In 1829, Goethe famously described the string quartet as “a conversation among four intelligent people.” The common comparisons between chamber music and artful conversation reflect the social settings in which Mozart’s chamber music was originally played—mostly in salons, among friends, for their own entertainment (rather than in formal concerts). Professor Klorman will discuss how this social context influences how the music was composed and could inspire new ways of listening today.

Edward Klorman is a music theorist on the faculty at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. He previously taught viola, chamber music, and music analysis at The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, and Queens College.

As a violist, he has performed as guest artist with the Borromeo, Orion, and Ying Quartets and the Lysander Trio, and is featured on two albums of chamber music on Albany Records. His first book Mozart’s Music of Friends (Cambridge, 2016) received awards from the Mozart Society of America and the ASCAP Foundation.