Composer Sicong Ma, violin, with wife, pianist Muli Wang.
Join us for the Sonata Series Event #2, Thursday, February 9 at 7 pm at Bell Street Chapel or through live stream to hear violinist Kimberly Fang perform two pieces by composers Sicong Ma and Yau-Tai Hwang. Here, Kimberly recounts the divergent stories of two composers with early-life similarities, and her search for inspiration during a difficult time.
What I thought would be a very quick phase in my life has now turned into a full-blown obsession: how many pieces of art can I consume or come into contact with that originate from people of Asian or Asian-American descent?
This journey began in the early stages of the pandemic in 2020. At the time, I was feeling trapped, and I had no real way of fighting the racism I was seeing happening around the world. Instead, I searched for a means to make myself stronger on the inside, and what better way to know myself than to learn about what others who look like me have gone through? Reading books by Asian American authors, listening to music by Asian singers and composers, and watching TV shows about the Asian American experience, these things wrapped me up in a sense of security similar to what I felt when I was living in Taiwan. I was relieved to have found a way to cope with the myriad of feelings that bubbled up within me during the past few years.
The main piece that I will be playing for the Sonata Series concert came to me as if by fate. I had merely Googled “Taiwanese classical composers violin” as one would do, and as expected, not many names came up, especially for an English-language search query. I clicked the YouTube link for Violin Sonata No. 3 by Sicong Ma, and it was love at first listen.
Through a very complicated process, I was able to get my hands on the score to this sonata, but at one point, I thought I would not be able to play it because I could not find this in publication anywhere. However, I did eventually get my hands on the score, and as I dove into the details of the composer’s life, I quickly realized the process I went through to get my hands on a physical copy of this music was well worth the struggle.
Ma’s life truly seems like source material for a movie. Born in 1912 in the Guangdong province, Ma had nine brothers and sisters, many of whom also became famous musicians. This was in part due to the fact that his father was a Chinese government employee, and his family could afford things like sending their children off to study abroad. In fact, Ma first traveled to Paris to study violin at age eleven and later became the first student of Chinese descent admitted to the Conservatory of Paris, where he studied violin performance and composition. (Another interesting fact, though not related to Sicong’s musical life: his mother was a scholar, which was rarely seen during this time in China.)
Once he returned to China, Ma enjoyed a successful career as an educator, performer, composer, and even founded and became the dean at many music schools throughout China. He also met his wife, Muli Wang, soon after returning to China. As a pianist, she accompanied him throughout their lives during his concerts. When the Communist party first came to power in 1949, Ma was offered a position as Dean of the Central Conservatory in Beijing. It was said that his salary was nearly as high as Chairman Mao’s, and he had his pick of any fine mansion in Beijing to reside in. The government friend that offered him this position wanted Ma to be at the helm of shaping the future of music in China.
At the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 however, Ma’s fortune came crashing down. He was taken to a reeducation camp where he and about 500 other scholars were forced to read government-mandated materials, criticize their past deeds, and expose colleagues and family members who may have also indulged in incorrect ways of thinking. After several months of this, he was carted back to his school where his own students physically and mentally beat him down as he was paraded through the hallways as a traitor to his home country.
In all the years of my life, I had never really thought about persecution happening to artists in this way. I had seen movies about the Cultural Revolution, but for some reason, it didn’t really click for me until I heard about it in this context. I often think about how there aren’t many ways in which I have been challenged to stand up for what I believe in, even in religious or political contexts, and even if I were to meet these kinds of torments in my life, could I be unwavering for the things that I love?
This story has a bittersweet ending. Ma’s wife and children and already fled to Hong Kong when this all started to happen, but his youngest daughter disguised herself and braved the journey to China to convince her father to come back with her to Hong Kong. It seemed that Ma was not easily broken, believing that he could withstand this torture and continue living in his homeland once everything had calmed down. She eventually convinced him to make a run for it, and he and his family were able to make it to Hong Kong and then to Philadelphia, where he would settle down with a low profile for the rest of his life. This came with grave consequences though: once the government learned of his escape, all those that were involved were jailed, and many of the remaining family members in China were jailed or eventually died due to mistreatment.
