Currently, Hockaday, St. Marks, and Greenhill — with plans to include Ursuline, Jesuit, ESD, and Cistercian.
Membership information is shared at the start of each semester. Contact us through your school’s music department. Any string or piano player at an intermediate level or higher with an interest in meeting other musicians and playing chamber music! Previous experience with chamber music is NOT required.
Yes, auditions are required to ensure group balance and playing level.
Strings, piano, woodwinds, and select brass instruments.
Rehearsals are typically hosted at participating schools or local community centers. Your group will decide after your first rehearsal. Depending on how many movements/pieces you are playing and how well the music matches your skill level, you will need to rehearse every month to every week. If your group has very low general availability, you might choose a low-level piece so that you don’t have to meet as often. If your group has very high general availability, you might choose multiple movements of a piece and meet every weekend.
Two main recitals each year — January and April — plus smaller coffeehouse and service performances.
You can partner with us for community performances or help coordinate events through school clubs.
Generally, we suggest intermediate or higher for strings: In the GDYO orchestras, DSE or higher; Book 4 Suzuki or later. For piano, skill level should be at least late intermediate (Mozart K330 1st mov or Ravel Sonatine 1st mov) since piano parts in chamber music will always be the hardest. We will always try to match similar leveled people in chamber groups. If you are unsure whether you are at a good level, reach out to us at abigailmau27@gmail.com for strings or 27lut@smtexas.org for pianists.
It varies based on how ambitious your group is. Since groups are decided based on availability, you will be able to match the level of your piece to the amount of time you are able to spend rehearsing. In 2024, we had a group who met every Sunday from 6:00 to 9:00pm because they wanted to perform three movements of a Mendelssohn quartet; However, we also had a group who met a total of 4 times for an hour throughout the whole year because all members were able to learn the music very quickly. The load for Presidents will be more, depending on how responsible their groups are, how many of them there are, and the events related to their school.
You get to choose! Each group will discuss among themselves and decide on one or more pieces. Any time period is a viable option. If you can find the scores (We HIGHLY recommend using IMSLP for scores), you can play it. You can also ask your orchestra director for suggestions. Here are examples of pieces our groups have played: Mendelssohn String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Howl’s Moving Castle, Brahms Violin Sonata No. 1, etc.
We try to keep the groups to a maximum of 4 people for the sake of scheduling, so our main arrangements are piano trio, string quartet, and piano quartet. Any string instrument with piano is also an option (Ex. Violin sonatas); piano four-hands is an option; if you can find music, it’s an option (Ex. Piano four-hands and 2 violins, or Piano and 2 violins). You can also play a solo piece at a recital, chamber music party, or community event to practice performing. Groups are formed based on a number of goals, including mixing people from different schools, having similar availabilities and skill levels, etc.