This summer, Master of Arts candidate Calby Van Hollebeke from the School of Music is bringing chamber music to the wheat fields of southeastern Washington through “Harvest Interludes,” a series of performances for local farm crews.
The performances are part of her work for the Publicly Engaged Fellows (PEF) program at Washington State University. Created with funding from a National Endowment for the Humanities NextGen grant, the program supports students to work equitably with community partners and develop an independent summer project of engaged scholarship.
Van Hollebeke was one of four fellows in 2025 named by the David G. Pollart Center for Arts and Humanities, which partners with the WSU Graduate School to host the program for graduate students.
“I grew up just outside of Kahlotus and attended school in Washtucna,” said Van Hollebeke, who is specializing in oboe and performance at WSU. “I wanted to combine my passion for music with my connection to local farming communities, and thus the idea of playing chamber music for wheat harvest lunches was born.”
“Harvest Interludes” brings classical musicians directly to the wheat fields where they play a selection of live music for assembled farm workers and their families. The visits were pre-selected and scheduled by Van Hollebeke, who came up with the idea during a brainstorming session with her mother.
“I wanted to bring music to rural farming families, because especially in rural areas like southwestern Washington, live instrumental chamber music is not easily accessible,” said Van Hollebeke, pointing out that many summer concert series are held during the height of the harvest season in cities located far from wheat fields. “Knowing that the distances and schedules are not feasible for a lot of people during this time of year, I wanted to bring the music to them and acknowledge their hard work and the culmination of a year’s worth of farming work.”
Van Hollebeke began by reaching out to farming families from Washtucna to LaCrosse and Colfax, inquiring about whether they still stopped for crew lunches and if they would consider allowing her group to perform. She created a draft schedule based on projected dates of harvest work, and then recruited a trio of classical musicians interested in performing for the project. She enlisted Kamil Tarnawczyk, an oboe graduate student at WSU, and Alex Crisp, a graduate teaching assistant in violin from the University of Idaho, as her co-performers.
For the musical selection, Van Hollebeke chose a mix of classical and modern compositions, including “The Dance of the Cygnets” from Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake,” Beethoven’s “Variations on ‘Lá ci darem la mano’” from Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” and several newer arrangements.
“I arranged the song “Without You, Without Them” by the band BoyGenius, because the song was already a cappela and I thought it would be a fun arrangement for our trio,” said Van Hollebeke. She also found an oboe arrangement for ABBA’s “Dancing Queen,” which provided some additional inspiration.
“We had found one version for oboe and practiced it, and it was pretty solid,” she said. “But Kamil thought he could improve it and two weeks later, he had a new version that is so much fun to play.”
Bringing classical music into a wheat field may sound odd to some people, but for Van Hollebeke, it was simply an extension of her own experience.
“When I was growing up on my family’s farm, harvest was always the highlight of my summer,” she said. “Getting to ride out and visit my dad and grandfather and relatives for lunch was the special part of my day, since they otherwise would be so busy working. Spending time with my dad and family, whether riding in the combine or in the wheat truck down to the grain elevators on the Snake River — that’s what I wanted to honor with this project, and the Publicly Engaged Fellowship provided a path for me to put this project into motion.”
