of the Knoxville Youth Chamber Orchestra for 15 years, he now serves as Director of the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Association Chamber Music program. In Knoxville he also serves as Co-Director of the Knoxville Suzuki Academy.

    Wesley lives in Knoxville with his wife, soprano Melisa Barrick Baldwin, and four wonderful children. www.wesleybaldwincello.com

    Jennifer Bloch
    From Sebastopol, Calif., Jennifer Bloch joined the KSO in 1999 to play the viola. She had previously performed at several music festivals, including festivals in Aspen, Colo., Interlochen, Mich., and Round Top, Texas. She was also a faculty member of the Amherst Quartet at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Mich. She attended Vanderbilt University for her undergraduate degree in viola performance and Indiana University for her master’s degree. She loves to travel, ski, read, and spend time with her family. She also teaches private viola lessons.

     

    Sean Claire
    Since 1990, Sean Claire has been a member of the Core of the Knoxville Symphony
    Orchestra; during his tenure he has served in a variety of roles including Acting Principal Second Violin and Acting Associate Concertmaster, which included an extended period as Concertmaster. He has appeared as soloist with the Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra numerous times and also holds the distinction of being the first of a select group of solo performers in the KSO’s Music and Wellness program. For his work in Music and Wellness, Claire was one of five musicians nationwide awarded the Ford Musician Award for Excellence in Community Service by the League of American Orchestras in 2021. In addition, Claire holds the position of Concertmaster with the Symphony of the Mountains (Kingsport, TN) and has appeared there several times as soloist. His position at the Symphony of the Mountains, along with his extensive orchestral and teaching experience, led to a temporary position at East Tennessee State University (2015-16) as Instructor of Violin and Viola, and Chamber Music Coach. Some of his other orchestral credits include Nashville Chamber Orchestra (TN), the Bryan Symphony Orchestra in Cookeville (TN), the Syracuse Symphony (NY), and the Asheville Symphony (NC).

    Claire is an active chamber musician, studio musician, and recitalist. He has performed numerous recitals and chamber programs in the East Tennessee area including Knoxville Symphony’s Concertmaster and Friends series, Lincoln Memorial University, Classics at the Laurel Theater, Knoxville Pro Musica, St John’s Cathedral, University of Tennessee Knoxville Guest Artist Recital Series, and Oak Ridge Coffee Concerts. He has enjoyed summering at various music festivals such as the Oregon Coast Festival (OR), the Bear Valley Music Festival (CA), and the Crested Butte Music Festival (CO). In the last several years he has been a regular performer with the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, collaborating with many internationally known artists. He is also a founding member of the Sally Miner String Quartet and the Knoxville String Quartet. He recently has begun frequent recording studio collaborations with ‘cellist and crossover artist Dave Eggar, creating string sections for various artists such as Rolling Stones, Stone Temple Pilots, Dana and the Wolf, Aloe Blacc, and others.

    A native of California, Claire began his studies at age 11 and subsequently made his first solo appearance with the North Coast Symphony at the age of 15. At the age of 16, he was admitted to San Diego State University with a full scholarship to study with Professor Michael Tseitlin. During the next three years, he placed highly in several competitions including the La Jolla Young Artists Competition, which included a solo appearance with the La Jolla Civic Orchestra, and the Musical Merit Competition of Greater San Diego, which included a fellowship to the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. He then continued his studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, and at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA with renowned Professor Zvi Zeitlin.

    Claire lives in Knoxville with his wife Stacy where they enjoy such activities as cycling, yoga, chess, cooking, and weight training. He is also an avid downhill skier and mountain/road cyclist.

    Clarice Shaub
    Violinist and teacher Clarice Shaub has established herself as a highly respected teacher and versatile musician of the 21st century, with a repertoire spanning music across genres and periods. A graduate of Arizona State University, where she studied with acclaimed professor Danwen Jiang, she received her undergraduate and a dual master’s degree in performance and pedagogy. She also studied with Grigory Kalinovsky and Arkady Fomin, and has participated in masterclasses with the Juilliard Quartet, the Ying Quartet, and world-renowned pedagogue Mimi Zweig.

    Ms. Shaub has performed as soloist and in recitals at prestigious halls across the U.S., including Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, where she was invited to perform in 2014 as part of the InterHarmony Concert Series. She has also devoted much of her professional career to the advancement of contemporary music and composers. Her contemporary music festival credits include the Institute and Festival for Contemporary Performance at Mannes, Annual PRISMS New Music Festival, the American Composer Alliance concert series, the Society of Composers Incorporated Conference, the Samuel Beckett and Morton Feldman Conference, and the ASU West New Music Festival. Other festival appearances include Pablo Casals (Prades, France) and the HARPA International Academy in Reykjavik, Iceland, where she served as Principal Second Violin of the festival orchestra.

    In addition to performing regularly with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra as a substitute, she has performed with orchestras throughout East Tennessee and is currently Principal Second Violin of the Brevard Philharmonic in North Carolina. While studying at Arizona State University, she performed as Principal Second Violin with the ProMusica Orchestra and the Arizona Contemporary Music Ensemble.

    A violinist and violist, Ms. Shaub’s extensive background and research in the study of musical pedagogy gives her a broad range of capabilities. Students of all ages, backgrounds, and diverse goals are welcome in her studio and thrive under her teaching philosophy.

  • Rehearsal Schedule & Location

  • Auditions/Application

    Auditions & Applications for 2023-24 season

    Click Here for the 23-24 Chamber Music Program Audition Form

    Audition Fee: $20
    Membership Fee:
    $350 for students enrolling in Chamber Music Program (approximately $8 per session)
    $200 for students enrolled in Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Association (approximately $14 per session)

    Students interested in auditioning for the CMP must submit an audition video. Auditions will not be held in person. Videos should be no more than 5-7 minutes long. Musical Selections can include, but are not limited to, the KSYOA Youth Orchestra Experts, past or present ETSBOA Audition Piece, or a musical selection of equal or greater challenge. 

    Please use the link below to submit your audition. You can attach your video immediately to the audition form, or submit via email by the audition deadline. 

    https://forms.gle/ecmt4ScR95Pr6MT48

    Video Audition due August 25, 2023

    For more information on the Chamber Music Program, contact Erin Gonzalez, Education and Community Partnerships Coordinator.