When you’re looking to get your musical fill from instruments like the violin, bass, cello and piano, there’s typically one setting that comes to mind — a concert hall.
You file into your small, a little-too-upright seat and prepare for a wave of sound from about 100 musicians to wash over an audience filled with a few hundred of your closest friends.
But, what if you could settle into a room with the capacity of only a few dozen, sitting a mere feet away from the handful of musicians you can chit chat with before a night of them playing their favorite compositions.
Up through the 19th century, most music was experienced in this fashion — through small, intimate venues, whether it be people’s homes, churches or “salons.”
The salon movement in music refers to a cultural phenomenon that emerged in the 1800s, particularly in Europe, where gatherings provided a platform for intellectuals, artists, musicians, and other cultural figures to socialize, exchange ideas, and showcase their talents in a smaller setting.
This weekend, a group of five local musicians are hoping to spark a reemergence of the salon concert, right here in the Flathead Valley.
“We love to do [salon recitals] because the interaction with the audience is immediate; it’s right there,” double bassist Joel Schnackel, co-director of the Regal Ensemble, said. “We’ve done concerts where the audience has been sitting right there, and they just could feel the vibrations of the music and everything.”
The Regal Music Association, a music performance and education nonprofit based out of the Bitterroot Valley, will present a summer series featuring three chamber music concerts across Whitefish, Kalispell and Bigfork, with performances running from June 18 through June 20.
Chamber music is classical music composed for a small ensemble where only one player is assigned to each part. This weekend’s concerts will include compositions from Gustav Mahler, Johannes Brahms, and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
“In an orchestra, there’d be 15 violins, 10 violas, massive sound,” violist and co-director of the Regal Ensemble Rachel Schnackel said. “So we’re trying to create a very rich and full sound, but one voice to each part.”
The Schnackels, along with three other Flathead Valley musicians — pianist Jordan Neiman, violinist Eva Richey and cellist Griffin Browne — will be the ones bringing these small ensemble pieces to life this weekend.
“Our group is actually a piano and bass quintet, which leads itself to a very interesting set of instrumentation pieces that you can choose from,” Neiman said. “It’s a very unique kind of group.”
“There’s a very small repertoire of music written for this,” Joel Schnackel added. “We’re playing Ralph Vaughan Williams and… he took the second violin part and gave it to the bass, which made it really rich. But what he also did was give the viola a prominent role, because he was a violist, and so the viola just has this amazing part in the piece. It’s really a gem of a piece of music that everybody needs to experience.”
Each member of the uniquely crafted quintet has dedicated more than 30 years to their instruments, all meeting at different points along their musical journeys outside of the state — which has included post-graduate music degrees for each ensemble member.
“We’re all trying to get as good as we possibly can at our instrument,” Joel Schnackel said.
“There’s just so much music that exists that you can find,” Neiman added. “There’s just an endless amount of exploration with music.”
While each member has known each other for years, the performances this weekend will be the first time the ensemble will play together as a whole. Instead of having months to prepare like in a typical orchestral experience, the group will have two, eight-hour rehearsals where the ensemble will share the musical responsibility to work together to sort out the compositions ahead of the performances.
“In an orchestra rehearsal, you have a conductor who is running the rehearsal, and he’s saying this is how he wants things; he’s the organizer,” Rachel Schnackel said. “In this type of setting, it’s all equal. We all have a say, and we all get to make musical decisions together.”
The reward for the two intensive, highly focused days, however, will be coming together to create their own sound and truly connecting as a group, the ensemble said ahead of their first rehearsal Tuesday.
“We’re really looking forward to reaching that moment where we’re like, ‘oh yeah,” Rachel Schnackel said.
Ultimately, the quintet is looking forward to bringing “excellent” chamber music to the valley, with Neiman hoping its residents develop an appetite for more.
“What I’m hoping for is that the audiences that come leave wanting more,” Neiman said. “That they go, ‘Wow, that was really different and interesting and amazing. When’s the next one?’”
The Regal Music Association’s Flathead Summer Series will run from June 18 through June 20. Performances will be at Whitefish’s North Valley Music School, Kalispell’s Bethlehem Lutheran Church, and the Bigfork Community United Methodist Church. Each performance begins at 7 p.m. and tickets are $25 for adults and $5 for students. To buy tickets, or for more information, click here.