We love introducing our audiences to fresh and exciting stars of the music world. Major international ensembles who have made their Irish début with DICMF in recent seasons include the Ébène, Pavel Haas, Belcea, Doric and Modigliani string quartets. In 2022, we mark another Irish first with the captivating and award-winning Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, bringing a rich programme of Amy Beach, Britten, Elgar, and more to Windmill Lane on Saturday 11th June.

Ahead of their performance, we chatted to some of Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective about the life-saving power of music, communicating through the notes, and the friends and found family that comes through making music.

Q. Do you have a particular memory that’s really shaped you as a musician?

Laura: I think the wonderful thing about being a musician is being able to draw from every experience in life and feed it into your playing – so I think all of my memories have shaped me as a musician!

Tom: Actually a lot of my happiest and most defining memories are of concerts with my Kaleidoscope colleagues. So many musicians find their greatest joy in chamber music, and we’re looking forward to making more great memories in our first collective trip to Dublin!

Q. What’s a small thing in your life that always makes you happy? 

Nathan: When I come back to my mother’s humble place in the favela and she prepares my favorite food with so much love! So I would say that family is what makes me happy and the beautiful thing is that our friends are the family that we can choose to have close to us.

Laura: The sky – not that that’s a very small thing though… I love seeing different cloud formations and sunsets.

Tom: My (and Elena’s) nine-month-old son Tico. I mean that’s definitely not a small thing conceptually, but he is quite small… (He’ll be joining us in Dublin, though not on stage!)

Q. What’s the most important thing to you when making music?

Laura: I think it’s communication – I really love being connected to other people whilst playing, and I also enjoy the communication that goes on during rehearsals and even outside of playing.

Nathan: Music to me is the reason why I’m alive today, so when I play music what I can offer to the audience is that they can feel the gratitude in my playing, that it connects to their hearts in the most honest and genuine way, that’s the most important to me.

Q. What would you like the audience to experience in this concert?

Tom: I really hope everyone falls in love with this music as much as we have. As an ensemble, we passionately believe in sharing music which deserves to be heard much more than it is, and we always choose works we feel will move our audiences. Every piece in this programme is a gem – but the Amy Beach in particular is one of the greatest romantic chamber works there is. We can’t wait to play it for you!

Laura: I would love the audience to have fun! Kaleidoscope concerts are always heaps of fun for us, and I hope very much that that comes across and makes it fun for everyone else too!

 

Thanks Tom, Laura and Nathan!

Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective perform at Townhall, Windmill Quarter on Saturday 11th June, 8:00pm

Buy tickets here

 

Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective

Armand Dijkoloum – oboe
Elena Urioste – violin
Nathan Amaral – Violin
Rosalind Ventris – viola
Laura van der Heijden – cello
Tom Poster – piano

Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, hailed for its “exhilarating performances” (The Times), was dreamed up in 2017 by Tom Poster and Elena Urioste, who met through the BBC New Generation Artists Scheme. Kaleidoscope’s flexible roster features many of today’s most inspirational musicians, both instrumentalists and singers, and its creative programming is marked by an ardent commitment to celebrating diversity of all forms and a desire to unearth lesser-known gems of the repertoire.

In 2020, Kaleidoscope was appointed Associate Ensemble at Wigmore Hall, where the group makes multiple appearances each season, and was invited to give the Hall’s 120th birthday concert in May 2021. Kaleidoscope broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio 3 and has recently been ensemble-in-residence at Aldeburgh Festival, Kettle’s Yard, Ischia Music Festival, Chamber Music by the Sea (Maryland USA), and Cheltenham Festival, where the group gave several world premieres and collaborated with Sir Simon Russell Beale and the cast of The Lehman Trilogy.

Kaleidoscope’s debut recording for Chandos Records, American Quintets, features music by Amy Beach, Florence Price, and Samuel Barber. It was awarded Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, received a BBC Music Magazine Award nomination, and immediately led to an invitation to record a series of albums for the label. The second album, featuring Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s early chamber works, was released in May 2022.

Passionate about inspiring the next generation of musicians, Kaleidoscope has featured in Wigmore Hall’s Learning Festival and directed courses for the Benedetti Foundation. For more information, please visit www.kaleidoscopecc.com, where you can also find links to the individual musicians’ websites.