Sicong Ma’s Violin Sonata No. 3 was composed in 1984, three years before his death. He never forgot about his love for his homeland, where he accomplished so many great things and did so much to champion Western classical music for a new generation of musicians. This sonata is very short, just two movements, but Ma conveys his homesickness for China through it.
Ma would continue to compose and perform in America, Europe, and other Chinese-speaking countries like Taiwan and Hong Kong, but he would never set foot on Chinese soil again. After he was repatriated in 1985, Ma had plans to return in 1987, but died due to complications from surgery and never got to see his home in the end. His ashes were returned to his hometown in 2007.
Although I can’t be sure of all the factors, I think that one reason why it’s been so difficult to find published copies of his music is due to the erasure that he had to endure during the Cultural Revolution. Recently, there has been a small resurgence in playing his music and learning more about his story in China, and he is even hailed as “The King of Violinists” there. It’s hard not to think about what could have happened with his artistic output and life if things had been different.
And in another twist of fate, it seems that we can sort of see what Ma’s life could have been like in an alternate universe through Yau-Tai Hwang’s life, the composer of the second piece I will be playing. I had no knowledge of the composers’ histories when choosing their pieces, but the mirror similarities are uncanny.
Composer Yau-Tai Hwang (left) was, like Sicong Ma, born in 1912 in the Guangdong province, and had parents that valued his arts education. He was a huge advocate of Western classical music and loved to perform the classics, but found that his audiences preferred to hear his own arrangements of folk songs or pieces he had written that were inspired by his native musical language.
When the Communist party won in 1949, Hwang fled to Hong Kong immediately, where he luckily escaped the persecution of the Cultural Revolution. In 1987, he settled down in Taiwan, where he would continue to teach and compose until the age of 98. Hwang would also draw from his homesickness for inspiration when composing, for he would also never return to China. His life played out very differently due to a few key decisions, and he was able to find a safe haven in the midst of all the war and change happening in China.
The last red string of fate I will add to the mix is this: the only recording that I could find of Ma’s Violin Sonata was played by a musician who had actually heard Sicong Ma in concert as a child. Hsiaomei Ku recalls that she was even able to play for him as a conservatory student. She also suffered through reeducation camp and had her violin locked away during those tumultuous years alongside Ma. I can’t even imagine how it must feel to one day be able to proudly reclaim the music that was composed by someone you looked up to. Perhaps that has undone some of the injustice done to Ma in his lifetime.
Kimberly Fang performing in 2020.
Maybe grand gestures of defiance won’t come to the majority of us in our lifetime, a blessing for sure. But in the midst of the past couple of years, or even in the midst of this new year in which two Lunar New Year shootings occurred in California, I continue to think about the ways in which I can stand up for what I love. Even as an adult, hearing an elementary student say “ching chong” to my face elicits the exact same feelings of shame and embarrassment that it did for me 25 years ago. And maybe even a little anger that the same old stereotypes continue to be taught to children. I hope that whatever I end up accomplishing with my art, someone in the future who might be just like me won’t have to hear those words ever again.
— Kimberly Fang, violinist
If you are interested in listening to Sicong Ma perform his most famous composition, Nostalgia, with his wife, Muli Wang, click here.
CMW Resident Musician and cellist Adrienne Taylor writes about the piece she’ll be performing with guest pianist Andrei Baumann at the Sonata Series concert on Thursday, February 9 at 7:00 pm. Learn more about event here.
As an elementary student I found myself playing in an orchestra at West Chester University alongside musicians who were a lot older and more experienced than I was. At our first rehearsal one of the pieces on the stand was composer Samuel Barber’s famous Adagio for Strings. I had never heard the piece before, but I was taken in right away by the long build in intensity and the use of the full range of the string instruments. There were notes so high that I hadn’t yet learned how to play them. When I got home that night, I practiced and practiced my part for the rehearsal and concert the next day. That’s how I learned the higher positions on the cello for the first time – I was motivated by Barber’s music.
At the time, I didn’t even know that the composer whose piece I was falling in love with was from my hometown of West Chester, PA.
Samuel Barber’s childhood home in West Chester, PA.
As an adult I came to learn other, less well-known works by Samuel Barber, including his Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 6, which we’ll perform at Thursday’s Sonata event. Barber, who shunned (and was shunned by) the avant-garde, was considered old-fashioned for his romanticism. Barber famously said, “I write what I feel. I believe that takes a certain courage.”
