Thursday, April 30: The Sonata Series Finale
Sonata Series Event #3 ***Reserve your seat below***
Music Lives Here
Music: “Impressions” composed by Clarice Assad March Events: Join Us!In March, we’d love to see you at these three events at the CMW Center!Youth SalonJoin our Phase II students for an engaging event featuring a panel discussion, interactive activities, and musical performances—all exploring the theme of artificial intelligence. Youth Salon This event is free; no reservations required. **************************** Sonata Series Event #2Our second Sonata Series Event features Resident Musicians Minna Choi and Zan Berry along with guest pianist Eliko Akahori for a program steeped in romanticism and deep expression. Come experience Amy Beach’s dramatic and passionate Violin Sonata and the equally affecting Cello Sonata in e minor by Johannes Brahms. You won’t want to miss this evening of music! Sonata Series Event #2 ************************* World-renowned pianist Emanuel Ax returns to Community MusicWorks!Join us Saturday, March 28 for an unforgettable afternoon of music. Emanuel Ax performs a program of solo works and joins the MusicWorks Collective for the sublime Mozart Piano Concerto K.415. This event promises an intimate, deeply expressive musical experience, set within the CMW Center Performance Hall’s state-of-the-art acoustics. All proceeds support CMW’s free music programs, bringing the joy and transformative power of music to young people in our community. Emanuel Ax and the MusicWorks Collective in a Benefit for Community MusicWorks Ticket prices to benefit CMW: Maestro – $1,000 includes a front-row seat to the concert.
Black Angels: A Voyage of the SoulOn Saturday, February 21, the MusicWorks Collective presents a powerful program centered around George Crumb’s haunting Black Angels. Enjoy this deep dive into Crumb’s groundbreaking work, then join us at the CMW Center! Black Angels (Thirteen Images from the Dark Land) George Crumb (1929-2022) was an American modern classical and avant-garde composer who formed his distinct style, featuring unusual timbres and innovative sonorities, in the early 1960s. By the time he finished “Black Angels” on March 13, 1970, the composer had already won a Pulitzer Prize (1968) and established himself as the creator of a highly spiritual and poetic sound world. In Crumb’s words, “Black Angels” was premiered by the Stanley Quartet in October of 1970, but it was the New York String Quartet (Paul Zukofsky, Romuald Teco, Timothy Eddy, and Jean Dupouy) that made the first commercial recording of the piece in 1971. The composition calls for Electric Violin I, Electric Violin II, Electric Viola, and Electric Cello. Previously, Crumb employed combinations of both amplified and acoustic instruments, but never before (or after) in the quartet genre. Having all four string quartet instruments in amplification (hence Crumb’s label “electric string quartet”) clearly produces a striking effect, which made this piece an icon of American avant-garde music. In the performance notes attached to the score, Crumb specifies the effect he seeks: In addition to their regular duties, the quartet players are engaged in shouting and whispering in different languages, playing tam-tams, maracas, and water-tuned crystal goblets. They are asked to trill on the strings with thimble-capped fingers, bowing on the “wrong” side of the strings, bow the “lip” of the tam-tam with a contrabass bow, and more. A quintessential avant-gardist, Crumb includes mere noises. At one instance, he indicates in the score: “Gradually increase bow pressure until pitch becomes pure noise.” Many of Crumb’s compositions pursue philosophical and mystical goals and narrate a story. “Black Angels,” in Crumb’s own description, “portrays a voyage of the soul. The three stages of this voyage are Departure (fall from grace), Absence (spiritual annihilation) and Return (redemption).” The programmatic subtitles of Departure, Absence, and Return are clearly modeled on the ones Beethoven used in his piano sonata op. 81a. Crumb saturates “Black Angels,” which is largely atonal, with other allusions to tonal music, which he acknowledges in the foreword: a quotation from Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” quartet, medieval sequence “Dies Irae,” Tartini’s “Devil’s Trill,” and more. The dramatic concept of “Black Angels” is imbued with Christian symbolism. In his notes for the recording, Crumb comments on “the essential polarity–God versus Devil” and how the “black angel” symbolizes the fallen angel. Section 4 of the piece is subtitled “Devil Music” (Vox Diaboli) and calls for a cadenza by solo violin. In the section titled “God-Music,” we hear a cadenza by the cello solo. Continuing in the line of mournful Lorca-inspired nocturnes Crumb wrote in the early 1960s, “Black Angels” is even darker in tone and emotional intensity, aided by the characteristic subtitle “Thirteen Images from the