One way to bring awareness to a mission is through careful, diligent work in the community, like water on stone, making connections and cultivating relationships.

Method 2: Glue a big red stripe on it.

Community MusicWorks, no longer an anonymous Westminster Street storefront, now proudly displays its moniker in Pantone 032. Be careful driving next time you’re in the neighborhood, as you may be distracted by our bold attempt to raise awareness. Enjoy!

-Liz Cox, CMW staff

Recent note left in mailbox:

"Dear CMW, congratulations on your new red signs! They are very legible & easy to read! Thanks for your strong presence on an increasingly commercialized Westminster St.!" -a bike rider

Providence’s Meeting Street School is an incredible place. To be frank, I was not exactly thrilled to have to get up so early on consecutive mornings in order to fill in for Laura (out of commission with a bad cold) for two days of 9-10, 10-11, and 11-12 school presentations last week. But that feeling changed the moment I set foot on the brand new campus at the intersection of Eddy Street and Thurbers Avenue in South Providence.

Day One. Chloe, Jesse and I can’t agree on what time to rendezvous at the office, so we each drive ourselves over to the school. I know I’m in the right neighborhood when I turn onto Eddy Street in front of a certain graffiti-enhanced Chevy Prism [see March 26 post]. We all sign in at the front desk and head down a hallway to one of the school’s large rooms for the first of three demonstrations that we’d been rehearsing over the past several days.

After introducing ourselves, and our instruments, we start the program with a couple movements of the Dohnanyi Serenade, follow that up with the variations movement from the Mozart E-flat Major String Trio, and then present a dramatic reading of Hansel and Gretel that Laura had imported from her time with her string trio in Los Angeles. Using brief musical excerpts (Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony’s first theme, Copland’s Simple Gifts, Winter from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons) to create specific atmospheres, the story would allow us to match music with emotions that we could return to in the classroom setting the following day.

That was the plan, had Jesse not forgotten his music back at the office. Chloe was amazing and vamped for about ten minutes on various and relevant topics, keeping the kids engaged. I contributed a lengthy rendition of the Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite in G, drawing it out and hoping to spot the Chevy Prism through the large windows at the back of the room as it re-entered the parking lot.

Ironically, this was a situation that the Providence Quartet has used to great critical acclaim in school demonstrations. Each player independently enters the room with a different excuse ("I missed the bus" "I overslept") until Jesse (bike helmet and reflectors flashing) comes pedaling down the aisle and the ensemble becomes a complete quartet. [see November 11 post]

As CMW’s Director of Development, it was certainly an unusual experience for me to get to sit in with Jesse and Chloe in this situation and become a teaching artist again. It has been quite a while since I sat down with a cello in front of a group of kids. I don’t think anyone at the performances would have identified me as an administrator masquerading as a performer, but it sure was an odd feeling to be in the middle of Hansel and Gretel and to look up and see two of our biggest local funders peering in from the hallway, in the middle of what was clearly a school site visit.

After the first presentation, the rest of the morning went off without a hitch.

Day Two. A word about the Meeting Street School. When I started this post by calling it an incredible place, I wasn’t just talking about the gleaming new facility. The school is a national model for classroom inclusion of children with a wide range of developmental disabilities, include those that are quite profound. Not only is it a school, but Meeting Street also boasts a national center for research and professional development for teachers and therapists. Right in our neighborhood!

We start again at 9 am. This time we have all of our music, and I’m playing on my own cello (instead of my wife’s), freshly adjusted by Gary Davis and with four new strings.

I can’t say enough about how well Chloe and Jesse handled these 45-minute presentations (read: carried me on their backs). Both of them have that special ability to connect with kids, and it’s easy to see why each of their CMW students have grown so attached. Chloe, as the witch threatening poor Hansel and Gretel, cackled with evil glee and got volunteers from the audience to wear witches hats and chop wood-she had the little ones in the front row in the palm of her hand! Jesse ended up "helping" several youngsters to play the Sesame Street theme, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, Happy Birthday, and Twinkle Twinkle when we put down our own instruments and spent the final ten minutes of each session giving the kids a chance to scrub away on smaller instruments that we had brought over from the CMW office.

The teachers and therapists at the Meeting Street School are downright impressive. The level of care and connection that they clearly have achieved with even the least connectable kids was so wonderful to see. I think we each walked away feeling completely exhausted, but also changed and inspired by our brief experience. I have a feeling that this won’t be CMW’s only interaction with the incredible Meeting Street School.

-Heath Marlow, CMW staff

If you’re on Westminster Street in April, feel free to drop in and take part in our new office contest. Whoever can correctly identify the most CMW staff (and staff relations) from their baby pics posted on the office wall wins a prize. Careful, there are decoys!

With Peter Child, that is.

On Sunday afternoon, the Providence Quartet and Chloe Kline joined oboist Peggy Pearson on her Winsor Music series in Brookline, MA for a program of Haydn, Beethoven, and brand new works by Boston-based composer Peter Child.

"It was a delight and a very pleasant surprise to find such a high level of musicianship among our neighbors in Providence. In addition to their technical polish and musical understanding, both of which they have at the highest level, the Providence Quartet players are charming people and wonderful to work with. A lovely experience all round." -Peter Child

"Last Sunday’s concert was a sheer joy for all of us. What a way to welcome in the spring season! I was totally captivated by the youthful exhuberance and the mature mastery of the ensemble. The playing was elegant and inspired, and I left feeling full of life, energy, and optomism! Spring, indeed! What more could one ask from a concert? Thank you for bringing such beauty into my life." -anonymous audience member

Its been a busy month of performing for the Providence Quartet. Sometimes members of the PSQ are running late to rehearsal and don’t have time to give parking the car the proper attention that it might deserve…

Matt Haimovitz’s concert [on March 9] was awesome. It was so great to
hear such a talented musician play. Being a cello player, when I hear a cellist
play I just want to run home and start jamming on my cello. He’s really great
and the song that he played of the Star-Spangled Banner was amazing. It was
great to hang out with all of my friends from Phase II while listening to great
music.

I also met this wonderful lady named Nancy and I got to take a picture
with Matt Haimovitz.

By the end of the day we were all tired and listening to
music on our Ipods. If you missed the show hopefully next time you’re able to
come because it was amazing.

                                  
~*~KiRbY~*~

-Kirby (Fidelia) Vasquez, Phase II

Always with his camera at the ready, graphic design consultant Don Tarallo checks in from China. This is a photo of Chinese New Year street musicians performing in Taishan City.

Several photos from last weekend’s Providence String Quartet performance with CMW Fellow Chloe Kline and Boston-based oboist Peggy Pearson. Photos contributed by Richard Boober.

This past February I went to Rochester, NY to
visit my former violin teacher, