“We want everybody to hear chamber music — people from all walks of life — all ages. Chamber music is really all about the human experience of emotions in our lives and it can touch everyone.”
After the retirement of David Palmer as artistic director of the Chamber Music Amarillo, the search began for a new talent to take the reins of the well revered, more intimate music of the chamber instrumental group.
Kathleen Carter Bell was ultimately picked to be the first female leader of CMA, a key member of the Amarillo Symphony family.
“I was actually down in El Paso when I heard the news,” she said. “My son was there for surgery but I got the call … so it was some good news. I’m just so excited. Chamber music is one of my favorite types of music to perform, and getting to be involved in this really intricate and details way, planning upcoming season and getting to work with our musicians in the area, I just can’t wait.”
Bell explained the difference between chamber music and orchestral music. “I usually explain to my students at WTAMU that it’s in the title, so chamber music came to the title. It came from way back in the day when music was performed in chambers or smaller than someone’s home, so it’s a more intimate kind of music and viewing experience.”
Originally from Pennsylvania, Bell went to graduate school in Indiana University, which is where she met her husband, Conor. He is the bass professor at WT and principal bassoon with the Amarillo Symphony orchestra, and “it was actually through him that we ended up coming here because he got the WT professor position. We’ve both hit the ground running once we got here,” she said. Bell admitted that they both play some more obscure instruments, with the oboe and bassoon not super common.
But, it has opened up the door for collaboration between the two, and that’s one of her favorite things. “My husband loved playing chamber music together, and we’ve gotten to play in orchestra together many times. When we were at Auburn, we got to collaborate on a lot of exciting events for our students on different projects with grants and all that, so we kind of made our way through different positions and we both wanted to be at the same institution again.” Her husband had some fond memories of WT from his undergraduate time and said it’s an amazing music school.
She admitted that the geographic difference between here and Pennsylvania was vast. “It was the lack of trees that’s been the hardest thing about coming out here for me, but there are other really beautiful things that take the place of that though,” she said. Bell said the winters in Pennsylvania could be pretty harsh with the lake effect coming in from Lake Erie. The difference in West Texas is that there are threats of tornadoes and wildfires, as well as floods.
Bell is in her third year of teaching at WT. “I’m the oboe professor. I also play English horn with the (Amarillo) symphony and I’m principal oboe with Lubbock Symphony,” she said. “I performed with chamber music in Amarillo a bunch of times, so even though I’m new, I really have been loving getting integrated into the community and been stunned on how music is going on in the art community.”
“You’re up close with the musicians, you can see the communication that’s going on between them, and you get to hear the music really up close and personal,” Bell added. “That’s what I really love about it.”
Bell compared the experience with the huge, exciting kind of bombastic moments in symphony orchestra. “It’s fast, and there is that dynamic element of up to 50 or 100 musicians up there playing together, and chamber puts a different kind of group together.”
“It also can be a challenge, but I think something that’s really beautiful about the intimacy of it,” Bell said. “My predecessor, David Palmer, was here for decades and really built Chamber Music Amarillo, so we’re all indebted to him for all the amazing work he did to bring chamber music out to our community.”
Bell’s trio, Elicio Winds, recently released its 2023 album, “Convergence: Music and Cultural Legacy.” In addition, she was nominated in 2019 as Indiana University’s first performer for the Seoul National University Chamber Music Festival, and she is on faculty at the Interlochen Arts Camp.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Bell to this vital leadership position,” said Larry Lang, executive director of the Amarillo Symphony. “Her exceptional musicianship, innovative spirit, and dedication to education make her the ideal person to build upon CMA’s legacy. We are confident her artistic leadership will inspire our musicians and captivate our audiences in new and exciting ways.”
What Kathleen Bell brings to the stage
“I would say that what I bring is my own personal experience, and that’s different from David’s, coming at it from the position of a pianist, which he was a marvelous pianist, and I’m coming from it from the position of a woodwind player,” Bell said. “I performed in different kinds of ensembles, so one of the things I’m really hoping to bring to the position is some new programming. I’m hoping to diversify the kinds of ensembles that we hear on the stage and with that, get to hear some new music.”
“We’re also hoping to expand the venues that we perform at,” she said. “But doing that, we hopefully can entice some different kinds of audiences to join us for performances, which is another pillar. We want everybody to hear chamber music — people from all walks of life, all ages. Chamber music is really all about the human experience of emotions in our lives, and it can touch everyone.”
“We want to play some of the big standard hits, but I’m excited to try and bring some more newly commissioned pieces to our audience and looking forward to showing how relevant those marvelous new pieces of music can be,” Bell added.
She said that she was toying with the idea of trying to do composer showcases — perhaps bringing in a living composer so that people can actually hear firsthand from them about the process and meet them. “I really think that would be exciting for people to get some time to spend with people who actually create the music as well.”
“We want to bring everyone in because there’s something in music for everyone,” she said.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.amarillo.com ’
