FGM Turns 200! with Megan Chartier - Part 2

For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 202: FGM Turns 200! with Megan Chartier - Part 2

Looking for a way to listen to diverse creators and to support equity in the arts? Tune in weekly to For Good Measure!

In this week's episode, we continue FGM Turns 200!, a mini-series where we talk to Ensemble for These Times' members and past guest artists. Today, we continue our conversation with E4TT's cellist Megan Chartier, who we spoke to in May 2025. If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more about Megan Chartier, check her out here: https://www.meganchartier.com/.

This podcast is made possible by grants from the California Arts Council, SF Arts Commission, Grants for the Arts, and generous donors like you. Want to support For Good Measure and E4TT? Make a tax-deductible donation or sign up for our newsletter, and subscribe to the podcast!

Intro music: “Trifolium” by Gabriela Ortiz, performed by E4TT (Ilana Blumberg, violin; Abigail Monroe, cello; Margaret Halbig, piano), as part of “Below the Surface: Music by Women Composers,” January 29, 2022
Outro music: “Lake Turkana” by Marcus Norris, performed by E4TT (Margaret Halbig, piano), as part of “Alchemy,” October 15, 2021

Transcription courtesy of Otter.ai.
Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1903729/episodes/18963622

Co-Producer, Host, and E4TT co-founder: Nanette McGuinness
Co-Producer and Audio Engineer: Stephanie M. Neumann
Podcast Cover Art: Brennan Stokes
Interns: Renata Volchinskaya, Sam Mason, Christy Xu

Transcript

Nanette McGuinness  00:00

[INTRO MUSIC] Welcome to For Good Measure, an interview series celebrating diverse composers and other creative artists. I'm Nanette McGuinness, Artistic Executive Director of Ensemble for These Times.  In this week's episode, we continue our conversation with Megan Chartier. [INTRO MUSIC ENDS]

Nanette McGuinness  00:26

So, talk about what you've done with us, or performing with us, or, you know...

Megan Chartier  00:31

Yeah, so I think we've been performing with Ensemble for These Times since 2023... I think...

Nanette McGuinness  00:37

I think so too, yeah.

Megan Chartier  00:39

So a couple years now. And I it's always been so fun. So one of the things with contemporary music that's always tricky is that the amount of preparation time is substantially more than other orchestra things or or even just like, you know, chamber music, very traditional chamber music, but that's always been particularly rewarding to have something that seems just so impossible, but knowing that it is if you just if you know how to problem solve it the right way, that's always been. I mean, that's one of the things I enjoy about contemporary music, but ensemble for these times, because every program feels like such an achievement each each time and so but I Let's see the first I don't even remember back to what the first program was. I remember some pieces.

Nanette McGuinness  01:37

I'm feeling like it was all of past season. It was fall of the season, yeah, or, oh, you know what? I think it was old first, yeah, it was old first with the Schoenberg. It was the Expression: Ism...

Megan Chartier  01:51

Oh, right, the Drei Klavierstuecke, yes. And then I had that solo piece, yeah. And that was just to, like, know, a piece like Drei Klavierstueck as well, because playing the traditional orchestration of it, of course, you you, you really learn to love it and digest it. But when you have to play the piano trio version, there's a density to that, that knowing the score even even more that was very rewarding in that concert in particular.

Nanette McGuinness  02:14

Yeah, I knew Drei Klavierstueck from when I was an undergrad. That's when I encountered it, studying Musicology, actually, and I hadn't encountered the piano trio. Brennan Stokes, my then assistant director, mentioned it to me when we were putting together the Expression: Ism season. And, you know, it is the same piece, and it's gorgeous, but it is. It's really dense for the instrumentalists, because, you know, you've, you've just divided by two, right, right, right. So I get that. It's an incredibly hard score, so I was very grateful that you were playing it. You know...

Megan Chartier  03:03

Oh, it definitely was a highlight to play that arrangement of it.

Nanette McGuinness  03:07

Yeah, and I'm trying to remember what the solo you played on that program... Do you remember?

Megan Chartier  03:13

Dragon and the Girl.

Nanette McGuinness  03:15

Yes! Lisa Bielawa, that is a nice piece. Yes.

Megan Chartier  03:18

It's a beautiful piece. And I, since I, whenever I'm programming other things, I'm like, Ah, I should, I should I come back to this piece? I think, you know, I'd love to play it again and see how it develops over time. I love that piece that was so special.

