What happens when we take a leap of faith to disrupt a mainstream idea? What are the possibilities in combining unlike things? CMW’s Founder & Artistic Director Sebastian Ruth asked these questions recently as he took the stage at a TEDx Providence gathering to share the philosophical foundations of Community MusicWorks in “Music, Community, and Creating Space for Unexpected Possibilities.”
One of the highlights of the day-long event at the VETS Memorial Auditorium was the appearance of our own Phase III String Quartet, featuring violinists Marieme Diallo and Dayana Read, cellist Jay Nunez, and violist Zoe Cute, who performed David Stone’s Miniature Quartet No. 1, Mvt. 3.
The TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) community began in 1984 as a conference dedicated to sharing ideas and soon grew into an online phenomenon of short, powerful “Ted Talk” videos featuring the world’s most inspiring speakers. Community MusicWorks was honored to be represented at the Providence TEDx, which featured some of Rhode Island’s best minds and performers. Learn More about TED/TEDx here.
Photos by Cat Laine / Painted Foot Photography CMW image by Stephanie Alvarez Ewens
Bach Around Town: Monday, November 4 – Thursday, November 7.
Community MusicWorks’ annual celebration of J. S. Bach includes MusicWorks Collective musicians in free pop-up concerts around Providence.
Join us for these events:
Monday, November 4, 12pm: Seven Stars Bakery, 342 Broadway
Tuesday, November 5, 12pm: Pan-a-Day Take Away, 7 Parade Street
Wednesday, November 6, 1pm: Cafe la France, Amtrak Station, 100 Gaspee Street
Thursday, November 7, 11am: RISD Museum Cafe, 224 Benefit Street
Thursday, November 7, 12pm: RI Foundation, One Union Station
Thursday, November 7, 12:30pm: Grace Episcopal Church, 300 Westminster Street
The don’t-miss finale in our tribute to the composer: Bach to the Future VII: All-Night Bach Marathon.
Classical and non-traditional/experimental musicians, including members of the MusicWorks Collective, pass the baton of Bach from dusk ’til dawn in this annual event. Bring a blanket and pillow, and come and go as you please. Coffee will be brewing!
Bach to the Future: All-Night Bach Marathon Friday, November 8, 7pm – Saturday, November 9, 7am Manning Chapel, Brown University Admission is free
Performer Timeline (subject to change!):
7:00 PM Introduction 7:15 PM Sara Stalnaker 7:20 PM Jesse Holstein & Andrei Baumann 7:35 PM Enigmatica 7:45 PM Lara Madden 7:50 PM Ashley Frith & Eric Peterson 7:55 PM Heath Marlow & Juliana Katzenstein 8:15 PM Joe DeGeorge 8:35 PM Youth Alliance 8:40 PM Andrei Baumann 9:00 PM Zan Berry & Armand Aromin 9:15 PM Kelly Reed & Kristen Watson 9:20 PM Minna Choi 9:30 PM Assembly of Light 9:40 PM Adrienne Taylor 9:50 PM Laurie Amat 10:10 PM Holly Dyer 10:20 PM Bob Asprinio & Matt McLaren 10:35 PM Holly Dyer & Malcolm Dyer 10:45 PM Keith Fullerton Whitman 11:10 PM Sebastian Ruth 11:25 PM House Red 11:40 PM Thighs 11:55 PM Naomi Morey & Sarah Kim 12:00 AM Florence Wallis & Orion Dommisse 12:15 AM Sarah Kim 12:40 AM Vic Rawlings 1:05 AM Zoe Cute 1:15 AM Roseminna Watson 1:25 AM Glockabelle 1:45 AM Hanging Out is Spending Money 1:55 AM Desmond Bratton 2:15 AM The Providence Research Ensemble 2:45 AM Ashley Frith 3:05 AM visibilities 3:20 AM David Rubin 3:50 AM Mariko Tamegai 4:10 AM domestique 4:25 AM Rebecca Miller 4:55 AM Shane Bray Kerr 5:10 AM Hank Mason 5:25 AM Holly Waxwing 5:45 AM Laura Gully & Sakiko Mori 5:55 AM family money 6:10 AM Jacob Berendes 6:25 AM Anne Athema 6:40 AM Jeff Louie 6:55 AM Evan Raczynski
October is coming to a close, and CMW students and teachers are settling into a comfortable rhythm (no pun intended) with lessons and classes. More of our classes are happening in our office this year, which lends a great energy to the afternoons at 1392 Westminster Street!
