This month, the Colorado Plateau Chamber Music Society (CPCMS) played several concerts in Carbondale and Fruita. This new spring concert series was a celebration of sorts for its members. The group was founded just last year and recently acquired official nonprofit status. At the Mother’s Day concert in Carbondale, they filled a sunny room in the Third Street Center sharing the lilting sounds of piano quartets by Mozart and Gabriel Faure.
The group said they chose Mozart’s Quartet No. 1 in G minor and Faure’s Quartet No. 1 in C minor from a wide range of expressive and vibrant musical characters that they explored. The iterative and emotional string and ivory movements bring to mind spring weather and waking birdsong, which fit well for a Mother’s Day weekend performance.
Two of the quartet, Camille Backman (violin) and Sarah Graf (cello), live in Carbondale. They coordinate with violist Charles Hebenstreit (Grand Junction) and pianist Tamara Goldstein (Boulder). All four musicians have impressive resumes.
Backman grew up in Utah, where she started playing violin when she was six years old. She earned a bachelor’s degree in violin performance at Oberlin College and Conservatory before traveling to Belgium to continue her studies. There, she earned a master’s classical and contemporary performance at the Conservatoire Royale de Bruxelles in Brussels.
Graf is the group’s cellist in addition to serving as the executive director and co-music director of the Roaring Fork Youth Orchestra. She earned a bachelor’s degree in cello performance from the Eastman School of Music. Graf enjoys the intersections of musical genres, and plays baroque cello and viola de gamba (fretted with six or seven strings, unlike four-stringed cellos) in addition to modern cello. She plays with a number of ensembles and orchestras across the state.
Violist Charles Hebenstreit is a member of multiple Western Slope symphonies in addition to his role with CPCMS. He is principal viola of the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra and plays in the San Juan Symphony. His chamber music training includes coaching from members of internationally renowned ensembles like the Takács Quartet — originally of Hungary, but now based in Boulder — and the Manhattan and New York string quartets.
Tamara Goldstein makes the trip from Boulder to serve as the group’s pianist, but the commute is nothing new to her. She has been traveling to the Roaring Fork Valley since the ‘90s and was a member of the Aspen Music Festival and School’s collaborative piano faculty from 1999 through 2022. She was a musical faculty member at the University of Denver and Metropolitan State University-Denver and holds a doctorate of musical arts from the University of Colorado.
CPCMS aims to make classical music more accessible across the Western Slope. Performances are entirely donation based, asking patrons to only pay what they can afford. While they enjoy meeting with one another to practice chamber music, the group also hopes to connect the many rural communities in this part of the state through their music.
“As a musician, nothing compares to the joy of playing chamber music with friends and colleagues and then getting to share that experience live with an audience,” said Graf.
The Mother’s Day concert was just over an hour. After lulling the audience into a relaxed state through the three movements of the Mozart quartet, they shared some about Gabriel Faure’s unique music education and influences. The Faure quartet is more emotionally complex and genre-subversive. The group described the piece as “sonorous and sublime.”
CPCMS aims to perform an autumn chamber music series to be announced at a later date. Those interested can follow the group on Facebook, connect with them via email at coloradoplateaumusic@gmail.com or reach them by phone at 970-306-1235.