Music education for concert audiences, students, and aspiring young musicians has been a core mission of the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival since our founding in 2001. We are helping to build a new generation of passionate and educated music lovers who will cherish and support this great music and the musicians who dedicate their lives to it forever. In 2019, the Festival added the Spring Institute to its educational outreach programs, and in 2023 it was renamed the Christopher Rex String Seminar. The Christopher Rex String Seminar is a significant part of fulfilling the Festival’s mission of offering music education to concert attendees, students and aspiring young musicians.
Each year two emerging String Quartets are invited to have the extraordinary opportunity to work closely with a professional string quartet over several days. This year, we are thrilled to have the Ariel Quartet as our teaching quartet. The student quartets receive the Beth Newdome Fellowship having their tuition and lodging covered. The quartets are coached on prepared repertoire as well as rehearsing two movements each of the Mendelssohn Octet for Strings with the Ariel Quartet to be performed at the final concert on Saturday, June 1st.
This year, we are pleased to welcome the Rasa and Rose Quartets to participate in the Christopher Rex String Seminar. They will be coached by the award winning Ariel Quartet.