Dark Land.” The sounds range from highly disturbing, scary, and piercingly dissonant in “Electric Insects” to beautifully melodic in “God-Music” and delicate in the concluding section. “Black Angels” distinctly played to the sensibilities of its era. Musicologist Robert Greenberg even went as far as comparing the opening, “Threnody I: Night of the Electric Insects,” to the sound of Vietnam War helicopters. Beyond just that immediate appeal, the piece has continued to excite the imagination of listeners to the present day. Countless more performances and recordings followed the now-historical first recording by the New York String Quartet, which caused a splash not only in musical circles but also in the broader culture. It influenced professional musicians from both the academia and the popular camp. David Bowie named it as one of his favorites, while the violinist David Harrington was so inspired by it that, in 1973, he decided to establish the Kronos Quartet, which eventually made its own recording of the piece in 1990. The opening section of “Black Angels” is heard in the soundtrack of the movie “The Exorcist,” while “God-Music” was used in the television series “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.” In literature, Elizabeth Hand acknowledged borrowing the chapter titles for her dark fantasy novel “Waking the Moon” from the names of the sections of “Black Angels.” The quartet also acquired great international recognition and became a staple piece frequently played by many ensembles specializing in modern music around the world. Victoria Adamenko received her Ph.D. in Musicology from Rutgers University. She is the author of “Neo-Mythologism in Twentieth Century Music: From Scriabin And Schoenberg to Schnittke And Crumb” (2007). *** MusicWorks Collective: Black Angels
Brian Mertes: Building a Performance
We recently sat down with director Brian Mertes to hear his thoughts about the collaboration with the MusicWorks Collective on Lab Concert #1: “This idea of a Lab Concert is a space for Resident Musicians to try approaching things in different ways. Normally in the process of selecting and creating a program it’s very traditional, there’s a set way of going about it. Pick the music, go learn the music, learn your part, come together, play it. So we played around with changing just that. How are you going to pick the music? Whose voices are part of picking the music but also, why are we picking music? What is it that we’re after? What is it that we’re trying to engage in? For me, surprise is a very high value. I’m seeking surprise when I’m building a performance and I’m seeking ways to interrogate the conditions, to create impediments, to try to establish a kind of presence that is intimate, vulnerable, connected, and unknown. So how do you go to an unknown place when you know the music inside out? How do you allow yourself inside of that space of performance to both be present and also bring to the music and the people you’re sharing with, the musicians you’re playing with, all of your expertise and virtuosity? I feel like we’re playing with those questions in a really wonderful way, and it’s exciting. We’re providing a little bit of light on January 16th. It’s warmth and light. We’re gathering to hear what these four wonderful musicians are thinking about. It’s really from the heart.” Brian Mertes is Head of the Brown University/Trinity Rep MFA Directing Program, and an Associate Director at Trinity Rep. He has taught directing for Columbia and NYU film programs and has been a guest director at North Carolina School of the Arts, SUNY Purchase, NYU Grad, UT Austin, and Yale. Brian has directed many world premieres and was a guest director at Juilliard for over two decades. Brian has directed for ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, garnering three Emmy and three Directors Guild of America nominations, and an Emmy for directing. Brian is a member of the CMW board, is a CMW parent, and resides in the West End of Providence. Join us for this event! MusicWorks Collective with Brian Mertes Reserve your seat: https://bit.ly/4jFxeSL
It’s Been A Year!One year ago, Community MusicWorks opened the doors to The CMW Center. This vibrant new home was made possible through the dedication, creativity, and collaboration of a remarkable community — including CMW students and their families, our West End neighbors, 3SIX0 Architecture, Pezzuco Construction, Healthy Materials Lab, Arup Acoustic Consulting, our generous funders and supporters, and many, many others. With the halls of The CMW Center now animated with music, joy, and possibility, we’re deeply grateful to everyone who joined us in over a decade of planning and hard work to bring this vision to life. Take a moment to look back at the highlights of the journey that built The CMW Center — and we hope to see you at our next event! Video by Atomic Clock A Black Composer Was a Star, Then Faded. Is It Time to Shine Again?
