Amherst Chamber Ensemble seeks audience
by ELIZABETH TAUFA Reporter

Amherst Chamber Ensemble members Walter Greizerstein and Martha Welte perform a duet during a concert last year. This year's concerto concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2 at Christ United Methodist Church, at Harlem and Saratoga roads, Snyder.

The Amherst Chamber Ensembles, incorporated in 1995, was started by a group of musicians who just liked to play music.

While that was a good idea for those performing, finding an audience has not proved as easy.

"Few people know about the group because we fly under the radar," said Martha Welte, executive director of ACE. "We went to a Town of Amherst board meeting to ask for contributions like other cultural organizations, and there were members of the board of the Amherst Symphony Orchestra that hadn't heard of us. I was kind of amazed."

Welte noted that because the group is solely musicians, sponsorship from businesses has been scarce, a fact that keeps the ACE a relative secret in the area.

"We don't have businesses associated with us, so the business community doesn't really know about us," she said. "We also operate on a low budget, mainly from contributions from our audience."

The group does not have a set membership of musicians but rather pieces ensembles together according to the instrumentation of a particular concert. Performances include various kinds of chamber ensembles, from soloists with piano accompaniment to 40-piece chamber orchestras.

"You just call people you know and network that way," Welte said. "We have a list of string players we invite every time, and if you can't make a concert, we ask you if you know anyone who can."

There's an overlap of musicians between ACE and other area groups, such as the Amherst and Cheektowaga symphonies.

"More so with the Cheektowaga Symphony because their personnel manager plays with us," Welte noted.

The ACE annual Concerto Concert, under the direction of regular director Dennis Lell, will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2 at Christ United Methodist Church, at Harlem and Saratoga roads, in Snyder.

Four concertos, a solo or duet piece with orchestra accompaniment, will be played. Welte will by playing the C Major Violin Concerto by Joseph Haydn. Other pieces will be Violin Concerto No. 2 by Giovanni Viotti, played by Laurie Schaller; Symphonie Concertante for Violin and Viola by Johann Stamitz, played by Joan Smutko and Judith Hirsch; and Concerto for Two Violas by George Telemann, played by Hirsch and Leslie Bahler.

"Every viola student studies that piece," Welte said. "Judy and Leslie are both teachers, so they wanted people to hear how the piece sounds with accompaniment."

The concert will be followed by refreshments in order to make the ACE audience feel more at home. A freewill donation will also be accepted at the concert.

"We want to make people feel comfortable," said publicity chair Jacqueline Ornsby.

"We try to keep it to around 60 minutes of music," Welte added. "The concerts aren't necessarily for people who are really serious about classical music but for people who like classical music."

For more information, call 835-079 or e-mail acemusic@ roadrunner. com or visit the Web site at http://home.roadrunner. com/~ acemusic.