Andrei Baumann and Adrienne Taylor performing in 2021.
This is a feeling sonata. It is full of passion, excitement and tenderness – words I hesitate to use because now we’ve found ourselves in another era that looks down on expressiveness, where words like “precious and sentimental” are meant to condemn. When pianist Andrei Baumann and I talked about what we’d like to work on together, this sonata inspired us – we are both in a feeling time in our lives, and we wanted to be able to explore that in an unrestrained way. We’re appreciating playing a piece that allows us to do that, and perhaps listeners can allow themselves to unabashedly feel with us, too.
— Adrienne Taylor, cellist
Join us for Sonata Series Event #2 on Thursday, February 9 at 7 PM at Bell Street Chapel in Providence. This event is presented in person and through live stream. Make reservations and get more information here.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Daily Orchestra Program!
We hope you’ll enjoy this video of a recent Daily Orchestra Program concert, which features 3 generations of DOP students in performance, from our youngest musicians, who’ll graduate to receive real instruments in this presentation, to an ensemble whose student members all started their musical journey in the Daily Orchestra Program.
For the past ten years, the Daily Orchestra Program has been a space where students can find strength in their differences and potential in their alliances. It has been a space where students have fun, where they feel strong and safe, and where their voices are always heard with respect. And it is our deep hope that, when our students leave CMW, they will seek out opportunities to create those spaces for others.
This year, we have the opportunity to expand the Daily Orchestra Program experience to 30 additional Providence elementary school students. Please help ensure that this next generation has the opportunity to grow with CMW through their high school years, like their peers before them.
Thank you for considering an end-of-year gift to Community MusicWorks. With your support, we can create the space for these students to find strength in their community and joy in one another’s voices, each and every day.
(Back, left to right) Ashley Frith, Luke Fatora, Zan Berry, Holly Dyer, AlexisMarie Nelson, Kamyron Williams, Jake Pietroniro, Rachel Panitch, Adrienne Taylor, and Fellowship Program Director Minna Choi; (Front, left to right) Chloë Kline, Kate Outterbridge, Hannah Ross, and Jason Amos.
In June, Community MusicWorks reconnected with many members of our community in a spectacular 25th Season Reunion Concert at Dexter Park. As part of this joyous occasion, 15 alums from our Fellowship Program joined in the performance and reconnected with former students and colleagues. To cap the weekend-long celebration, fellows, staff, and friends gathered for an afternoon brunch on the back patio at our Westminster Street headquarters to hear the Fellows share updates on life and work.
Fellowship Program Director Minna Choi introduces the event.
It was memorable and wonderful to have a gathering of Fellows from 2006 to the present day and reflect on how each of their contributions has impacted the making of our community over the past sixteen years of the Fellowship Program. We caught snapshots of the alums’ expanding their families, landing in new cities, exploring new hobbies, and changing directions in creative and professional lives, all while retaining music as part of their lives.
Some highlights and updates from the CMW Fellows share include:
Luke Fatora (2019) (above) shared photos and video of life in rural Maine fishing, playing and teaching music, and making multi-media films.
Holly Dyer (2020) recently left the Community MusicCenter of Boston as their Community Engagement Manager and is now working at the Longy School of Music as an Assistant Director of Student Services.
Zan Berry (2018) works in Providence around homeless advocacy and creating opportunities for artists to connect, creating the PVD Cello Fest and performing with local ensemble Verdant Vibes.
Hannah Ross (2016), also based in Providence, manages the RI Philharmonic Music School Community Partnerships program. Hannah was recently selected as a member of the second cohort of the Rhode Island Foundation’s Equity Leadership Initiative and looks forward to this incredible opportunity to learn from and collaborate with other BIPOC leaders across the state of Rhode Island.
Jason Amos (2010), lives in Roslindale, Massachusetts, and balances careers in music and real estate.
Rachel Panitch (2009) (above) also based in the Boston area, spends her time with her two young kids, teaching (at musiConnects) performing, and composing music.
Kate Outterbridge (2017) (above) has hopped across the country to Los Angeles where she spends her time free-lancing, performing in a violin duo, and thinking up material for a recent exploration in stand-up comedy.
