Insight Chamber Players
Insight Chamber Players is an educational chamber music collective, founded by Ericsson Hatfield and Leah Froyd. Their chamber performances provide deep listening experiences by combining expert musicianship with insightful background information, deepening appreciation and understanding of the music.
Leah Froyd, Cofounder and Director of Insight Chamber Players is a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, where she was a Roman and Melanie Totenberg Scholar and managed collaborations with Boston Healthcare for the Homeless and other local shelters.
Ericsson Hatfield, Cofounder of Insight Chamber Players, is a violinist and educator, trained at New York University, the European American Musical Alliance in Paris, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He is also a composer, with prizes from the Tribecca New Music Festival, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and the San Francisco Conservatory.
Dana Marie Chan has performed as a collaborative and solo pianist and trumpeter in recitals, competitions, orchestras, wind, jazz, and new music ensembles in both the United States and Asia. She was the co-founder of the Intermission Orchestra at UCSD and is Music Associate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College. She is also the Development and Finance Manager at San Francisco Performances.
With in-depth conversations and insightful backstories about the mechanics within these music masterworks, Insight Chamber Player musicians facilitate camaraderie and enhance listeners’ musical experiences by explaining the musical art forms and their cultural backstories.
Separated by three centuries, Bach and Shostakovich composed in vastly different times and styles. Yet their works for two violins and piano share some similarities in the use of counterpoint and in expressive range. Each composer, in their own way, reflected the cultural, historical, and personal circumstances of their time, creating music that continues to be performed and explored for its depth and complexity.
The themes of identity, resilience, the human condition, and transmission are the threads that connect the spiritual depth, folk influences, and cultural pressures of the music in this deep listening concert experience.