From the October 2025 edition of the New York Times. Join us to hear Coleridge-Taylor’s piece, Variations for Cello and Piano, at Thursday’s Sonata Series Event.
Joy, Purpose, and Camaraderie through Music
CMW recently welcomed Christian Science Monitor reporter Troy Sambajon into the halls and lesson rooms of the CMW Center to learn more about the people and programs of Community MusicWorks. “In an era when many schools’ arts budgets are dwindling, CMW offers something increasingly rare: a space where young people find joy, purpose, and camaraderie through music,” he writes. “CMW nurtures a feeling of connection as well as curiosity and leadership.”
“The arts aren’t just about skill-building or learning to play an instrument,” CMW Founder & Artistic Director Sebastian Ruth told Mr. Sambajon. “It’s a different way of being with other people.”
“We talk just so we don’t feel alone in the questions we have.” Student Cesar reflected on CMW as a place of connection. Photos by CSM staff photographer Alfredo Sosa Welcome to Season 29!
Season 29 begins with a festive late-summer open house In mid-fall, we turn our gaze to the cosmos with music We welcome the Apple Hill Quartet in January, joined by Season 29 concludes with a collaboration between the In addition to these offerings, this season also includes Join us for a season filled with bold musical adventures and — Sebastian Ruth, Founder & Artistic Director Photo by Atomic Clock Phase II at HomeIn this video by local filmmakers Atomic Clock, you’ll hear our extraordinary Phase II students share thoughts about their time at CMW, and what “home” means to them. You’ll also learn what it means to be a participant in CMW’s Phase II, and what lies at the heart of not only our Phase II teen leadership program, but in all the work we do at CMW: relationships and community. Senior Phase II violist Cesar says, “I feel like that’s what I will take away the most, that I’m here for someone whenever they need it, and whenever I need it I know someone’s there for me, too.” About Phase II Phase II is CMW’s youth leadership program where teens participate in a weekly meeting that fosters critical thinking and leadership skills, strengthens musicianship, and builds a close-knit peer group through rehearsals, performance, and discussions centered around important issues in their lives and their community. Phase II students gather on Friday evenings with staff for topic discussion, chamber music, and a shared meal. Participation is by audition. When accepted into Phase II, students take on an extra level of responsibility –mentoring younger students; representing CMW at conferences, meetings, and in other settings; and several Phase II students lend their voices as CMW board members. Each spring, Phase II students organize a Youth Salon, an evening of performance, conversation, and a shared meal, focused on an issue that they identify. Past topics chosen, explored, and presented by students included creative voice, exploring ways to be heard, and music as a cultural lens. This year, the Phase II students chose “Home” as a theme for the Youth Salon, inspired by CMW’s new home in the CMW Center. Students then extended that theme in their choice of the song “Home” performed by the entire student body and staff in the End-of-Year Student Gala. “Home” is an arrangement by Walter Muelling of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros recording, written by Alexander Ebert & Jade Allyson Castrinos. |
Join us for the final Sonata Series Event of the season! Resident Musicians Lisa Sailer and Kimberly Fang are joined by guest pianist Ivan Tan for a compelling evening of music featuring works by Brahms and Prokofiev. Come hear Brahms’ beloved Sonata No. 1 in G Major, arranged for viola and piano and Prokofiev’s haunting Sonata No. 1 in f minor. You won’t want to miss this event!
How do you go to an unknown place when you know the music inside out? 
“The melodies drifting from Community MusicWorks’ spacious building are more than just the sounds of young musicians practicing. They are the heartbeat of the neighborhood.”
As we launch the second full season in our new home at