The connection between serious music training with professional achievements isn’t a coincidence. Scientific evidence has concluded that string and piano musical lessons significantly improved children’s spatial-temporal reasoning (the basis for engineering, math and chess). Multiple studies link music study to academic achievement. The study of strings and piano based chamber music in small ensembles of two to five players develops teamwork and draws on the individual strengths of each musician.
The OPUS summer music camp provides professional-level instruction in chamber music in a peer to peer environment. The camp is popular and joyful, attracting many of same enthusiastic students year after year. Camaraderie, character-building, teamwork, cultural appreciation and musical skills are just a few of the many benefits campers come away with after attending the OPUS camp. New friendships are born and old friendships are rekindled.
A small ensemble is an intimate team where each player’s vulnerabilities are exposed; unlike hiding in the masses of an orchestra section. What young musicians gain from being the only person on their part is a sense of confidence and respect; not just that every voice should be heard, but within a hierarchy. The training creates a love to play chamber music for life.
OPUS Chamber Music performances have never stopped, even during the pandemic. OPUS pioneered first-ever virtual Chamber Music Camp in 2020, followed by a hybrid Camp in 2021. OPUS met the challenge by using advanced video-sound blending software so players could hear their sounds together. The modified program worked magically for over 100 young musicians. The Camp is unique because it includes a large variety of stimulating classes. To affect next-generation chamber musicians, OPUS uses a unique “Matrix-Coaching Schedule” where an ensemble is coached by multiple coaches specializing in each of the instrument one-on-one in rotations, followed by collective coaching.