In Oregon, Project Chamber Music: Willamette Valley Connects Young People with Classical Music—and Musicians

In Sunday’s (12/3) Oregon Arts Watch, Brett Campbell writes, “Growing up in Salem [Oregon] in the 1990s, aspiring young musician Caitlin Lynch was able to take advantage of the extraordinary musical educational opportunities offered in the Salem-Keizer public schools…. Her private viola teacher, long-time Oregon Symphony assistant principal violist … Charles Noble, ‘made a world of difference in my life and musical journey.’ She also played viola in the Portland Youth Philharmonic…. Lynch’s Oregon music education propelled her to New York’s Juilliard School and eventually to her current performing career, which includes a Grammy Award … and violist positions in [the] chamber orchestra A Far Cry and the … Aeolus String Quartet…. In 2015, Lynch … launched Project Chamber Music: Willamette Valley (PCM) ‘as a way to give back to the musical community that raised me.’ The program sponsors annual visits to Salem-Keizer’s public middle and high school orchestras by Lynch’s own Aeolus colleagues and other musician friends … PCM musicians perform in student classrooms, participate in workshops with their orchestras, answer questions from the students about life as performing musicians, and offer public rehearsals … They also work with students [on] a culminating collaborative concert … The organization donates all proceeds … to the Salem-Keizer public school orchestra programs.”