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Community MusicWorks: Context and ContentToday’s concert reflects a new direction for CMW. Until recently, our mission of transforming the lives of children, families, and musicians, was largely expressed though the context of where and how we as artists perform. Whereas a traditional string quartet may make its living playing on well-worn stages of prominent concert halls, we have chosen to make our career playing often in venues one would not associate with string quartet performance—such as in the common spaces of settlement houses.
This season marks an exciting new direction in that we are now, though the performance of a series of new works commissioned by CMW, expressing our mission through musical content as well. Each of the three new pieces we’ve commissioned this year reflects CMW’s mission in a different way—the Daniel Bernard Roumain Kompa Variations highlights the mentoring relationships between a professional string quartet and a student string quartet, Jessie Montgomery’s Anthem reflects our commitment to celebrating important milestones of civil rights history through music, and now Anthony Green’s Earned takes on the vital social issue of immigration policy that affects our families and communities every day. We are honored to be partnering with these composers, and to have a role in bringing these new and important works into the world. -Sebastian Ruth, Providence String Quartet [Editor: Read more in today's Boston Globe article by David Weininger featuring an interview with Sebastian and a preview of Earned.]
Newsletter: “The Works”
If you don't receive "snail mail" from CMW, you can still read the recent edition of "The Works" by downloading it from our website's Contact Us page. CMW receives award from Chamber Music AmericaAt Friday's free community dinner and concert at the John Hope Settlement House, Margaret Lioi, CEO of Chamber Music America, will be on hand to present CMW with the 2009 CMAcclaim Award. This honor recognizes organizations whose achievements in the field of chamber music have had a "significant and lasting impact on their community." Chamber Music America has been a generous supporter of CMW over the past three seasons, providing funding for an annual series of free community concerts (including Friday's event), school visits, and educational activities with our students. CMA's three-year grant has allowed the Providence String Quartet to engage in multi-part residencies at several neighborhood schools, including Community Preparatory School, San Miguel School, Gilbert Stuart Middle School, and the Vartan Gregorian Elementary School. Here are links to previous posts about the PSQ's multi-part school residencies. May 15, 2008: Dvorak visits the San Miguel School -Heath Marlow, CMW staff Musical Workshop with A Far CryEric Rosenblith residencyOn May 7, CMW welcomed violinist Eric Rosenblith to Providence for a day-long residency co-sponsored by the Cogut Center for the Humanities at Brown University. He is a living link to the great violin traditions of the early 20th century, and counts among his teachers Jacques Thibaud, Carl Flesch, and Bronislaw Huberman. As a student in Paris in the early 1930s, he also coached chamber music with violinist-composer George Enescu. He has performed for decades as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician worldwide, and was chairman of the string department at New England Conservatory for over 25 years. In recent years, Eric Rosenblith has taken on the project of re-translating and re-editing Carl Flesch's monumental work The Art of Violin Playing, published by Carl Fischer.
More photos in CMW's Flickr account. May 15 & 16: Earned (a world premiere)What is the supreme law of the land? What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution? How many amendments does the Constitution have? What is the economic system in the United States? What stops one branch of government from becoming too powerful? How many U.S. Senators are there? Name your U.S. Representative… These are just a few of the questions that you might find on the new version of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Naturalization Test. When approached in March 2008 about a possible commission for Community MusicWorks, local composer Anthony Green was inspired to imagine a double string quartet for the Providence String Quartet and the CMW Fellows Quartet (made up of the four participants in CMW's Fellowship Program) that would feature the topic of immigration. Thanks to a grant from the Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund, CMW was able to commission two works for the Providence String Quartet to perform during our 08-09 season. [Read more here about the other new work–an octet by Daniel Bernard Roumain for the PSQ and four students which was premiered last October–here.]
The text for Anthony’s piece comes directly from the questions on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization exam that immigrants must take in their quest for citizenship. A narrator speaks a question or a set of questions slowly throughout the work, allowing the listener time to reflect on required knowledge for immigrants. The title of the piece – Earned – was derived from Anthony’s observation that American citizenship is a luxury for those born in the United States. For everyone else, it is earned. Anthony’s composition consists of a blend of original music with folk songs, children's songs, and national anthems from many countries. The themes are woven together in a contrapuntal framework, just as the culture of the United States itself is woven from many different cultures and traditions. In the end, Earned attempts to increase our awareness of the shared human experience, by traversing boundaries of language, culture, and citizenship through the common language of music. Here are links to YouTube videos (provided by Anthony) of a few of the folk songs and anthems contained within Earned: 1. El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido 3. Plum Blossom 6. Arirang 7. Sweet Mother 8. Shumba |