Concerts, School Shows, and Commissions: Experiences of a Gigging Quartet

The Four Corners Quartet recently received a C. Farrell Scholarship grant to travel to high schools around Washington state to promote the horn, chamber music, and music for horn quartet. In the process of completing this project, the quartet will travel to and perform for at least twelve schools, addressing issues of developing an appealing personality for the group, interacting as a chamber ensemble, choosing quality repertoire for different audiences, commissioning a new work and working with a living composer, communicating and working with school music directors, organizing travel and performance schedules, and navigating funding. The proposed presentation will summarize the quartet’s experiences in each of these areas, and will include performances of music used as a part of this project. The Four Corners Quartet is a student chamber group from Central Washington University that has been active since Winter 2017. The quartet has put on full and partial recitals, played in local music series, and won Second Place/Honorable Mention in the Amateur Quartet Competition at IHS 2018