The CMW Adventurers set sail.
Depending on the day of the week, you might find students gathering in the main office to examine and design their own graphic scores in Sound Lab, learn about music from a new country (and stamp their musical passports) in the Adventurers Club, write their own music in theory lab, or tackle challenging new repertoire in Advanced Orchestra.
Emmy leads Fiddle Lab in some fiddling basics.Students demonstrate their creations in Bam! Boo! Puppet Time!The Youth Alliance prepares for a weekend concert performance.
And meanwhile, individual lessons are crammed into every available office space, Youth Alliance meets daily in our third-floor space, the BAM! BOO! Puppet Time! class is designing puppets in the library space, and Fiddle Lab students are learning new tunes in the quartet studio! It’s been busy, productive, and FUN – an excellent start to the teaching year.
Jonathan Biss in a recent house concert benefit for CMW.
Jonathan Biss has a surplus of brio, charm, and passion. If things come easily, the world-renowned pianist ups the game, looking for wider horizons to expand and spill that nerve and talent. As a young musician, he gravitated to the infinitely complex works of Beethoven and has become known as one of the composer’s great interpreters on the contemporary scene.
Alongside that surplus: a surplus of generosity. Biss recently performed a benefit concert in Providence, his sixth for CMW. Boyish at 39, he sat at the baby grand, flicked the flaps of his coat jacket and smoothed his thick hair. Then he immersed himself in the great rollicking energies of Beethoven, playing with great intensity from memory. The pieces seemed to contain all the things of this world – and the world after. Emotionally, physically, it required utmost concentration to keep from being overthrown by the power unlocked by the work. “These are the most difficult and challenging pieces for any musician, but I couldn’t live without them,” he said.
At the same time, Biss brings this unwavering intensity and commitment, his passion and brio for what we do at CMW. As a shaper of phrases, his language is to the point: “I love this organization,” he said. “It’s one of the few things these days that makes me feel hopeful.”
And “I can’t imagine musicians NOT bringing their commitment to the community the way the country is these days!”
If that’s not enough: “The model that they’ve established is so right-headed and inspired. The best thing I could hope for would be if it were replicated in every community across the U.S.!”
Biss doesn’t waver: “When I first learned of CMW, I instantly thought it was a fantastic idea,” he said. “I was attracted to the idea of thinking about the role of the musician in the community….CMW musicians play on such a high caliber. They have impact on the communities which they’ve chosen. What they do is different than outreach, a word I hate. They have chosen a life’s work through music.”
With his big-picture outlook, Biss seized on the urgent crisis of classical music in the early 2000s. He was convinced of the need for musicians to radically rethink the way they engaged with the world. Audiences were shrinking; concert halls found themselves chasing audiences with less than challenging crowdpleasers.
His approach has taken several turns. As a means of engaging with an engaged audience, Biss thought deeply about the possibilities of online reach, and in response developed a massive online course on Coursera, which has reached more than 150,00 people.
That public project supported an even more ambitious artistic project of recording all of Beethoven’s 32 sonatas on nine disks over nine years. Along with practicing those immensely challenging musical sonatas, with the international concerts and recording, he generously offered to make a pilgrimage to Providence to perform for the benefit of CMW’s teaching and programming.
The crisis Biss felt has intensified since he began thinking about the role of music. Culture and civil society are on the line. Art can go by the wayside, be seen as largely irrelevant, or it can step in, improve the quality of our interactions and the fullness of our humanity. Biss understood years ago that CMW’s teaching expands both student and teacher, giver and receiver. It’s not enough to be cloistered artist; it shrinks the world. Jonathan Biss lives by the wide horizon.
Jill Pearlman is a Providence-based poet and arts journalist and a CMW board member. She writes a blog about art, politics, and aesthetics at jillpearlman.com.
Jonathan Biss‘ concert calendar, Coursera, and recording information can be found at www.jonathanbiss.com.
Photo by Alexandra O’Connor.
Community MusicWorks is a revolutionary organization.
- Alex Ross The New Yorker
