Camerata Pacifica

Scherr Forum, 2100 E Thousand Oaks Blvd, Thousand Oaks. May 17th. Camerata Pacifica at the Bank of America Performing Arts Center — the chamber music ensemble that has been building its Thousand Oaks audience for decades by playing serious music in a room that takes it seriously.

Chamber music is the most intimate scale of classical performance. The ensemble is small enough that the individual instruments are audible as individual voices — the cello has a line distinct from the bass, the violin is a separate conversation from the viola, the piano is a third thing entirely. The Scherr Forum's acoustics make that distinction legible in a way that a larger hall can't. Camerata Pacifica has been programming this experience for a Conejo Valley audience that has come back year after year because the music earns the room.

Tickets at ticketmaster.com. May 17th. If you haven't been to a chamber concert and have been curious whether it's something that lands for you, this is the ensemble and the room to find out. If you've been coming to Camerata Pacifica for years, you already know. Either way, the Scherr Forum on a May evening with a program built by people who know what this room can do is worth the drive.