DENISON, TX -- Music students from The Juilliard School and Rice University Shepherd School of Music performed at Texoma Medical Center Friday afternoon.

It's part of the Denison Chamber Music Festival.

Kathryn Peterson, Juilliard senior, played in Denison in 2011 with her music trio, T.R.I.O.

"As I got older, I was really interested in starting a chamber music festival, and thought that Denison would be the perfect place," she said.

So she got together with Denison performing arts.

"We thought this would be the perfect place, and the people are so nice, that we wanted to start something here," she said.

Her group is accompanied by Ensemble 1403, a group of graduate students from Rice.

Francesca McNeeley, Rice graduate student, said they're excited to be playing at the city's first festival.

"It's not an opportunity that students our age get to do very often. It's the kind of thing that once you're an established group and maybe in your late twenties, you might get offered something like this," she said.

Peterson said they're excited for the festival.

"We've been practicing the pieces that we're performing for a really long time," she said. "So it's always fun to share our hard work with an audience."

She's happy to see the first festival come together and hopes it becomes an annual event.

"I'd like to see it expand, maybe next time invite other schools to play here," she said.

The main performance is at 2 p.m. Saturday at Waples United Methodist Church. It's free to the public.

They'll perform again Sunday at Waple's 11 a.m. service.