Chamber Music

“For me, playing chamber music is dessert. There is an intimacy among the musicians that is delicious: playing and breathing as one, or taking turns, then coming back together. It is lovemaking of a kind…the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I believe that is why audiences today are more eager to hear chamber music than only solo performers. The experience offers more variety and intensity.” —L.B.

Lois BrandwynneBrandwynne’s work as a chamber musician is equally extensive as her solo work. In California she has performed at Music at the Vineyards, the Claremont and the Cabrillo Music Festivals. She has given chamber music recitals with eminent concert artists such as violist Walter Trampler, first flutist of the Boston Symphony Doriot Anthony Dwyer, and ’cellists Bonnie Hampton, Lawrence Lesser, and Emil Miland, as well as mezzo-sopranos Stephanie Friedman and Christine Schadeberg. She has appeared with the San Francisco Chamber Players, Mills Performing Group and the Robert Bloch String Quartet. In January of ’02 she collaborated with San Francisco Symphony musicians including concertmaster Alexander Barantschik in the popular San Francisco Symphony Chamber Music Sundaes series, and was also heard at Davies Symphony Hall on the same series performing the F minor Brahms Piano Quintet. [Listen to a live performance]

She was a founder of the Avanti Piano Trio—Zina Schiff, violin and Burke Schuchman, ’cello—and has recently joined with Zina Schiff to form the Schiff/Brandwynne Duo.

In March of ’05, Miss Brandwynne performed a solo recital in New York City at Merkin Hall, where she was joined by ’cellist Bonnie Hampton (formerly of The Francesco Trio) for several works, including New York premiers by Andrew Imbrie, Therese Brenet, and Elinor Armer, as well as works by Darius Milhaud.

“The slow movement was so soulfully sung that Brandwynne and Miland made the sun shine again.” —San Francisco Classical Voice