Afternoon Interludes: Mill Ave Chamber Players

Mill Ave Chamber Players take the stage at the Musical Instrument Museum on Friday, December 18, for an afternoon of chamber music. It's part of the museum's Afternoon Interludes series, so it's a matinee rather than an evening show.

The program is a chamber music set, and the main draw is a selection of excerpts from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. Since it's a chamber arrangement, you'll hear those familiar melodies played by a small ensemble rather than a full orchestra. It's the kind of thing that works well in a museum setting—familiar enough to recognize, but stripped down to the core of the music.

If you're not usually one for classical music, The Nutcracker is a good place to start. Most of us know the tunes from the ballet, even if we've never seen a performance, so you'll likely recognize the pieces as they play. The Mill Ave Chamber Players are the ones bringing them to life here, and the whole thing is billed as a chamber music program, meaning the focus is on the interplay between a few instruments rather than a massive sound.

The performance is at 2:15 PM at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, so it's a mid-afternoon outing on a Friday. If you're in the city and want a bit of music to break up the day, this is a straightforward way to spend a couple of hours.