The Grand Valley State University Chamber Orchestra and select members of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble will be performing in the Cook-DeWitt center Nov. 12 at 8 p.m.

The concert will feature varied styles of ensembles, including a brass quintet, a woodwind quartet and a percussion ensemble. During the second half of the program, the Chamber Orchestra will perform “Serenade for Tenor, Horn and String” by composer Benjamin Britten.

Conductor Henry Duitman said a lot of people have been performing Britten’s work this year because it is his 100th anniversary.

“We’re just doing one piece with the Chamber Orchestra, but we’re including our professor of tenor, Min Jin, and professor of horn, Rick Britsch. They’re just fabulous,” Duitman said. “These are pieces done by super professionals; they’re really hard. It’s an amazing piece.”

All of the lyrics for the Britten piece are from poems written by famous poets like William Blake, Alfred Lord Tennyson and John Keats.

While there will be members of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble playing in the concert, all of the music is for small groups of musicians.

“It’s all chamber music,” Duitman said. “There are just huge benefits to the students doing chamber music. It’s much more challenging to be the only one on a part. It’s much more intimate. It really encourages people to really know their own part.”

The Chamber Orchestra members are the top string players at GVSU, but the music still presents a challenge to them.

“The chamber music is more difficult,” viola player Elizabeth Boyce said. “It’s in a smaller setting, so it’s really different. There’s a lot more power to a big orchestra just because you’ll have a lot more big brass instruments, but in a chamber ensemble, it’s a lot more refined and will sound more professional.”

This is the first concert put on by the GVSU music department that is solely chamber music, and Duitman said the student musicians have a lot to learn from the experience.

“The difference is hearing something in a large hall versus hearing something done just for you in a more intimate setting,” Duitman said. “Cook-DeWitt is a smaller setting, and chamber music comes from the idea of music in almost a home situation, like a king would have a small orchestra just for him. It’s much harder to be the only one on a part. (Students are) more responsible for their parts than in a larger group. The students really excel at it.”

Duitman said he hopes the students can learn from each other, as the string and wind players rarely play at the same concerts.

“I hope the students will listen to each other a lot,” Duitman said. “The band kids do band things, and the orchestra kids do the orchestra thing, and I hope they’ll listen to each other and realize they’re all doing things together and studying together.”

The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.gvsu.edu/music.
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