This study aims to explore the impact of an educational intervention designed to foster empathy among chamber music students and to analyse how the development of empathic skills relates to improvements in performance quality. The study was carried out in two conservatories of the Basque Country (Spain) and consisted of a series of activities based on Rabinowitch (2012), adapting cooperative and participatory learning. The intervention lasted 13 sessions of 45 minutes each. The study followed a case study design in which all participants experienced both a control period, receiving conventional small ensemble training, and an experimental period during which empathy-focused activities were held. 13 small music ensemble students between 15 and 18 years old participated in the study. The research employed a mixed-method approach. Quantitative data was collected through the Cognitive and Emotional Empathy Test (TECA) (Gorostiaga et al., 2014) to assess empathetic abilities, and through an evaluation rubric to assess music performance skills. Qualitative data was collected by categorising both verbal and non-verbal interactions observed during the sessions. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was applied to analyse differences between the control and experimental periods in both measures. Verbal interactions were analysed using the EPIC Model framework (Landler-Pardo et al., 2022), while non-verbal interactions were examined through the FAQS (Ekman and Friesen, 1969). Results indicated improvements in empathy, including perspective taking, emotional understanding, and empathetic joy, alongside enhanced musical performance, particularly in items associated with communication and expression. Observations revealed frequent use of perspective-taking strategies in verbal interactions and a strong presence of emotional comprehension and shared joy in non-verbal interactions. Results show that empathetic abilities appear to be closely linked to improvements in co-performer communication and expression within ensemble performance. Such outcomes indicate that fostering empathy can enhance the quality of group interaction and musical performance. Furthermore, qualitative findings highlight the complementary roles of cognitive and affective empathy: verbal interactions foster cognitive engagement and shared decision-making, while non-verbal interactions strengthen emotional attunement. This research upholds the value of integrating social-emotional education into small ensemble training as a means of enhancing both socio-emotional growth and performance quality. Future research should explore the relationship between empathy and musical development, as well as the opportunities and challenges of fostering empathic skills in music education.