Young artists become involved with Chamberfest’s community engagement

Strengthening our community through music can lead to a deeper sense of belonging, as well as open doors to valuable networking, exciting opportunities, and new experiences for younger audiences and artists alike.

Chamberfringe is a series of late-night concerts offered by Ottawa Chamberfest. The concerts incorporate Afro-Cuban influences, folk and bluegrass, and more within traditional chamber music performances. Through this series, audiences experience first-hand experimental and unique live music.

Canadian musician Beth Silver is a talented cellist and beloved Chamberfringe performer. An active participant in Ottawa Chamberfest’s community engagement and education outreach, she values the resounding benefits of community involvement for Canadian musicians, especially young artists.

Our team at Ottawa Chamberfest sat down with Beth to learn more about her experience with Chamberfringe.

Ottawa Chamberfest: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.

Beth Silver: I still feel like I am a young artist, but I’m 30 years old. I’m a classically trained cellist, but with an interest in other genres. I never really knew where I was going to end up, but I sort of knew that an orchestral career wasn’t really fitting for me.

In the last few years I’ve gotten really involved in Eastern European and Jewish music— that’s my background. So it’s kind of nostalgic to be doing a lot of research and getting involved in that, and integrating it into classical music as well as vice versa. Now I mainly work in chamber ensembles or variations upon that.

Before this dive into Eastern European music, I was often hired by other people for their ensembles or for their projects—recordings, ensembles, projects, stuff like that. But now I find myself leading more and making my own projects. That really started during the pandemic, because we had to sort of shift our work and create content for ourselves, or by ourselves. I also play with a group called the Ladom Ensemble in Toronto.

How did you become involved with Chamberfringe?

Chamberfringe is everything that branches out of classical or chamber music. I got involved in Chamberfringe when I was young and I was with pianist Jenna Richards. We were doing a youth program at Ottawa Chamberfest when Roman Borys was the artistic director. He made an opportunity for us to stay and play concerts, but also attend all these concerts and participate in masterclasses with musicians. It was an amazing opportunity. It was one of my favourite experiences at any music festival.

Being at Chamberfest, I became interested in playing to smaller audiences. I’m not a big name, and I appreciate that Chamberfest has given me opportunities to plan all these ensembles on every kind of stage. But Chamberfringe was a really good way for a young artist to start performing at Chamberfest, because Chamberfringe draws the people who are curious to see something new, something a little different, and maybe take a little bit of a risk.

How has Chamberfest evolved over the years of your involvement?

Wow, so much evolution. I have loved to see it grow and I feel very close to it, both because it sort of raised me and because of the mentors. When I started being involved at Chamberfest, it felt like a festival run by my mentors. Now it feels like a festival run by colleagues. It’s like the mentors have passed it on to my generation.

It’s always been a very open-minded festival, but I think it’s become even more progressive with its new leadership. They always have amazing musicians, but they’re really open to programming new things.

Why is Community Engagement and Education important to you, and to Chamberfest?

I don’t think I would have as much work if it were not for community engagement. It’s also a really good opportunity for young artists in general. Also, it was a really important part of COVID because performing became about community rather than the global stage. So for me, who’s often touring, I was able to do shows in smaller venues or local venues.

Connecting with the audience is really important. Organizations are becoming aware and putting community engagement on their agenda. Concerts don’t need to be this experience where you sit in silence and sit still. People are not afraid to go to live music in a bar, but they’re afraid to go to a classical concert, and I think the lines can be more blurred than that. Community engagement is a perfect example of what it can be, because if you bring any genre into a hall, it needs to be able to adapt and change according to what the audience needs.

What are your favourite memories from Chamberfringe?

Chamberfringe is always the party. It’s where people let loose, relax a little bit, maybe have a drink, catch a concert, and chat. It’s where all the conversations start after the music, and where the jams happen. It’s some of the best networking I could have done. It feels genuine.

One of my favourite memories was when Kishi Bashi came and the whole audience ended up on the stage dancing and singing with him. It was so fun, and afterward we got to hang out with him.

I remember a group from Vienna started DJing after Chamberfringe just for fun. It was very informal. They were joined by chamber players and we all just had a dance party. Now we’re all friends. All of these really genuine connections from around the world are made at Chamberfringe.

How would you like to see Chamberfest grow, especially in the Community Engagement and Education sector?

In terms of community engagement, some artists seem to be afraid. It’s something everyone can do easily—if you can converse with people, then you can play for them.

More young artists can be comfortable getting involved. I’d like to see Chamberfest’s performance space or roster of performers grow. I want to see more dance, and I’m not talking about formally watching people dance. I mean people dancing in the audience, and having more opportunities for these contrasting sorts of environments.

It’s really important to be flexible. I think one of the misconceptions about concerts is that we always need to be so prepared. That’s not necessarily what touches an audience. What touches an audience is, to sound cliche, the heart, and the soul, and the character that you bring to the music, and that doesn’t mean that you need to play perfectly all the time. That really comes in handy for something like community engagement. Of course, what is folk music? It is music of the community.