As was previously noted on this blog in March, the Governor's proposed budget for 2011 included three major cuts of great of concern to Rhode Island's arts community: eliminating the public art program, eliminating the motion picture tax credit, and eliminating all competitive grants in the arts (a $700,000 reduction that would have practically eliminated all state arts grants, including significantly affecting CMW).

Good news! Following a public hearing in May that featured testimony from many people representing the State's arts and arts education community, the House Finance Committee's proposal, announced last week, does the following:

1.  It restores the State's public art program
2.  It restores the State's film tax credit
3.  It restores all competitive grant dollars that RISCA may award in support of the arts

The total budget package now goes to the House floor, where it is scheduled to be heard on June 3. Once approved by the House, it travels to the Senate for approval, and from there goes to the Governor for his signature.

It's not over yet… It is very important that we thank everyone we asked for help during this effort to restore the State's arts funding. Please contact your legislators and elected officials, thank them for their support, and let them know you support the proposals from the House Finance Committee.

-Heath Marlow, CMW staff

[This information is adapted from an email sent by Randy Rosenbaum, Executive Director of Rhode Island's State Council on the Arts.]

Rachel wraps up the first year of the (CMW-inspired) Fiddle & Dance Project in June. Check out her website and blog.

June 13: Fiddling Celebration and Community Dance (Rachel's student
fiddlers perform at 2 pm, followed by dancing for all!)

Betsy Hinkle, founder of the Boston Public Quartet (a 3-year-old initiative inspired by CMW), is currently seeking a cellist who is dedicated to the following:

1. Rehearsing and performing as committed member of a string
quartet, aiming to perform at the highest artistic level no matter the audience
or venue.

2. Teaching private lessons, small group activities, and
chamber music coaching

3. Working toward fulfilling the vision and mission of the
organization:

Vision:
To create a new model for public music education and performance that brings
together musicians, teachers and families around the shared intention of
student success. At the center of this model is chamber music as performed and
taught by the Boston Public Quartet at the Chittick School in Mattapan and in other Boston neighborhoods.

Mission:
To model and teach self-expression, communication, leadership, and community
development through the transformative power of chamber music.

Please contact Betsy for additional information.

[This year's "Alternative Models" Fellowship Seminar featured
presentations by Aaron and Carole for an audience of CMW staff, Board
members, and participants in CMW's 3rd Institute
for Musicianship and Public Service.]

My Presentation grappled with one of the main issues that I have dealt with in my life as a musician:  Musicians tend to flock to big cities where all the resources and jobs are. This leaves the rural communities–like the ones I grew up in–without many serious professional musicians to share their knowledge. I was always one of the few violinists in my towns when I was growing up, and it was rare to ever find a professional string player coming to visit and do concerts.

My presentation focused on a specific community, although this model could be implemented anywhere. I took the concept of having a Retreat Center for musicians and planting it in an isolated community in Northern Canada. (We're talking really, really Northern.) 

Carole's Music House will be a place where musicians can come to a creativity-inspiring place to work on a project, in turn for teaching lessons, masterclasses and workshops. Performances will always happen throughout and at the end of each residency, and tours to neighboring towns may be involved. The program will thrive on the permanently situated teacher(s) who the artists-in-residence will collaborate with on the teaching and performing aspects of the program.

My mission is: To create a safe environment where learning music and learning self expression become one and the same. Both young and old artists can come to this creative haven. To situate music into the middle of the community so that kids can learn from their early childhood years that music is a gift that they can give to people, instead of it being an unobtainable art form that has nothing to do with them.

When I asked my colleagues if they would be interested in coming to a place like Carole's Music House, the response was an overwhelming "Absolutely!" which proves to me that this dual issue can be solved in this type of way. High quality musicians are interested in coming to rural communities, and a community will benefit from a full time strings teacher who is dedicated to bringing good quality music education and good quality performances to all of the community.

To accompany my presentation, I made a visual of what Carole's Music House would look like in real life, and you can see it here.

-Carole Bestvater, Fellow

60 Minutes recently followed up on its earlier interviews with Gustavo Dudamel about his new job as the conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic as well as the progress being made with regard to bringing Venezuela's "music education miracle" to children in this country. For instance, in South Los Angeles, 3-year-old Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) is providing four hours of free after-school music education to 300 children four days per week. Other initiatives inspired by El Sistema are taking shape in Baltimore, New York City, and elsewhere.

[This year's "Alternative Models" Fellowship Seminar featured presentations by Aaron and Carole for an audience of CMW staff, Board members, and participants in CMW's 3rd Institute for Musicianship and Public Service.]

My presentation focused on five issues, drawing inspiration from various organizations that have come up with novel solutions. I developed a model based loosely on Teach for America wherein recent graduates of music universities and conservatories would be recruited to launch music programs in rural Canadian schools.