Adrienne Taylor (2010), Ashley Frith (2018) (above), and Chloë Kline (2008) have continued to work at CMW since their Fellowship, continually expanding and deepening their ideas and practice in their roles as Resident Musician and founder of the Daily Orchestra Program (Adrienne), Director of Racial Equity and Belonging (Ashley), and Education Director (Chloë).
Our most recent graduates Kamyron Williams and Jake Pietroniro (above) reflected on their experience these past two years during the pandemic and the unexpected silver linings. Jake is currently pursuing a doctorate in Viola Performance at the University of Alabama and Kamyron has joined the CMW staff as a Resident Musician.
Liam Hopkins and Alexis Nelson, in the midst of their second year of their Alumni Fellowship, are involved with many different aspects of the organization, while sharing perspectives and experiences from their days as students at Community MusicWorks.
Ashley, Kate, and Jake share laughs and latte at the brunch.
But there’s more! Many Fellowship Program graduates were not able to join us in June but are out there doing amazing things every day. We look forward to launching a Fellows Feature throughout this year, with an up-close look at what Fellowship alums are doing. Stay tuned for the first feature in our series coming soon!
Community MusicWorks is keeping it green! In a ceremony at Roger Williams Park Botanical Center, Community MusicWorks was one of several local entities honored with an award to fund the creation of a green landscaping project for the Community MusicWorks Center (now under construction!).
The funding is from the Southeast New England Program (SNEP) a regional initiative funded by Congress and managed by the US Environmental Protection Agency, working to preserve and restore coastal waters by providing grants and technical assistance to communities, local organizations and partnerships in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts.
This grant will support the creation of an exterior natural landscape with a self-contained rainwater recycling and irrigation system. The outdoor spaces are intended to expand the footprint of the building and invite pedestrians and the CMW community to enjoy much needed green space, a parklet, and woodland garden. The outdoor spaces act as green infrastructure recapturing roof rainwater for irrigation and bio-retention areas to capture stormwater.
Speakers included US Sen. Jack Reed, Congs. Jim Langevin and David Cicilline, Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza, and EPA Regional Administrator David Cash.
For this season of our popular Sonata Series, Community MusicWorks is excited to offer a listener’s choice: Join us in-person at Bell Street Chapel or enjoy the concert online through our first-ever live-streaming event.
The Sonata Series spotlights our wonderful resident musicians in programs of solo and duo music presented in collaboration with fabulous guest artists. Each program is curated with works selected by the musicians in combinations that represent a thematic arc and a range of artistic voices. This season, you’ll hear some familiar favorites and some works that may be newer to your ears. We hope you’ll join us for these very special evenings!
Sonata Series Event #1 features resident musicians Chloë Kline, viola, Miguel Vasquez, cello, and guest pianist, Eliko Akahori, for a rich and moving program of Hindemith, Villa Lobos, and Beethoven.
Paul Hindemith’s Viola Sonata Op. 25, No.1 is a tour de force for the unaccompanied viola and shows the composer’s writing in a radical phase. The sonata traverses emotions from the fierce and nearly aggressive, to pleading moments, and ending with an elegiac movement.
Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Elegie for Cello and Piano from 1916 carries a nostalgic and plaintive lyricism throughout both instruments. The Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata No. 4 for cello and piano (Op. 102, No.1), sometimes called the “Free Sonata” because of its departure from conventional form, may be unexpected in structure but familiar in its musical representation of a wide range of human emotional experiences.
This is a program you won’t want to miss! Click to watch!
Community MusicWorks is grateful to Melanie and Stephen Coon for their sponsorship of the live stream for the Sonata Series in Season 26.
As we look forward to the first Sonata Series Event of the season, violist Chloë Kline offers this insider view of the piece she’ll be performing this Thursday at 7 pm. Join us for Sonata Series Event #1 in person or online! Click for more information.
Hello faithful CMW blog readers,
I’m sending a pre-Sonata Series update about the incredible piece I’ve been working up: Hindemith’s Solo Sonata Op. 25 No. 1. This piece, written in 1922 by German composer Paul Hindemith, has been on my performing bucket list for a long time, and it’s been a lot of fun (though I admit there has been a fair amount of ibuprofen involved!) to work on it this fall.
