How to Succeed in an Ensemble: Reflections on a Life in Chamber Music Book

"A great second violinist plays second fiddle to no one," wrote Robert C. Marsh in the Chicago Sun-Times when Abram Loft left the renowned Fine Arts Quartet in 1979 to chair the string department at the Eastman School of Music. Today performer-coach-scholar-raconteur Loft still wants every chamber musician to be a strong, collaborative ensemble voice. Loft had spent a quarter century in ensemble life with the Fine Arts. His intrepid Chicago team played worldwide, had a landmark concert series on home turf, became professors at the University of Wisconsin?Milwaukee, and created a prodigious library of recordings. Their earlier freelance years featured such enterprising endeavors as three series on educational TV, performances on commercial television and radio, jingles for advertising, and even background music for funeral homes. Here is hard-headed advice on choosing colleagues, rehearsing and performing effectively together, building repertoire, programming, touring, and other facets of the art and business of a chamber music career. Ranging from hilarious to sobering, this is essential reading for music-lovers at large, amateur players, students and teachers, and today's many emerging professional ensembles. Recent events in the field, including some strident litigation, highlight the usefulness of this veteran's realistic counsel. Loft aims to help ensembles endure and prosper as they put their individual stamp on the superb chamber repertoire. He points out both peaks and pitfalls along "the yellow-brick road to Carnegie Hall."Read More