STRING CHAMBER MUSIC PROGRAM RETURNS STRONGER THAN EVER By Zachary Lewis
Philip Setzer and Si-Yan Darren Li performing alongside students in a collaborative chamber music recital, Philip Setzer and Friends, on April 29 (photos by Robert Muller)
The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t just spare the renowned string chamber music program at CIM. True to the old adage, it made it stronger. So, at least, says cellist Si-Yan Darren Li, program director of string chamber music, which is comprised of dozens of groups. When, after lockdown, he sat down to play with students and colleagues again, the difference, he says, was palpable. “CIM students have always loved chamber music, but this time there was an urge,” Li recalls. “It was very inspirational and encouraging for me as a teacher.”
The experience of Philip Setzer, artistic director of string chamber music, was even more profound. At that point, the founding violinist of the legendary Emerson String Quartet had only been on the faculty at CIM a short while. Thus, for him, returning to live music was like living a famous scene from The Wizard of Oz. He was the man behind the curtain and his students at CIM were Dorothy and her friends, meeting a figure they’d only known virtually. “Some of these people, I hadn’t seen them in person yet,” Setzer recalls. “We’d only worked together online. Hearing their sound and my sound finally come together was truly, deeply moving. It was the same for every student I saw.”
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