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Published: Saturday, 04 January 2025 at 10:00 AM
Playing chamber music can make you a more empathetic person… here’s how
Read on to discover the importance of playing chamber music… for both amateurs and professional musicians
Playing chamber music promotes ‘deep listening’
Chamber music made me fall in love with music, and later made me think about becoming a musician. I think what regular chamber music experience has given me, and what I then bring to my solo and concerto performances, is a sense of deep listening.
When you’re playing in a small chamber ensemble, you are sensitive to everything: to the surroundings, the acoustics, the timings and, of course, to what the other performers in the room with you are seeking to express.
Playing chamber music encourages openness, sensitivity and teamwork
Here, you forget about what you practised the day before and you just concentrate on re-creating this music on the spot. And, for me, this kind of openness and sensitivity is much more accessible with chamber music than as a soloist – because there are other people reacting, so nothing’s ever the same.
The other great thing about chamber music is the shared experience. You are a team, and you share so much: you create, travel, eat, cry, laugh together, and all of this feeds into the music you make.
Playing chamber music gives you more freedom
It might sound counterintuitive, but I think that playing with others actually gives you more freedom. Obviously on one level, it’s a freer atmosphere than in an orchestra – you can plan rehearsals to suit the whole group, and discuss what rep you would like to play together. But also, as a soloist you can tend to shut yourself inside certain parameters – you play this piece in this way.
Playing with a small group gives you more freedom, not less, because your level of communication can really impact the whole experience and the music you make together.
Eva Zavaro’s new disc of works by Fauré and Szymanowski is out now on La Dolce Volta