I proposed as the mission statement of my organization:

Teach Music for Canada aims to ensure that children have equal access to quality music education in schools. We will build a new generation of music educators by drawing on outstanding recent graduates and empowering them to develop innovative music programs. By engaging students through practical music instruction, we can nurture creative thinkers, problem solvers, and active community members. It is our hope that these students will become ambassadors for quality music education in schools.

-Aaron McFarlane, Fellow

Click here to download Aaron's PowerPoint presentation in pdf format.

A few photos by Jori of PYAC's Youth Arts Day, and much more documentation to come…

Kirby interviews her cello teacher Adrienne.

In February 2010, CMW’s Board of Directors approved a new Five Year
Strategic Plan. Subtitled "Deepening our Roots and Spreading the Word," the plan addresses what we feel are our primary challenges as an
organization: to extend the impact of our work (reaching more
people in more places), while at the same time deepening our
local programming (reaching deeper with our students and community in Providence’s West Side neighborhoods).

One major initiative for the next five years is "to develop and implement a space plan appropriate to our
neighborhood residency and growing space needs, add additional staff
hours to support new and continuing activities, and think through our
needs of an endowment and/or capital fund to support staff and space
needs."

To that end, CMW has hired local architecture firm 3SIX0 for a feasibility study that will help us determine what our physical space needs are. Chris Bardt and Kyna Leski describe their efforts with CMW this way:

Establishing relations is the function of architecture. The demographic divisions created by socio-economic forces dictate budgets that stratify buildings and divide neighborhoods. We feel that an acceptance of these divisions undermines the essential purpose of architecture in society. We feel that this project is truly in its essence asking for the essential core of what architecture is.

Read all about the Strategic Plan on the Profiles page of CMW's website.

Josh

1. If your piece were posted on the CMW website, how would you introduce it?

Our piece is a sample of a viola thrown down 12 notches and made it sound like an acoustic bass. Yeah it pretty much kicks butt in every sense. We [Paul and I] are planning on just freestyle playing on this. It was a Black Violin influence. Shouts to Henry! This will be available for everyone for free to play on. This piece is rugged and street but ambient at the same time.

2. If you were going to tell a friend about this class, how would you describe it? What did we do? What did you learn?

We get on a Mac and use Logic Pro and make hits. Monday is my favorite day of the week because I would come make good music.

3. Has this class affected the way you think about music? How?

I appreciate all types of music now. This class helped me understand the amount of work involved in making all types of music.

4. Has this class affected the way you play or study your instrument?  How?

I study more rhythms and different instruments. Also, I pay more attention to keys and melodies.

Paul

1. If your piece were posted on the CMW website, how would you introduce it?

I partnered up with Josh to work on a piece. In our piece we recorded ourselves playing our instruments and then put the recording on the computer. After, we made a beat using a keyboard. The keyboard we used could be used to sound like a drum or a violin or anything else. After we made the beat with the keyboard, we added the recording of ourselves. At first, the recording didn't match up with each other so we altered the recording to sync with the beat. Shout out to my boy Henry.

2. If you were going to tell a friend about this class, how would you describe it? What did we do? What did you learn?

If I was to describe this class to a friend I would tell them that this class is dead bangin'. We use a program called Logic Pro to make beats and we can record ourselves playing our instrument and sync it with the beat. So the class is fun.

3. Has this class affected the way you think about music? How?

This class has affected my thinking on music in a way that allows me to realize I can do so much work with music besides playing just sheet music.

4. Has this class affected the way you play or study your instrument?  How?

This class has affected how I play my instrument because I don't always have to play classical music.

Alana

1. If your piece were posted on the CMW website, how would you introduce it?

In the first half of my piece you're at a night club. Also in this part I included an improvisation part. Then once this part finishes, you are now waiting for the bus. You are now on your way home. I also used an improvisation part in this. In both sections I included a recording of me and Angie from when we were taking our expedition with Micah and Paloma. When I shared this piece at the Performance Party it was very exciting because I saw many people nodding their heads to my beat. It was very fun! But I also have to give props to Logic Pro because I found many loops to create my piece there.

2. If you were going to tell a friend about this class, how would you describe it? What did we do? What did you learn?

If I were to describe Media Lab to my friend I would say, "It's a class I go to every Monday and we make our own tracks on this program called Logic Pro. This program allows me to share my favorite styles."

3. Has this class affected the way you think about music? How?

This class has affected the way I think about music now because I see that you can take all different styles of music and it can still sound awesome and cool.

4. Has this class affected the way you play or study your instrument?  How?

This class has affected the way I play and study music because now I can always take my violin and improvise over my piece.