Wartburg College will debut a new musical series and venue at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12.

“The Castle Chamber Series: Music in the Afternoon” will showcase some of the best musicians in the Cedar Valley performing in the intimate surroundings of Hagemann Castle Room in Saemann Student Center.

Admission will be free with tickets available at the door. Seating is limited.

“This promises to be a truly significant and exciting concert series,” said Dr. Maria Paula Survilla, professor of music and a series director. “Not only will the Cedar Valley have a venue for the rich heritage of the chamber repertoire, but audiences will hear the music outside of the formal recital hall in a space meant for sharing of ideas, encouraging a unique accessibility of music and of performer.”

The new initiative was spearheaded by Survilla; Dr. Eric Wachmann, professor of music, and Dr. Geoff Wilson, lecturer in music, after a performance in the Castle Room last summer introducing Dr. Daniel Kaplunas, new director of the Wartburg Community Symphony and assistant professor of music.

“It was a wonderfully informal setting,” Wilson said. “The performances were great, but afterward the performers sat with community members talking, sharing ideas, as if they were among old friends. It was a relaxing setting that I felt would be the perfect setting for a chamber series.”

“The ability to go beyond the formality of the performance and engage the audience directly is very important to me as a performer,” Wachmann said. “It means so much more, as an audience member, to have some sort of insight to the pieces played and how they connect to the performers, and so much more to the performers that the audience be engaged as more than just spectators.”

The wood-paneled Castle Room has good acoustics and the ambience of an Old World music room reminiscent of where chamber repertoires were born. Because it also is a dining room, the option to provide refreshments during post-performance interaction between performers and the audience is possible.

The Castle Chamber Series will launch with “discovery concerts” in February and March.

“We hope to engage the community directly and incorporate their feedback into the planning for the first full season in 2012-13,” Wilson said.