Nanette McGuinness  03:33

Yeah, it's really nice to come back to a piece, like when one has done it, and then say, a year later, and there's been other music and how it has marinated in your brain.

Megan Chartier  03:45

Right, right? Yeah. I was just talking as part of the Cal Poly cello fest. We had this whole one on one meeting between the composer our composition faculty, Aaron Klein. I played a piece where I think I was the fifth performance of it, maybe third performer, and so we had a whole lecture demonstration on what that's like to both play it, because I performed it twice within two weeks in different venues, and talking about how that changes it. But then time in between different performers, all of those things and and how a piece can develop by itself, you know, independent of the the composer.

Nanette McGuinness  04:28

Definitely, definitely, yeah. So CelloFest, tell us about that. That sounds interesting.

Megan Chartier  04:35

Yeah, so at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, we have, I think I counted 20 or 22 cellists, uh, between all the ensembles that we we have, or private lessons, or people who are trying to get lessons because they can't fit the ensembles in their schedules, or they didn't get into the orchestras. So the music program at Cal Poly is very interesting, because there are. Are very, very few music majors. And oftentimes those music majors, we end up getting them through people changing majors, and so they're very passionate, but it's they don't come in as music majors oftentimes, but we still have an enormous number of musicians that are part of the program. So I think our department chair counted 800 students that make up the ensembles alone.

Nanette McGuinness  05:26

Wow.

Megan Chartier  05:27

800, yeah.

Nanette McGuinness  05:28

That's a lot.

Megan Chartier  05:29

So the orchestra... Yeah, exactly. So there you... now it's getting competitive to audition for the ensembles. I think we've got something like 18 first violins, 16 seconds, 16 cellos, like 10 violas, you know, five bases. It's a very full ensemble. And so it was one of those things where I couldn't, if I have this many cellists, and we have a cello ensemble which has 1313, cellists, I'll accept them as long as we can fit them in our rehearsal room, because we're actually very much, you know, having some space restrictions in the room that I teach, yeah, and so I ended up starting our first ever cello fest that will happen every two years to kind of celebrate the program and have these unique experiences for cello. And cello, by itself, is a very popular instrument, and so it's an easy draw for concerts and things like that, but to have that many cellists, it's, it's pretty remarkable. And I wanted to the big, kind of motivating factor behind CelloFest with having so many non majors, was showing all these students who are engineers and mathematicians and, you know, biologists, or soon to be that, that there is a world of music for them to explore what in their professional lives, whether that's performing, you know, for fun on the side, whether that's being on a board, whether that's donating, whether that's, you know, having some sort of an active part in this type of thing. And so they were very much an active part of the marketing and choosing what we were going to spend our budget on and the programming, and how are we going to get people there. And so it was a very fun process. And we ended up having seven events in total, and three main concerts, large concerts, and all of those were standing room only. And congratulations. A lot of fun.

Nanette McGuinness  07:28

Yeah, a lot of fun. Great. And I think having it be bi-annual is a good idea. It lets enthusiasm build up, and it takes time to put it together.

Megan Chartier  07:37

And we're going to do something slightly different each time. It's going to be even bigger, but slightly some interesting things along the way. And so I like to kind of see how each year of what the cello studio itself has an interest in doing, and so it has, you know, some some personal connection to each of them.

Nanette McGuinness  07:58

Ooh, so we have to stay tuned.

Megan Chartier  08:00

Yes, exactly. I already know what's happening, but stay tuned.

Nanette McGuinness  08:04

Yeah, right, right. It's private, not public yet.

Nanette McGuinness  08:07

[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure, and a special thank you to our guest, Megan Chartier, for joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our podcast by clicking on the subscribe button and support us by sharing it with your friends, posting about it on social media and leaving us a rating and a review. To learn more about E4TT, our concert season online and in the Bay Area, or to make a tax-deductible donation, please visit us at www.E4TT.org. This podcast is made possible by grants from the California Arts Council, the San Francisco Arts Commission, Grants for the Arts, and generous donors like you. For Good Measure is produced by Nanette McGuinness and Ensemble for These Times, and design by Brennan Stokes, with special thanks to Co-producer and Audio Engineer Stephanie M. Neumann. Remember to keep supporting equity in the arts and tune in next week "for good measure." [OUTRO MUSIC ENDS]