Life of an orchestra on zoom and a video album that celebrates animals!

by Lisa Barksdale
CMW Resident Musician & Program Coordinator / Daily Orchestra Program 

If you’ve ever experimented with an elimination diet – for example, gone gluten-free or perhaps vegetarian – you’ve probably learned that, while such limitation can be challenging, it can also lead you to new food discoveries. Sure, going without regular bread is tough, but you might learn that you love collard wraps. Maybe you get really into specialty olives. Maybe you stumble on a gluten-free treat that’s so delicious you’d eat it even if you weren’t gluten-free. Teaching virtually in the Daily Orchestra Program (DOP) during a pandemic has been a little bit like going gluten-free. While I can’t say I prefer it to the real thing, I’ve been amazed at the teaching discoveries we’ve made during this time and especially at the resilience and imagination of all our dedicated DOP students and teachers. It’s a seemingly paradoxical truth that oftentimes great creativity is born from great constraints.

When I sat down (on zoom) with Lisa Sailer (our Beginning String Specialist), and Adrienne Taylor (Resident Musician) back in late August of 2020 to plan for the coming orchestra year, it was hard to imagine what transporting the fire-breathing animal of the DOP into the virtual world was going to look like. How could we take this orchestra, which thrived on students playing and generally making lots of noise together, into a space where that act was impossible? We knew that we’d be giving up a lot through this move, but there were several pieces of the orchestra program DNA that we knew we wanted to keep intact.

1. We wanted to keep the daily in Daily Orchestra. That students come together to play their instruments every single day is part of what makes the DOP special. Through the daily ritual of orchestra not only do students practice their instruments regularly but they also form close bonds with each other – a true team spirit. We knew the how of this might need to look a little different on zoom, but the what would remain the same.
2. We wanted to make sure our curriculum stayed varied and most importantly – fun! A regular week at the DOP involves not just playing instruments but also singing, movement activities, mindful minutes, games, stories about musicians, and improvisation. Even on zoom, we wanted our students to be moving their bodies, playing their instruments, expanding their minds, honing their listening skills, and flexing their creative muscles, not just sitting in a chair and staring at a screen.
3. We wanted students to stay connected to each other and form friendships. This was possibly the most challenging piece to keep in tact since virtual learning makes the act of playing together impossible, and for the DOP students the act of playing music together has always been a community-building force. We knew we’d need to explore ways to cultivate a feeling of community online and facilitate ways for the students to stay in touch with each other, even while physically distant.

Once we decided on these crucial pieces to keep in the orchestra schedule and ethos online, we then asked an even bigger question –

How can we stay connected to the wider Providence community? Can we foster community engagement among our students even when we are physically distanced?

Lisa Sailer (fondly known by our students as Ms. Cat-Lisa. By the way, I am Ms. Dog-Lisa) had the brilliant solution to this question, and the key was…animals!

Love of animals was a uniting force in our orchestra, and with our orchestra students in the beginning phases of their instrument learning, we knew that many short animal-themed songs would be right up our learning alley this year. Cat-Lisa planned for us not just to learn these songs but also to record and curate them into a special Video Album fundraiser benefitting an animal-supporting organization that the students would choose together.

While students learned how to play and sing fun animal songs, they also learned about the different types of organizations that support animals. They learned the pros and cons of supporting a national vs local organization, and after a heated vote, they decided to go with a local org. Once that decision was made, students individually researched animal-supporting organizations in Rhode Island. We discovered different categories of these organizations and after another vote opted to support an animal shelter. Finally, after another round of research and a chance for students to advocate for an organization they felt strongly about, the winner of our final vote was the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RISPCA).

Make a donation to the RISPCA in support of this project here.
A donation link can also be found in the caption of the YouTube video. Your donation will help the RISPCA provide medical care for the animals in their shelter. Please help us support this wonderful organization doing great work in our neighborhood.

In our video album, Animal Songs!, which premieres this Friday at 6:30PM EST, you’ll get to hear more about why students chose the RISPCA, and you’ll hear the results of these many months of hard work. Our students truly put their hearts and souls into this project, which has turned into not just a performance of animal songs but also a showcasing of art, our students’ many talents, and naturally some orchestra pets!

We can’t wait to see you there! And we think you’ll agree that while a return to “regular” orchestra life will be very welcome, the creative products of this gluten-free orchestra adventure are truly magical.

Animal Songs! 
Friday, April 16 at 6:30 pm EST
Watch the premiere on our CMW YouTube channel