In-School Performances

Each year, Friends of Chamber Music sponsors school assembly performances by professional chamber music ensembles. These concerts combine age-appropriate music theory with accessible classical music. Groups such as The Playground, the Ivy String Ensemble, and FCM’s new Resident Quartet offer what is often the first live classical music experience for some students.  In any given year, Friends of Chamber Music’s educational outreach program reaches more than 3,500 students.

We are able to offer up to two 45-minute assembly performances (back-to-back) for Denver Public Schools, free of charge, thanks to support from the SCFD and Bowen Family Performing Arts Fund. All programs feature fun and interactive classical music programs. For a description of the ensembles and programs available, see below. A list of repertoire for each is available upon request.

Available Programs

Timberline Quartet – Stories in Sound

Friends of Chamber Music’s new Resident Quartet, the Timberline Quartet, brings learning to life with Stories in Sound—a lively program designed to ignite curiosity and connect music to students’ everyday experiences.  Through carefully chosen works, the quartet explores how sound tells stories, carries history, and reflects identity. Students will hear classical favorites like Britten’s Simple Symphony and Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, alongside exciting contemporary music by Jessie Montgomery and familiar tunes from movies and video games.

This engaging mix of music and storytelling invites students to listen actively, make real-world connections, and discover how imagination and creativity shape the way we understand the world.

Rosinance

Rosinance will activate your senses through the sights and sounds of a string quartet (2 violins, viola, and cello). How do these stringed wooden boxes, played with horsehair on a stick or plucked by human fingers, produce such a wide variety of sounds? What have different composers throughout the years written for this ensemble that change how we play or what we play? And why does music create such a wide range of emotional responses in us? Rosinance will explore these questions through a set of musical numbers that will capture the attention of all ages.

Ivy Street Ensemble

With its program, Can You Hear the Difference?,  the Ivy Street Ensemble (violin, viola, and flute) presents a classical music program with music from many periods and styles.  The ensemble showcases the different sounds of string instruments and several flutes.  Ivy Street reinforces basic science as they demonstrate the correlation between the size of the instrument and the sound of the instrument. They also highlight the idea of theme and variation (useful in teaching writing) with words, music, and audience participation.  Program is designed for all elementary school audiences (minimum of 125 per performance).  Click here to hear a performance excerpt from the Ivy Street Ensemble.

Bartels Brass

The Bartels Brass is a dynamic ensemble of orchestral brass players  (2 trumpets, trombone, french horn, tuba) all currently performing with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.  Delivering an unmatched caliber of brass playing, these musicians have extensive performing and teaching experience.  The Bartels Brass offers students a detailed educational program featuring individual instrument demonstrations mixed with lively brass music from a wide variety of periods and styles. 

The Playground

The Playground’s performances help inspire students to create music.  In addition to winds and string instruments, their instrumentation includes percussion, piano, and voice.

Soundpainting:  Designed for elementary school audiences, students create music in a spontaneous and improvisatory way using this unique hand gesture language.  Playground musicians teach students hand gestures and then make music together. By the end of the session, students will be performing, composing, conducting, and laughing!  This system works regardless of training, skill level or genre preference and meets Colorado State Standards for composition, performance, and improvisation.