Hindemith is my favorite 20th-century composer—which is only partly because of all the incredible music he wrote for viola. He went through several distinct stylistic periods (his early music was in the late Romantic tradition, then he moved into more Expressionist writing, and then in the 1920s his writing matured into a style that has been called the “New Objectivity” style) – but across his compositions I find that there is an inventiveness and vividness that really pulls me in. I find his music completely visceral—the fast and manic movements feel like they’re pulsing within your very organs, and the more lyrical moments can make me feel like I’m floating on a gentle tide.
One of the unusual and fascinating aspects of playing Hindemith’s music is that there are recordings of Hindemith performing his own music—he performed—and recorded—a great deal up until his death in 1963, and there are at least two surviving recordings of him performing this sonata. (Many of his viola and chamber music performances are no longer available, though there are a lot of him conducting his orchestral works.)
I found it incredibly intense to hear Hindemith’s recordings as I was working this up. The recordings are OLD and the sound is unpolished and sometimes downright scratchy and warped. But it’s also like studying a foreign language and suddenly hearing a native speaker for the first time—all of a sudden, the phrases lock into focus in a new way, and the direction and intention of the music are newly clear.
Here’s a 1934 recording of the piece as performed by the composer:
As a performance, the recordings are uneven…scroll through the YouTube comments, and you’ll find a lot of complaints about his intonation, his tempi, or the fact that he ignores a lot of his own markings…but in my opinion, all that is secondary. Wikipedia captures what I’m trying to express in a comment from a critic for OPERA magazine in 1954: “Mr. Hindemith is no virtuoso conductor, but he does possess an extraordinary knack of making performers understand how his own music is supposed to go”.
I’ll talk a little bit more about the structure of the piece and the different movements on October 20th (spoiler alert: the 4th movement is straight adrenaline) but in the meantime, enjoy this musical blast from the past. I hope to see you there!
—Chloë Kline, violist
Join us in-person or online Thursday, October 20 at 7 pm EST for Sonata Series Event #1. Click for details.
We are saddened to learn of the passing of Larry Rachleff, longtime music director of the RI Philharmonic, mentor to several of our colleagues who attended the Shepherd School of Music in Houston, and valued member of CMW’s Advisory Council.
Rachleff leads a conducting workshop with CMW students in 2004.
Larry had a generous spirit, always willing to chat with CMW students and welcome them to RI Philharmonic concerts and rehearsals, and once offered a conducting workshop at Community MusicWorks.
Larry was a force as a musician and teacher in the music world and certainly brought about searing and special music-making in Rhode Island for more than two decades. His legacy will certainly live on, and we will miss him.
Sebastian Ruth and Capital Campaign Committee Co-Chair Doris De Los Santos at the Community MusicWorks Center launch event. Photo: Erin X. Smithers.
“The way we go about building this Center has to reflect our ambition for the evolution of the organization toward ever-increasing responsiveness to, and governance by, people in the community of CMW.”
In late spring CMW launched the Community MusicWorks Center project, a milestone moment in plans to build a future home for the organization in the West End of Providence.
In this piece for the Ensemble, CMW Founder & Artistic Director Sebastian Ruth reflects on a new set of challenges in the long and iterative journey in planning this facility.
“One thing that’s beautiful about CMW is the way that it connects communities.” — Marconi Hernandez, CMW Alum and Board Vice President
From a small beginning in the computer room at the West End Community Center, Community MusicWorks has grown into an organization that has changed lives in twenty-five seasons of bringing people together through community and music.
At our recent Reunion Concert, friends, families, students, and alums came from near and far to gather in Dexter Park and celebrate our 25th Season with music, reflection, joy, and gratitude.
“Community MusicWorks offered a different perspective of what I could be doing in my life.” — AlexisMarie Nelson, CMW Alum and Current Fellow
We’re pleased to share this video presentation capturing interviews that show the impact this organization has had over decades of work, an impact that has reached well beyond our community in the West End of Providence.
CMW’s 25th Season ends on June 30, but your gift today has an impact that helps ensure that CMW continues to change lives for the next twenty-five seasons.
Community MusicWorks is keeping it green! In a ceremony at Roger Williams Park Botanical Center, Community MusicWorks was one of several local entities honored with an award to fund the creation of a green landscaping project for the Community MusicWorks Center (now under construction!).
For this season of our popular Sonata Series, Community MusicWorks is excited to offer a listener’s choice: Join us in-person at Bell Street Chapel or enjoy the concert online through our first-ever live-streaming event. 
