Photos by Jori available in CMW's Flickr account.

As graduates this month of CMW's Fellowship Program, Rachel and Arlyn were asked to provide several memorable
moments or anecdotes that would shed light on their favorite experiences over
the past two years spent at Community MusicWorks. Their responses are
posted as a series on this blog throughout the month of June.

—-

I never expected to see two worlds collide in such a surprisingly easy way as when The Bourbon Boys, my bluegrass band, led a Musical Workshop at Community MusicWorks. It was a huge benefit for me to be able to really know the students we were interacting with: not only their names, but their teachers, their experience on an instrument, the range of their repertoire…it was something most workshop presenters don’t have. And we also had the power of hats: eighty cowboy hats that the students, the teachers, and even the parents didn’t want to take off all night.

True to the mission of CMW, The Bourbon Boys, as musicians, were transformed as well. While at first more nervous to play for kids than adults, they were so pleased to have been embraced by teenagers and seven-year-olds alike!

-Rachel Panitch, Fellow (07-09)

As graduates this month of CMW's Fellowship Program, Rachel and Arlyn were asked to provide several memorable moments or anecdotes that would shed light on their favorite experiences over the past two years spent at Community MusicWorks. Their responses are posted as a series on this blog throughout the month of June.

—-

Last May, I had a vision of our younger Phase I students engaging in an early orchestra experience that would give them a chance to socialize with one another and participate in their very own chamber music experience. With the help of all of my colleagues at CMW and a combined team-teaching effort with fellow Fellow Adrienne, we transformed this vision—now known as Phase I Orchestra—into a reality.

This was the first time in my seven years of teaching violin that I had such an involved role in designing a multi-instrument class from scratch. Seizing this opportunity, Adrienne and I explored the following with our students in the pilot year of Phase I Orchestra:

1. Playing together, moving together, making eye contact and listening carefully
2. Reading notes
3. Improvising with body percussion and our instruments
4. Conducting and following a conductor
5. Dynamics, counting rhythms, and new articulations with the bow

Even more important than the rudimentary musical goals of this class, we placed an emphasis on building confidence, having fun together and working as a team. Adrienne and I constantly asked the Phase I Orchestra to recognize that “mistakes are your friends,” to “enjoy our yummy sound,” and to look to your stand partner or listen to your section when you need help or get lost in the music. Knowing and applying these principles brought extra energy and love to our first performances of an arrangement of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Adrienne’s own composition, Pizzicato Pizza.

I learned so much from my students and working with Adrienne. I will look back on this experience as one of the most memorable, enjoyable, and fulfilling memories from my time at Community MusicWorks.

-Arlyn Valencia, Fellow (07-09)

Available online on June 17. View trailer here.

As graduates this month of CMW's Fellowship Program, Rachel and Arlyn were asked to provide several memorable
moments or anecdotes that would shed light on their favorite experiences over
the past two years spent at Community MusicWorks. Their responses are
posted as a series on this blog throughout the month of June.

—-

Walking into the CMW office on a weekday between 3 and 4 pm, the first impression can be one of utter chaos. The front door opens and shuts constantly for last minute coffee runs and the gathering of extra strings, while a new arrangement for the theme from Star Wars is being edited at a table in the back. The copy machine is running nonstop, audio recorder batteries are being tested, and armloads upon armloads of instruments and music books are being loaded into cars heading to the Met School, Lima Elementary, or the West End Community Center down the street.

It can be a frantic time, but a time which I value immensely. It reminds me that we all care about these details because we’re that invested in the students we’re teaching. No matter how many challenges a student faces, there is never a question of whether or not learning the cello as a part of this community is a worthwhile, positive force in that student’s life. The answer is always "Yes."

Pre-teaching time in the CMW office reminds me that even as we go off to teach in separate rooms and buildings, in some sense, we are all teaching together.

-Rachel Panitch, Fellow (07-09)