DIGITAL CONCERT HALL

Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival opens virtual season

The shift from in-person to online events during the 2020 pandemic is taking the annual Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival from East Carolina University’s Fletcher Hall to concertgoers’ own homes.

In residence at the ECU School of Music, the festival has presented more than 330 public concerts and 550 master classes, including two performances at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and a six-concert tour of Israel, over the past 20 years.

The change to a virtual format will allow the audience to interact directly with musicians performing in weeklong residencies this fall, including a celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday.

“We’ve worked hard to come up with a season that we think will be unbelievably exciting and full of great music,” said Ara Gregorian, Four Seasons artistic director and ECU professor of music. “It’s really designed to bring people into what we do as musicians and to have ways of interacting with musicians.”

Ara Gregorian, artistic director of the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, has been on the violin/viola faculty at ECU since 1998.

Each residency offers added extras ranging from backstage Zoom rooms where audience members can talk with artists to master classes with ECU students.

“Nearly all of our events have opportunities for personal interaction between artists and audience members,” said John Holloway, managing director. “We feel like this is important because it helps eliminate the barrier between the audience and musicians, and has a special intimacy considering everyone is joining these sessions from their own homes.”

Residency events include:

• Children’s shows in partnership with The Concert Truck, a mobile concert hall for classical music;
• Next Gen Day — master classes featuring ECU students performing for guest artists;
• One-on-one interviews with artists that are audience-led;
• FS In Depth — Similar to a lifelong learning course, but in a less academic way, the audience can listen to more iconic pieces and artists;
• Insight into the repertoire being performed and designed to help listeners enjoy the concert more;
• Virtual Backstage — audience members can join Zoom rooms immediately following concerts to talk with musicians and ask questions.

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We decided to announce our season by the seasons this year. It’s a fun nod to our name and also a way to roll with the times because it’s so hard to know what the coming months will bring. The idea of being able to plan and craft what we do by the season feels like the right thing to do.

- Ara Gregorian, Four Seasons artistic director

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Ara Gregorian high-fives a student aboard The Concert Truck, a mobile venue for classical music, at Pactolus Elementary School in April 2019.

This year, there’s a special focus on Four Seasons Community, an initiative that aims to make music accessible to everyone, Holloway said.

The Four Seasons Community includes a mini-series with The Concert Truck as well as a partnership with Lullaby Dreams, led by ECU faculty member and Four Seasons violinist Hye-Jin Kim, which provides music and storytelling to patients at Maynard Children’s Hospital.

Additionally, concerts are available on demand in all patient rooms at Vidant Cancer Care and on LCD screens throughout the Greenville hospital.

Pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute performs in November 2018.

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