Album Notes

THE OAKWOOD CHAMBER PLAYERS
Intimate music with eight musicians

What are people saying about the Oakwood Chamber Players?
Features editor Linda Brazill of The Capital Times:
"Music that's pure Wisconsin poetry"
Sent with an order for our recording of Doug Hill's "Scenes from Sand County,"
"I heard this while driving in my car and I cannot live without it!"


Who are the Oakwood Chamber Players?
Madison audiences have fallen in love with the warmth and spirit of the Oakwood Chamber Players' sound and the intimate way in which they present classical music.

They specialize in small ensembles, just a few players at a time, sometimes with singers, sometimes without. They don't need a conductor. There is nothing between the Players and the audience but the music itself. When they perform in small settings, people hear the sound of the individual instruments, watch the musicians breathing together in rhythm, and become part of the process of music-making. It is a very special kind of music experience.

The Oakwood Chamber Players have been together since 1984, and the core membership of violin, viola, cello, double bass, flute, oboe, clarinet and horn has been unchanged for almost the last ten of these years. Each member brings to the group special qualities beyond music that enhance the spectrum of music-making. It's an intelligent bunch, with most of the players having advanced degrees and several holding "day jobs" in fields such as molecular biology research, journalism, medicine, photography, public school teaching and arts management. All perform actively in the Madison area, and with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. All are proud parents of brilliant children.

The Chamber Players have an active Board, a treasury with a positive balance, and a crew of enthusiastic volunteers. They have a longstanding affiliation with Madison's Oakwood Village Retirement Community which both parties find vibrant and sustaining.

Oakwood Chamber Players has a strong association with a core of several composers who are frequently asked to come up with creative arrangements of music for yet another unique combination of instruments to round out a program. Hence, when one comes to an Oakwood concert, one will regularly find oneself listening to music totally new and distinctly different from any concert heard anywhere else.

Recordings
Christmas Lights! (1994); SCENES (2001); Christmas Lights, A New Strand (2002);
New in 2003: a Sony release of new music by composer Daren Hagen

The Players: Anne Aley, horn; Marilyn Chohaney, flutes; Carl Davick, double bass; Warren Downs, violoncello; Nancy Mackenzie, clarinets; Jennifer Morgan, oboe and English horn; Leyla Sanyer, violin; Katrin Talbot, viola.

www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com