Our Chione Quintet’s Focus on Performance, Women & Educational Outreach

Chione Quintet is a Twin Cities-based all-female woodwind quintet comprised of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and French horn. The unique and evolving medium provides an outlet to explore and create new sounds while redefining and rediscovering lesser-known music. 

Our Commitment to Collaboration

We are committed to collaborating with professionals of all genres and creative outlets, with particular interests in commissioning new pieces and performing works by female artists. Throughout each endeavor, we aim to reach a wide range of audiences with the hopes of inspiring contemporary and aspiring artists as well as supporters of the arts.

Since Chione’s inception, we have performed live on the Classical Station of Minnesota Public Radio (MPR). 

We performed as classical pop-up artists representing Classical MPR at the 2017 Saint Paul Winter Carnival Beer Dabbler, as well as for the Current’s 2018 Rock the Cradle event. 

We Bring Musical Literacy to Children Throughout Minnesota

In addition to performing, we also hold our annual “quINTENS!VE Chamber Music Camp,” working with middle and high school students through coaching, and playing chamber music. We perform numerous self-presented performances throughout the year in venues such as the Schubert Club, Macphail Center for Music, Icehouse-Minneapolis, Can-Can Wonderland, and the Women’s Club. I

n March of 2018, we made our debut as “Courtroom Concert Artists” at the Schubert Club, performing a concert of works written solely by women.  

We have also shared our educational program, “Story Time with Chione” throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin. This program educates students by telling a story through music and narration. 

In addition to touring and presenting Story Time with Chione on our own, we partnered with the Mankato Symphony Orchestra for a tour sponsored by the Minnesota State Arts Board, playing in 30 different libraries throughout Southeastern Minnesota. 

We shared this program again in the 2018-2019 academic year with elementary schools in the Twin Cities as Classical Minnesota Public Radio’s “Class Notes Artists.” In 2019-2020, We were able to bring “Story Time with Chione” to Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin in a tour sponsored by Chamber Music America. 

We also presented the program at a sensory event for children for the MacPhail Center for Music in Apple Valley, MN. In those programs, we have performed “Peter and the Wolf,” “One Hen,” written by Katie Smith Milway and composed by Justin Casinghino, “Paka’a Lanakila,” composed by Jon Magnussen, “The Unhappy Aardvark,” composed by Paul Harris, and “The Emperor’s New Prose,” composed by Abbie Betinis.

We Founded the “quINTENS!VE Chamber Music Camp”

Because of our passion for community outreach and education, Chione founded “quINTENS!VE Chamber Music Camp” in 2017. quINTENS!VE is a five-day camp for youth in grades 7-12 that focuses on woodwind chamber music repertoire, individual instruction, group coachings, and supplementary classes. Members of Chione Quintet serve as artistic faculty as well as staff; members serve in the roles of teaching and administratively supporting the camp. 

The Upcoming 2020 quINTENS!VE Chamber Music Camp

Our Chione Quintet is presenting its third annual quINTENS!VE Chamber Music camp from July 30th to August 3rd, 2020. The quintet’s goal is to reach 25-30 youth in grades 7-12. We intend to provide a well-rounded experience for becoming a better musician. 

Participants of our camp must have experience playing a woodwind quintet instrument (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, or bassoon). We will accept applicants irrespective of their current level of musical ability. 

Using a “blind audition” process, we will match and assign each student into their primary chamber groups, consisting of woodwind quintets, quartets, or trios. Also, we will group students into a second chamber ensemble with participants of varying musical abilities along with faculty musicians. The groups will consist of 7-9 people. 

Repertoire will be chosen beforehand by faculty after the blind audition. Repertoire options of varying difficulty levels will offer students opportunities for growth that are accessible within the camp’s time-span, given their current skill and technique levels. Throughout the week, faculty will work with students individually and in their chamber groups. On the final day of camp, participants will present a final performance at Arts in the Park at Thompson Park, at an arts festival in West Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Our “quINTENS!VE Chamber Music Camp”Offers a Well-Rounded Experience

The quINTENS!VE Chamber Music Camp allows students to have an intensive and well-rounded experience with chamber music repertoire. Many students may not find opportunities either in or outside of their school music programs to rehearse and perform chamber music. 

Most of the time, students work in larger groups such as bands or orchestras rather than in the smaller and more intimate setting that chamber groups provide. quINTENS!VE offers a rare opportunity for students in grades 7-12 to learn in this unique setting. Chamber music enables students to play a more prominent and more independent role in creating music because each group only contains one or two of each woodwind instrument.

 Our students work together in their chamber ensembles to learn chamber music repertoire. Through rehearsals and coachings with faculty, our students learn a variety of skills necessary for performing music as a group, including open communication and problem-solving. For example, students must learn how to communicate effectively with each other to rehearse difficult passages of music. Students will receive 1-2 hours of side-by-side coachings per day.

 Students receive coachings on how to run a rehearsal effectively. Running a successful rehearsal requires quick problem-solving, strong verbal communication skills, and the ability to compromise. Learning these skills and using them within a rehearsal will help students to:

• Work on problem spots within the music rather than just play through pieces
• Learn to make sound artistic choices
• Determine how much time to spend working on a specific section of a composition or an entire piece within the allotted rehearsal time

Other benefits for students who participate in the quINTENS!VE Chamber Music Camp:

• Students receive instruction relevant to their instruments from faculty members who play those same specific instruments
• Faculty members give each student one 30-minute private lesson during quINTENS!VE
• Students will also receive one 30-minute group session each day of warm-ups or master classes from faculty members on their instrument 

Additional topics presented in our camp:

• Alexander Technique for increasing body awareness to enhance comfort and ease in playing
• Music theory
• Music History
• Entrepreneurship
• Practice techniques
• Reed-making
• Audition Preparation

As part of our music entrepreneurship class, Twin Cities-based chamber groups perform live concerts for our students. These groups will give 1-hour performances during the week to broaden participants’ horizons concerning unconventional and innovative chamber groups. 

Alexander Technique classes will help students build awareness about how their physical habits (e.g., posture, tension, breathing) influence their tone and technique. Students will learn ways to incorporate conscious attention towards healthy body usage into daily practice.

Our Students Learn Compositions of Composers – Women & Culturally Diverse

As part of our mission, members of our Chione Quintet learn and perform pieces written by composers of diverse backgrounds. quINTENS!VE provides an opportunity to expose young musicians to these rarely performed pieces. 

Composers of the selected repertoire have included: Valerie Coleman, an African-American female composer; Stacey Berk, a Midwestern female composer; Pauline Hall, a Norwegian female composer; William Grant Still, an African-American composer; and Jeff Scott, an Africa-American composer. 

For information on any aspect of our Chione Quintet’s activities, please contact us at [email protected].