Chamber music unfortunately brings to mind prissily dressed ladies in gowns sipping tea — or perhaps men in stockings and wigs.

It’s true that chamber music originated in the royal courts of Europe, and is typified by the Baroque style associated with Bach, the classical styles of Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn, or the Romantic sounds of Brahms and Schumann, more than the later revisionist, experimental work of 20th Century composers such as Debussy and Ravel. Many people don’t know that it’s still being written, that it’s now performed in concert halls regularly, that its following is a healthy and growing subculture. To most people, its mere mention can evoke reactions similar to those caused by being stuck in an elevator with musac playing.

But with Awadagin Pratt and the Next Generation Festival, chamber music is anything but a dusty musical artifact or a stifling experience. It’s very much alive.

Last year’s Next Generation performances are a case in point.

Last June, outside the Rose Lehrman Arts Center at Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC), enthusiasts and the curious alike stood in line hoping for reservation no-shows so they could gain entry to the free performance. The crowd was diversified; yuppies and the denim-clad packed the lobby. Ages ranged from five to 85.

This audience was, for the most part, educated. One young man whispered to another that he hoped his seat in the theater would offer him a good view of Pratt seated on his trademark low-to-the-ground piano stool. Trained musicians and music-lovers know to book tickets on the keyboard side of an auditorium for a performance in which they’ll want to watch the performer’s hands. Others conferred on the program, which included Bach, Brahms, and the lesser-known contemporary composer Giya Kancheli.

Nothing about this concert was stuffy. Marcello Jaffe, violist, strode onto the stage ready to greet the crowd and explain the performance to come. He talked — as opposed to lectured — about the birth of music. His informal speech was loaded with anecdotes about composers and the powerful figures in the Church on whom they had been financially dependent. He explained for the neophytes that musical conversation is what chamber music is all about, and so directed the audience’s listening.

Pratt loped out and took possession of the nine-foot Steinway grand which graces the Rose Lehrman Arts Center Auditorium stage. Few pianists aren’t dwarfed by it; Pratt is one.

In Bach’s Sonata No. 2 in D, already the conversation between the two instruments was evident. Following the Bach, Jaffe temporarily retired and Pratt was joined by Amadi Hummings (viola), Derek Reeves (violin), and Owen Young (cello). The quartet was poised to swerve into contemporary style with Piano Quartet in L’istesso Tempo (1998) by Giya Kancheli. Pratt articulately described this modern composition, which was helpful, as it was a piece of many moods, ranging from sorrow to joy, and including gimmicky humor. The audience held their collective breath in the long pauses that the musicians observed with bows and hands raised and poised as if someone had called a freeze frame. Time became warped; the musical rests lasted as if slow motion had descended. Each time the music resumed after the lengthy silences, it was like a long-anticipated reward. The audience began to breathe with the music.

The final piece included yet another performer — Nicole Bayer on cello — and Jaffe returned, as well. String Sextet in B-Flat, Op. 18, by Brahms is a complex Romantic piece filled with Sturm und Drang but still easier to understand than the Kancheli, perhaps purely because if its more traditional form. Again, the sense of conversation among instruments was prevalent, but this time it was a conversation of hushed whispers followed by fevered argument — peaceful, then passionate, a hushed prayer followed by a joyous shout.

The audience was hooked.

The children’s concert at the YWCA of Greater Harrisburg, sponsored this year by Property Management, Inc. Charitable Foundation, is another notable feature of the annual Festival. This performance, unlike all others, is not open to the public, but instead reserved for children.

For the 1999 children’s concert at the Y, the performers appeared in jeans and Next Generation t-shirts, and complimented their audience on their own choice of dress, which of course coordinated well with the musicians’. They described to the children "the language of music," and the origins of the combinations of melody, long note, and ornament particular to Bach’s compositions. Children waved their arms as if conducting, responded to Pratt’s playing by describing the emotions it evoked, and applauded enthusiastically. Many of the children had questions for the performers; the younger the audience member, the more creative and direct the query. One boy asked, "How do you know what the notes say?"

Pratt analogized music to drawing — just as an artist begins with a blank canvas, a musician starts with silence, then adds a note, and another, then a succession of notes and beats and eventually ends up with music. The children were enthralled.

Several children took turns plucking the strings on the musicians’ instruments; one six-year-old played Humming’s viola quite competently. After the concert, at refreshment time, the children were lined up, not at the food tables, but in front of the musicians. They wanted autographs — on t-shirts, music, even arms. These are the children who could be the "Next Generation" of musicians.

The 2000 Festival chamber music master class, in which qualified students from the Millersville University Summer Chamber Music Institute receive a public lesson from the performers in an informal setting, and the children’s program, "present an opportunity for Awadagin Pratt and his colleagues to reach younger audiences in what could be a life-changing experience," said Ellen Hughes, Festival organizer and WITF-FM producer/host.

WITF-FM/Harrisburg is sponsoring Next Generation this year for the fourth time, together with First Union and other corporations, foundations, and individuals. The 2000 program once again features virtuoso Artistic Director Awadagin Pratt, a world-renowned pianist who was the first student at Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory of Music to receive simultaneous degrees in piano, violin, and conducting. Pratt rose to fame in 1992 when he won the Naumburg International Piano Competition. His physical appearance caused a buzz, but by the end of his performance, he had won over the judges and audience, and rave reviews have been coming in ever since. Based in New Mexico, Pratt performs internationally and was one of the first African-American classical music performers to win a major-label recording contract, with four solo CDs to his credit. His latest CD, Transformations, is on the Angel Records label. This year at Next Generation, he will not only crouch over the keyboard, but also lift the violin — his second instrument of choice — to his shoulder.

Other performers are Zuill Bailey on cello, also a former student at the Peabody Institute whowent on to study at Juilliard. He has performed at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and internationally. Helen Callus, violist, is Assistant Professor of Viola at the University of Washington in Seattle. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, London, and the Peabody Institute, Callus is a member of the acclaimed Bridge Ensemble Quartet, and also performs internationally as a guest solo and chamber music artist. Carla Kihlstedt, violinist, is originally from Lancaster. Another graduate of the Peabody Institute, she also holds degrees from the San Francisco and Oberlin Conservatories of Music. Well known in the San Francisco Bay area for her contributions to the contemporary music scene, Kihlstedt also composes music and performs as a vocalist.

The 2000 Festival program once again includes Johannes Brahms (his Sonata for Violin and Piano and Piano Quartet No. 2 in A Major), adds Franz Schubert’s String Quartet No. 15 in G Major, and features improvisations with Kihlstedt on the violin and Pratt on the piano.

Not a chamber music devotee? It doesn’t matter. The Next Generation Festival is geared to enthusiasts and newcomers; there is plenty for all. You can’t beat the price, and you never know; you too might be standing in line for an autograph.

This year’s Next Generation concerts are as follows: June 7 and 8, Lebanon Valley College, Annville; June 9, York College of Pennsylvania, York; June 12, Harrisburg Area Community College, Harrisburg; June 13, Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove; and June 14, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster. All concerts begin at 7:30 p.m.; doors open at 6:30 p.m. Limited seating; admission by ticket only; casual attire. The master class will take place at Millersville University, Millersville, at 1:00 p.m. June 14; this class is open to the public and no tickets are required. The Next Generation Festival Children’s Program at the YWCA of Greater Harrisburg takes place on June 12, but is the only concert in the series not open to the public. For advance tickets to the evening performances, call The Box at 214-ARTS; for general Festival information, call 221-2951 or visit the Festival website at nextgenerationfestival.org.