Vermont Music and Arts Center

VERMONT MUSIC AND ARTS CENTER is a workshop f

or serious amateur musicians who would like to play chamber music in an informal and congenial atmosphere, to "take a vacation with music." The program includes optional chamber music classes, coaching, concerts, and recreational playing. The typical day can be as busy or as relaxed as a participant makes it.

Participants design their own programs, attend scheduled events if and as they choose, form groups to play together informally, and obtain staff assistance as desired. A unique feature of the workshop is that staff

members often play in participant ensembles, giving our VMACers the pleasure and experience of playing with fine professional musicians. The staff will help you to form playing groups, but does not impose arbitrary assignments. Participants need to be careful not to double-book any playing session, and to keep track of the time and place of each session booked.

To derive maximum benefit from the program, participants should come prepared to play at least a few works from the standard chamber literature. The staff will gladly provide coaching on prepared works. Elementary instruction is not offered, but experienced musicians who are new to playing chamber music are very welcome.

It is helpful if participants number the measures of their parts for Works of the Week, since others may have brought different editions with different rehearsal letters. Measure numbers for each movement have been added to the "Events" page. For an extensive list of measure numbers (30-page PDF file) we are indebted to The Chamber Music Conference and Composers' Forum of the East, the summer program held at Bennington College.

Participants are automatically members of the Vermont Music and Arts Association. The members elect a governing board, which administers the Center. The board is pictured below at its meeting in October, 2006.