This semester’s first Chamber Works concert, hosted by the music program, will take place in the Marsh Center underneath Roberts Chapel Oct. 3 at noon to preface Homecoming weekend. Hors d’oeuvres will be available to eat while listening to the performances of the concert.

Chamber Works concerts follow a trend practiced as far back as Johann Sebastian Bach’s Collegium Musicum: noonday concerts for students to present their practiced musical work to those eating their lunchtime meals.

Dr. Ronda DePriest, professor of instrumental music and director of the Music Program, said she initially put together the Chamber Works concerts because she noticed the need in the department for a way students can show their practiced work to an audience during the semester.

“Waynesburg has a lot of those pockets of really talented students that want to get together and study in a special area,” DePriest said. “They want to have a spot to share with people what they’ve learned, so that’s what these Chamber Works concerts, and recitals later on, afford them. It’s their chance to share that.”

DePriest said the concerts are also a good way to show freshman how much is included in the music program, including the diversity of instruments that can be learned. For freshman already involved, this will be their first Chamber Works performance.

In addition to groups of instrument-players and soloists performing, the Barber Shop and Beauty Shop quartets will sing at the concert. Harrison Scott, senior chemistry major, is one of the members of the Barber Shop quartet. He said he is excited for their first performance of his last year as a part of the group, as well as, the other performances of the day.

“We have some really cool pieces that I’m really excited for,” Scott said. “In past years [Chamber Works] hasn’t had as much variety … so I think just the way the Chamber Works concerts have grown in their diversity is what makes it unique [this year].”

Although the music program has hosted Chamber Works concerts for around 10 years now, encouraging the audience to fill their plates between performances at the co

believes people should be encouraged not only to eat during the concerts, but bring their homework if they want to as well.

“We listen to music on our phones [while doing these things], so why not just hear it live? Some people might consider that rude,” he said. “I’m just glad people are there, and to give people a little relaxation and something to listen to while they’re doing homework, I think, is really cool.”

This concert is the first of four Chamber Works concerts this year, two each semester.

All students, staff and faculty members are welcome to attend as well as all members of the community.