For footage of CMW Fellow Rachel Panitch performing "Gretel Dreaming" with the Providence Mandolin Orchestra on tour this summer in The Netherlands, click here.

CMW's board of directors retreated to a conference room at Providence's Save the Bay Center to prepare for the upcoming 12th (!) season. As one board member noted, the "power of Community MusicWorks is in the continuity…"

Providing a synopsis of the first eleven years of CMW, Sebastian spoke about graduating from Brown University in 1997 with the vision of Community MusicWorks as an "experiment in educational ideas." He pondered the question, "how would we do music education differently to maximize the experience of transformation?" One key to CMW's approach is that we practice "inreach" (as opposed to outreach) and therefore the transformation in our neighborhood can be shared by children, families, and also importantly, the musicians themselves.

It's going to be a great 12th season. Details to be announced soon…
-Heath Marlow, CMW staff

Phase II students Josh and Luis (pictured below with board president Liz Hollander) join board veteran Kirby as CMW's student representatives.

A few photos from 2003 and earlier days of Community MusicWorks. Who do you recognize?

You don’t have to live in Providence to see and hear what’s happening at the other members of the Providence Youth Arts Collaborative (PYAC). Here’s a sampling of multimedia, all just a few mouse clicks away…

1. Videos and podcasts from Everett Dance Theatre here.

2. Providence Black Repertory Company blog here.

3. Providence CityArts for Youth “Virtual Gallery” here.

4. New Urban Arts media page here.

5. Sounds and video from AS220 here.

A recent article by Boston Globe music critic (and CMW friend) Jeremy Eichler:

“I’ve never felt so paralyzed standing before my CD collection as the
day I brought my newborn son home from the hospital and decided to play
him his very first music. So much was at stake. Should it be modern or
Baroque? Orchestral or opera? Would Mozart make him smarter? Would
Schoenberg instill in him revolutionary tendencies? Would Wagner make
him loathe his Jewish roots?

I settled on Bach’s “Art of Fugue” in an arrangement for string
quartet. Why not begin at the summit, and what’s more, I imagined, all
that searching counterpoint would be like honey for the infant brain.
He responded with aplomb, conveying his wise, wordless mastery of the
material by slipping into an eyes-closed, meditative state. OK, he fell
asleep.”

Continue reading here.

Kirby sent in this photo taken at a special event at Mayor Cicilline’s home on Monday evening. CMW’s Phase III ensemble (including Luis and Josh) performed for the Mayor and his guests, including incoming Providence Public Schools superintendent Tom Brady (profiled in the Providence Journal).

Unless you’ve combed this blog’s archives, this updated map of the Community MusicWorks neighborhood will be new to you. Click on our education and performance venues, our friends, and some of our favorite eateries.

Community MusicWorks venues

Click here to read Daniel Wakin's NY Times profile of The Academy, The Juilliard School and Carnegie Hall's recently created fellowship program which "serves post-graduate musicians embarking on their careers by helping to
bridge the gap between their academic and professional lives."

"The
two-year fellowship… is designed to develop the skills and values leading to careers that
combine musical excellence with education and community outreach." Sound familiar?

The Academy's website is here.

Our thanks to Kyle for providing CMW teens and staff a delightful evening of sailing off the coast of Newport… what a great way to celebrate the end of another great year!

Rachel's bluegrass band has a bunch of local shows this summer. Catch Rachel (or should I say Ms. Lucinda Bourbon?) on stage by checking out the band's page.