‘Improbable Ensemble’ to perform at two international conferences

A quartet of UNC Charlotte music students will perform at two international conferences during the month of July: the International Conference for Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC), which will take place July 5-9 in San Francisco, and the International Society for Music Education (ISME) 32nd World Conference on Music Education, which will be July 24-29 in Glasgow, Scotland. The participating students are Mitchell Stokes, Faith Foster, Kelsey Sexton and Dawn Carpenter. The quartet will be the only ensemble to perform at the ICMPC in San Francisco.

Trained by Jonathan Govias, director of orchestras, the students have learned to perform chamber works without any visual contact with each other. Unlike the more traditional chamber music staging of musicians facing one another to maximize eye contact, the students of the “Improbable Ensemble” sit with their backs to each other, forcing them to listen more intently to each other to perform with precision. Govias will present his research on their process at the ISME World Conference.