Last week I had the great pleasure to work for two days with my colleagues practicing the Shostakovich Octet. I was a little apprehensive going in, not having rehearsed in this configuration before, and hoping to live up to the great musicians around me. And with any eight personalities in a room, I wondered, how do you balance the contrasting, and sometimes conflicting, ideas that are are part of the rehearsal process? What I experienced was each of us having a voice in this rehearsal process, with PSQ leading the way, and Fellows holding their own.

Of course, even with all the time spent on the octet, there was room for good food and good fun. Two brilliant teams (Fellows vs. PSQ, of course) tapped their creative juices in Cranium on Tuesday night over the course of three games: final tally 2-1.

-Rachel Panitch, Fellow

Great news! In late December, CMW learned that we had received a three-year grant of $300,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support our Fellowship Program, as well as two new projects–a "facilitated visits" initiative and a collaboration with Brown University’s Cogut Center for the Humanities–that will help us extend the impact of our work.

The facilitated visits will enable us host musicians from around the country for several weekends a year, to take part in CMW events, give performances, and learn about the CMW model. This project will let others learn about our unique model, and also create important connections for our Fellows. The first facilitated visit is tentatively planned for later this spring for members of the Sphinx Organization, a non-profit organization based in Detroit dedicated to furthering the careers of minorities in classical music.

The second project is a three-year partnership with the Cogut Center for the Humanities at Brown University. Look for a performance later this year by the Providence String Quartet at the Cogut Center, and a Cogut Center Fellow at CMW in the near future!

We’re all excited to get to work on these new initiatives, which we hope will both deepen the work we do in Providence, and influence the national dialogue about the role of musicians and arts education in social justice work. Thank you, Mellon Foundation!!

-Chloe Kline, Writing Coordinator

[Editor's note: expect an official announcement with more detail later this month.]

Nick Kitchen, who visited Community MusicWorks last month with the Borromeo String Quartet to present a Musical Workshop, has created a website where you can stream high quality videos of his Quartet's recent concerts.

During vacation, I spent some time with a few of my favorite chestnuts
of the chamber music repertoire: the Mendelssohn Octet, Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence, Beethoven's Quartet Opus 132…

In Nick's words, "there was often the feeling that something special had occurred [in a concert], that a
unique beauty had come to life. It was wonderful to know that
performers and audience members might treasure a memory of the event,
but sad that there was so often no chance of revisiting the events of
the concert, enjoying them again, studying them, learning more from
them."

I love this idea of a "unique beauty" coming to life on the concert stage. What Nick has offered the public through the Living Archive is a new way–thanks to technology– to recreate our experience in the concert hall. A chance to revisit a treasured memory, for the eyes as well as the ears. 

Click here to visit the Living Archive.

-Heath Marlow, CMW staff

Photos by Jori from the December 20 concert at Providence's Bell Street Chapel. The PSQ performed Ravel and Schubert, and the Fellows Quartet contributed Borodin's Quartet No. 2.