High Desert Chamber Music is on the cusp of its 18th season bringing professional chamber music groups to Central Oregon. Founder and Executive Director Isabelle LaForêt Senger is a virtuosic violinist in her own right and a member of the esteemed Crown City String Quartet. She had a successful career in Southern California, playing with a multitude of groups including the San Diego Symphony, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Orchestra, Pacific Opera Orchestra, and the Pasadena, Long Beach and Pacific Symphonies. In addition to that, she has performed on many studio recordings by musicians that might make your jaw drop: Christina Aguilera, John McLaughlin, James Blunt, Tiffany (produced by Dr. Dre), Evanescence, and Kanye West. Movie scores she has played on include “King Kong,” “The Matrix” series, “Chronicles of Narnia,” “Ted” and “The Soloist.”
In 2007 Isabelle gave up the L.A. lifestyle, moved to Bend and founded High Desert Chamber Music, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, the following year. The rest, as they say, is history. High Desert Chamber Music has brought increasingly well-known and sought-after musicians to Central Oregon year after year, and this season is going to be something quite special. From the opening concert on Oct. 12 featuring Middle Eastern solo pianist Karim Said, followed by the esteemed European string quartet Quatuor Agate on Nov. 7, Tesla Quartet (a group born at Julliard) on Feb. 14, 2026, award winning Trio Bohémo from the Czech Republic on March 29, beloved cellist and pianist duo Peter Wiley and Anna Polonsky on May 15, and then finishing up with the Tekalli Duo, dynamic siblings who play violin and piano on June 14, 2026, it’s a remarkable collection of music coming to our city.
the Source: What inspired you to bring this high-level, distinguished classical music to Central Oregon?
Isabelle LaForêt Senger: When I moved here, I recognized that there seemed to be an audience and a desire to have an organization with this focus. After the success of our first concert in May 2008 featuring the Crown City String Quartet, that gave me the confidence to plan our first full season.
tS: How have you seen the classical music scene change in Central Oregon since you started?
ILS: It is so different now. The growth [as a city] that we’ve had has been immense. In terms of classical music, specifically, I really believe that we have changed the cultural landscape of classical music appreciators. One of the things that really struck me when I moved here and I was walking the streets, trying to get support from local businesses, was that the majority of people did not even know what chamber music was. They assumed that what I was talking about had something to do with the Chamber of Commerce [laughing], so it took a lot of education on my part to get people to understand what I was trying to bring to Bend, what it was that I even did for a living, and my vision for what the organization would eventually be able to accomplish. To compare that to now, where I am honored and so touched when I hear people tell me that they have made decisions to move to Bend knowing that High Desert Chamber Music was in existence.
tS: Tell us a little about the Spotlight Chamber Players program that you have for up-and-coming young classical musicians
ILS: That program is near and dear to me. It, by far, takes up the most amount of my time during the season because I run the program. It starts with the auditions that happen in the fall, and goes to the weekly rehearsals that I have with the groups, the performances that I secure for the students, and, you know, I’ve had a number of students that have participated since they were as young as 9 or 10 years old, so some of them will have been in my program for seven or eight years. I see them grow not just as young musicians, but as young adults. Teaching has always been a part of my career, even down in Los Angeles I had a large studio and I haven’t done much of that here in Bend, because my whole focus has been about running the organization. So, this has been my way to continue the teaching aspect, and what better than to be able to coach chamber music? I mean, chamber music is the pinnacle for some musicians of their professional life. You know, a lot of composers wrote their greatest works for chamber music, and as a primarily orchestral performer, it’s certainly what I gravitated toward in the later years of my professional life because the difference with chamber music as opposed to playing in a larger group is you really get to have your own voice, because there is only a single person to each part. To be able to bring that out in young musicians and to give them that experience of being paired with other young players that are similar in either age or level, and to be able to create and perform with other young musicians… that’s a great gift.
tS: Because I have known some of your previous young ensemble players, I want to point out that this program is totally free for the students.
ILS: Yes, that was essential to me when I started this organization, that not only would educational programs be part of the organization, but that they would not cost anything for the students.
tS: You have an amazing season lined up for 2025-26, so tell us what excites you about your upcoming concerts?
ILS: This season our entire HDCM concert series is presenting all Central Oregon debuts. We have international performers coming, one is from Jordan, one group is from France, one group is from the Czech Republic and one of the fun things for me this year, now that we have 17 seasons behind us, is I’m able to give a lot more thought to programming. For example, we’ve never had the Ravel String Quartet perform here [in Bend], which is one of the quintessential string quartet works. And what better group to premiere this piece in Bend than a French string quartet, Quatuor Agate? Then we have Trio Bohémo, a piano trio from the Czech Republic coming in March, who will be performing a piano trio by Anton Rejcha, and he is a really well-known Czech composer.
tS: What can you share about future plans for HDCM?
ISL: I am diligently working on a celebration for our 20th season. I know it’s two years away… [laughing], but I’ve got grand plans and we are going strong and full steam ahead.
High Desert Chamber Music
First concert: Sunday, Oct. 12, 5pm
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
61980 Skyline Ranch Rd, Bend
$49 General/$10 Students
This article appears in the Source September 25, 2025.
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