By James Nelson
Photo by Bruce Frisch: Harumi Rhodes, violin, and Benjamin Hochman, piano, play a Friday concert at the Music Shed.

Melvin Chen and company are all hard at work putting everything in place for the coming Norfolk Chamber Music Festival programs. Yes, we work on Norfolk year-round—planning, organizing, recruiting, fund-raising, marketing, more planning, hiring summer staff, and even more planning. Our goal is to have so much done by the time we move to Norfolk that we can sit back, relax, and enjoy one of the most beautiful summer locations in New England. Ok, that’s never happened. But we can dream. 

We’ve been asked many times how the music for the summer concerts is chosen. The last few years we have enjoyed Melvin Chen’s plan of organizing many of the summer’s programs under an overarching theme, which has brought a new dimension and depth to our Music Shed concerts. The curatorial approach has been focused on our Friday night programs, as the music for the Saturday concerts is chosen by the string quartets in residence each week. And we’ve found that linking the concerts to a theme has been popular with our audiences as Friday night attendance has grown over the last two years. Good news!

By mid-summer Melvin has narrowed down the theme for the following year, and programming begins in the fall months as we finalize commitments for faculty artists. Melvin will request specific pieces as he talks with incoming faculty. There is always some discussion following, with suggestions or requests for other works, but the focus of the programs remains intact to the greatest extent possible.

It can resemble a sophisticated chess game as Melvin incorporates the total schedule into his thinking, aiming for balance and a progression of the idea through the entire summer season. You don’t have to attend every concert, but if you do, we hope you will find a pattern, a journey through the concerts, as we explore different facets of the season’s theme.

This approach to programming has also been supported by including Norfolk fellows on the Friday night programs, who then perform along with their mentors. The outstanding caliber of our fellows is central to this concept, which allows us greater flexibility and range in choosing the makeup and size of ensembles. This requires a trust in the festival’s ability to attract the finest young musicians to spend their summer in Norfolk, as the programming is determined without knowing exactly who our fellows will be for the summer. And it all works!

The student body at Norfolk are not all from our home base although the Yale School of Music is always well represented. Whether from Yale or elsewhere, they come from around the world to gain admittance to the program. It all starts with an application, recorded video samples of their musicianship and references from their teachers. The submissions are all done digitally now, and our deadline is in early January. (Until about five years ago we relied on mailed-in applications, resumes, CVs and CDs or DVDs. How quickly things have changed for the better in this regard!)

From those applications and recordings we invite select applicants to a live audition. Live auditions are held in the major music centers of the country: New Haven, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Houston, and Los Angeles. Each audition runs only about ten to fifteen minutes, with the applicant performing repertoire specified in the application process. Melvin Chen is joined in the Boston, New Haven and New York auditions by other Norfolk faculty, but he travels to the other cities and records the auditions them, which the Norfolk faculty then review to select our candidates.

Once we offer fellowships to the successful candidates, they have up to ten days to accept or decline. On acceptance, they sign an agreement and must pay a refundable deposit to hold their place. We compete for fellows with the other major summer programs around the world, such as Aspen, Ravinia, Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, Tanglewood, and Verbier in Switzerland.

We are proud to note that Norfolk, Conn. is a respected center for music education internationally and that our programs have been enjoyed by an ever-improving student body and by an ever-growing attendance at our concerts. 

James Nelson is the general manager of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, which runs this year from June 28 to August 17.