Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Opening The Chamber
Kashiwagi wants to make classical music accessible
Tomoko Kashiwagi wants to talk about chamber music, and she’s inviting the audience into the conversation. “What I really want to do is to help people understand we don’t just get together and play perfectly, we actually think about things. We discuss things,” she says of the small ensembles that play classical music.
“That’s the fun part of our chamber music! The musicians, while we are rehearsing, we actually really get to think together about what we’re performing.”
Kashiwagi, who is known for the Chamber Music on the Mountain festival that brings chamber music to audiences around Northwest Arkansas each summer, has been working since March of last year to found Chamber Music of the Ozarks. The organization seeks to bring affordable and accessible Chamber Music concerts and events to the area throughout the year.
CMO’s first event is the Fresh Start 2024: Chamber Music 101 Community Clinic to give audiences a peek “behind the scenes.” A small group of musicians — some of whom are intermediate-level, high school players — explore playing together for the first time.
“I’ve asked them to learn a very, very short piece, and we’re going to have them meet for the first time, and we’re going to walk through the rehearsal process. So if somebody who’s a music lover wants to get together and start playing around with chamber music with their friends, they know what kind of things they can work on together. It’s kind of like a demonstration,” she says.
“It’s nothing stuffy!” she adds. The event takes place at the Folk School of Fayetteville, an organization that prides itself on the concept of “people teaching people” by providing practice and lesson space to local music teachers as well as an instrument library that allows patrons to check out instruments in the same fashion that one would borrow a library book. The school also hosts free monthly jam sessions that invite people to just listen or play along.
Kashiwagi says that she wanted to host an event with Folk School after attending one of the folk jam sessions.
“I love the vibe of the space. They’ve
done such a good job creating some more visually interesting space in there,” she says. Plus the Folk School’s mission of making music more accessible matches Kashiwagi’s own goal of bringing more classical and chamber music events to the area through CMO.
Following Fresh Start will be a small, ticketed concert by Wild Prairie Winds, a five-piece wind ensemble with members from Arkansas, Texas, Maine, Indiana and West Virginia, who approached Kashiwagi about bringing their “Southern Reverie” Masterworks series to the area for a weekend residency. The ticketed event will include pizza and a beverage as well as a chance to talk with the members of the quintet.
“We’ve been a nonprofit since 2020 and have dedicated ourselves to the accessibility of chamber music through diverse programming and creative concert settings,” says Katey J. Halbert, who is a member of Wild Prairie Winds and the visiting assistant professor of horn at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
The group will also lead clinics and performances at Fayetteville and Prairie Grove High Schools. Additionally, they’ll perform a free concert from 1-2 p.m. Jan. 14 at Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park.
“We challenge ourselves to choose repertoire that will be relatable to our audiences rather than just programming pieces that are standard to the woodwind quintet,” Halbert says. For this series, they have chosen works that have folk and bluegrass influences, including Roger Goeb’s “Prairie Songs” and Greg Danner’s “Into the Blue.”
“We’ve also chosen William Grant Still’s ‘Miniatures for Wind Quintet’ both because of his connection to Arkansas and the folk song roots,” Halbert says. They will also play other pieces based on Civil War tunes and society dance music like “When Johnny” by Louis Lambert, “Civil War Songs” by Fiona Hickie, Quadrille Suite No. 2 by G.W.E Friedrich and newer selections.
On Jan. 27, CMO will host a Classical Music Social at Heroncrest Event Center. There will be a special concert by volunteer musicians on one side of the venue. In another part, organizations that are dedicated to classical music will set up tables with resources about their organizations. Kashiwagi hopes that it leads to more partnerships and concerts, but ultimately, she wants to provide access to music.
“There are so many musicians who don’t touch their instrument, or don’t come and engage in things because they’re a little bit scared or maybe hesitant because they might not think [they’re] good enough, or they haven’t played enough,” says Kashiwagi, but she thinks it’s important to provide a space for chamber music lovers no matter their level of knowledge or ability.
“I want to grow this community to be such a welcoming place for people like that.”