More photos by Jori in CMW's Flickr account.

Part Two of an ongoing series of reflections by resident violinist Chase Spruill.

“The first thing you should know is that, at the end of this week, if you feel like your head is going to explode and you’re going to fall into a seizure because of all the information we’re about to throw at you, that’s totally okay.” That came from CMW's founder Sebastian Ruth who was sitting across from me at a long conference table on the third floor of the office space on Westminster Street that CMW rents.

I had watched videos and interviews and read articles about Sebastian and company long before I showed up, and so it was interesting to be sitting with members of the staff face-to-face. They’re just as fashionable and just as warm as they come off on interview footage in the news or on YouTube. “I told Chloe to tell you ‘If, at the end of the week, Chase feels massively disoriented and like his head is going to explode, let him know that that’s okay.’” Chloe Kline, CMW's Education Director, was sitting on the other side of the table, smiling and nodding along in agreement. “That said—” she laid out a massive red binder in front of me full of various reading materials and detailed contracts and compendiums,”—welcome to Community MusicWorks.”
   
As it turns out, my first week learning about CMW was going to be about way more than small technical things, like learning when schedules come out and how to check email. It was going to be about ingesting the various concepts that have been growing and living inside of the organization since its inception. Running alongside that moving vehicle can feel daunting enough, but then, trying to jump on board when other new CMW projects are coming to the fore can feel like an equally trying task.

After signing my name on the dotted line, I committed to being a part of the team and to bring energy and creativity to my job. But when you learn that so much of that job ends up depending on knowing things about the community, what do you bring to the table when you don’t feel like you’re an actual part of the community yet and have no idea how to achieve that? And when it happens, do you know it? Can you feel it? Does someone send you an official letter in the mail letting you know that you’ve achieved community status? (to be continued…)

Part One of an ongoing series of reflections by resident violinist Chase Spruill.

When you take a new job, there are certain things as a responsible new member of the team that you want taped on your chest when the Taxi drops you off on the company doorstep. For one, know your acronyms. Every company has their own lingo and the best way to feel like you can contribute to the information being hurled around in conversations and meetings is to know what in the world they’re talking about. Still, though, you won’t know everything, and it’s best not to panic.  Secondly, accept the fact that you’ll probably mess up…a lot. You’ll want to minimize the damage you do to other people’s work due to being ignorant of the way their world works, but nonetheless, you don’t know anything until you know it. And third, don’t feel bad if you don’t make friends. You can’t force it. People who’ve been working together for a long time already have a relationship with one another, and it’s got nothing to do with you, but eventually, hopefully, it will…

These are some of the thoughts that spun through my head between my three connecting flights in the middle of August 2012 en route to Providence, Rhode Island from Sacramento, California. No one knows you and you don’t know them. And if that isn’t anxiety enough, your family is going to be joining you in this adventure in three short weeks, and you still don’t officially have a place to stay. When I first accepted this job, Heath Marlow—CMW's Managing Director who first contacted me about potentially applying—had urged me to be in contact with members of the community. I was advised to ask about housing, ask about neighborhoods, places to eat, grocery stores, day care, breathing, and on, and on, and on… All really good stuff, except no one in Providence knew me, and I didn’t know them. I wasn’t a member of the community. How could I impose? That wasn’t my thing. Perhaps, when they get to know me, if they like me, maybe I could have those conversations. But only once I know I’ve become a member of the community. But how does one do that? What a hefty task to undertake, and lo and behold, it’s in your job description. And how do you know when it actually happens? Is it something at which you can actually succeed?
   
Between the takeoff of my plane at Sacramento International Airport at 7 am on August 10, and the time I actually landed in Providence on August 11 at 2 am the next day, a series of disasters had struck. A storm came in and cancelled a few of my connecting flights. I was rerouted to Washington D.C., only to have another flight cancelled. The newly rescheduled flight had been oversold and seats were all messed up, and to add insult to injury, they decided it would be a good idea to fly me straight into a lightning storm. All the things you love to go through when you’re like me and have slight hesitations about travelling by air. And through all of this, I had been wondering if this were some kind of terrible omen about my weeks to come and my eventual year at this new job.
   
Surely enough, over the next few days, it was one disaster after another. The first place I looked at renting became a fiasco of comedic proportions. The second place I found and ended up renting wasn’t ready to be lived in and…well, as it would turn out, wouldn’t be ready for quite some time. I had received my first parking ticket because I didn’t realize there was no such thing as overnight parking in my new neighborhood. And half the furniture I bought ended up not being able to fit through my front door or any other door in the house.
   
If this was my first week in a new place, I couldn’t even begin to imagine what my first week at work was going to be like…

After two transformational years as a Fellow at CMW, I moved to Boston in 2010 to participate in the Sistema Fellows Program at the New England Conservatory. During that inspiring year, I learned about the many aspects of how to create and manage an El Sistema-inspired program in the US. In the spring of 2011, I spent five weeks in Venezuela traveling to different parts of the country, observing and teaching in the music programs there. I returned to the U.S. inspired to share the experience of El Sistema with families in Providence.

Thanks to support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, I was able to return to CMW last season to spend time preparing to launch the new program that I had been dreaming about creating. I had the opportunity to put into practice some specific ideas for music education that I gathered in Venezuela with a class of CMW beginners. I also enjoyed my work with CMW's Green Magic Orchestra and Phase II.

On September 10, CMW will launch a daily string orchestra program inspired by El Sistema. We are excited to be working with our partner in the neighborhood, the John Hope Settlement House. In combination with JHSH's Out of School Time Program, students in the orchestra will be provided with private lessons, snacks, homework help, mentors from Brown University, arts and crafts activities, and, of course, daily orchestra rehearsals. We’ll be starting out with a group of 25 first graders, including children from CMW's waiting list, children from JHSH, and children who we are recruiting to join the program.

Last week, violinist Lisa Barksdale and I had a chance to meet some of the families who will be entering the program at an information session hosted by JHSH. At the session, I shared with families this short video of people talking about El Sistema. The video features music performed by youth orchestras in Venezuela.

Do you know someone who is the parent of an eligible first grader? We are looking specifically for children who have the most to gain from this special opportunity to participate in a free daily after-school program. Please invite them to contact me via the CMW office.

-Adrienne Taylor, Program Director

Photos by Don Tarallo. Check out Providence Pudding Pops here.

As part of CMW's ArtPlace award, monthly updates will be posted on ArtPlace's website.

Congratulations to Rachel Panitch, the Rhode Island Fiddle Project, and Pawtucket's Woodlawn Community Development Corporation which recently received a $5,000 grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts to support the RI Fiddle Project, now beginning its fourth year.

More photos by Jori in CMW's Flickr account.

Earlier in the month, we were thrilled to welcome Chase Spruill as he joins us to
fill a one-year teaching artist position at CMW. Chase traveled
cross-country to join us, relocating with his fiancee Marie and son
Charlie (aka Charles Spruill the Fifth!) from Vacaville, California.
Chase graduated with a Bachelor's in Music Performance from Sacramento
State University in 2010, and has been a resident artist at Sacramento
State since that time with his chamber group, Citywater New Music
Ensemble.

Chase has extensive teaching and performing experience (he
began teaching group violin classes at the ripe old age of 13, in his
hometown of Vacaville), and we feel incredibly lucky to have him join
the CMW community. In the two weeks since he's arrived, Chase has been
thinking a lot about the process of becoming a CMW musician, and the
opportunities (for both him and for CMW) that come with an "outsider's"
perspective on CMW. He's promised to write some blog posts on this
topic, so keep your eyes peeled!

-Chloe Kline, Education Director

Photo by Chloe Kline