DoCha Concert

We have had a lot of field trips over the past couple of weeks! It seems like every couple of days were learned about a new opportunity for our students that would not cost them any money and would expose them to things in the community that they and their families may not have known about. I know I certainly didn’t know about some of these wonderful things! The Downtown Champaign Chamber Music ensemble (usually known as just DoCha) is one such thing.

According to their website, DoCha “is a collaborative effort among University of Illinois faculty, students, community members and friends under the artistic coordination of a world renowned violinist and UIUC School of Music Professor Stefan Milenkovich to experiment with new and fun ways to present chamber music.” Chamber music is a style of classical performance that involves a small group of musicians creating music together. As the name indicates, the idea was that they would be able to fit within a chamber, or a small room, of a palace. This is quite different from a full orchestra or symphony ensemble that takes up a very large space!

We got to take the 3rd and 4th grade students at Wiley to the DoCha performance at the Orpheum Children’s Museum this morning. The performers shared a variety of classical music pieces demonstrating the different categories, such as baroque, classical, romantic, and contemporary. Between numbers, they explained the differences in the styles:

• The baroque era is known for its elaborate, ornate buildings, paintings, clothing, and, of course, music
• The classical era was inspired by the ancient Greeks and Romans and is noted for its clean, clear imagery
• The romantic period is not so much about what we think of romance today (lovey-dovey stuff), but rather deep, passionate emotions
• Contemporary classical is a modern application of some of these older styles

At the end of the performance, students were invited to ask questions about the music, composition, and performance. Then they made their own musical instruments taking plastic eggs and filling them with random objects like beads, pins, keys, and rubber bands. After taping them shut, they were able to shake them and see how the different combinations of items created different sounds.

It was a very enjoyable performance overall! The DoCha 2014 Festival is going on this weekend! All events are free of charge and take place at the Orpheum. I would strongly encourage everyone to check out the festival schedule and see if there is a performance that they can attend with their families!