Summer at CIM heats up with launch of new 2024 Chamber Music Intensive

Summer at CIM just got a whole lot livelier.  

No longer silent after Commencement, CIM’s halls in June 2024 will instead ring with the splendid sounds of a new Chamber Music Intensive, or CMI@CIM, announced Monday. 

The new program, intended for high school, collegiate, and pre-professional string players, will run June 15-23 under the direction of acclaimed chamber musician Todd Phillips and faculty cellist Si-Yan Darren Li, Director of String and Piano Chamber Music.  

“We are thrilled to begin this new workshop at CIM, which promises to be an inspired week of great music-making,” said Phillips, a member of CIM’s visiting chamber music faculty. 

Participants in the new intensive will enjoy ample opportunities to perform and train in groups with some of the field’s top educators, including special guest artist, violinist Catherine Cho, a violin instructor at The Juilliard School.  

All will be assigned a seat in a string quartet or quintet and receive daily coaching from faculty artists leading up to a final concert June 22 in CIM’s Mixon Hall. Regular masterclasses will also afford opportunities to play solo repertoire.  

In addition, all participants will rehearse and perform in a conductor-less chamber orchestra guided by Phillips, a founding member of the Orion String Quartet and 40-year member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Phillips also serves on the faculties of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and the Manhattan School of Music. 

A winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Cho won top prizes at the Montreal, Hanover, and Queen Elizabeth International Violin Competitions. She also has served on the juries of major international violin competitions and taught master classes worldwide.

Pre-registration for CMI@CIM is open now, and decisions will be announced in early March. To audition, individual candidates must send recorded performances of two solo works in contrasting styles. Pre-formed string quartets are also welcome to apply. Those applicants should send video recordings of two contrasting quartet works. Scholarship opportunities are available, upon audition.

More information about CMI@CIM, including a fee schedule and the pre-registration form, can be found at the program’s website, cim.edu/chambermusicintensive.  

For more information about CIM in general, visit cim.edu.