Brandon Christensen

Today Dr. Brandon Christensen is a professor of violin and viola at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. But twenty years ago he was one of the first students selected by founder Elaine Richey to participate in the inaugural season of the Chamber Music Festival of Saugatuck. His memories of that summer (and the next two, when he returned to the festival) are vivid.

“It was exciting to be there”, Christensen says. “We all felt that thrill of being there at the start of something brand new. We felt we had a unique opportunity to set the stage for the future of this festival.” But beyond the thrill of being part of the establishment of a chamber music tradition, Christensen was impressed by the quality of the experience for his fellow students and himself. “The level of musicianship was very high and yet the group was small enough for us to have a lot of interaction with each other, with Elaine and with the community which was very warm and welcoming. It was inspiring.”

The days were very busy for the students in those early years. “We were young students on our own, in a fun resort community, without parents around, for the first time”, remembers Christensen. “But we knew we had a responsibility to fill the hall every week and to put on performances that were of a caliber to do that. So we took it very seriously. Elaine Richey and Henning Christiansen were a strong stabilizing force for us. They acted as our substitute parents and kept us focused. And between classes and constant practice in any spot we could find — like the parsonage hallway or the pizza parlor that was closed during the day — we didn’t have a lot of extra time.”

Christensen credits Richey with more than his professional success. He believes she gave him life lessons as well as music lessons. “She was, of course, a musician of the very highest caliber. She could have focused on performing and become an internationally famous soloist. But she wanted to be a part of a more nurturing world. She was warm, motherly, kind and immensely caring to her students. She set a high moral standard for us — always impressing on us that we needed to excel as performers but also be missionaries for classical music, mentors to younger musicians and emotionally healthy members of the human community. She preached dedication but also balance and she lived by those principles. Knowing Elaine and studying with her was a strong influence on my life. I was very, very lucky to have known her.”

In addition to following in Richey’s footsteps by teaching, Christensen has further followed her example by establishing a chamber music concert series called Sundays at 3:00 in Cape Girardeau. This past spring his piano trio performed in China (Christensen speaks Chinese fluently) and during his visit there he established an exchange program for his university.

More information about Brandon Christensen is available at www.semo.edu/music.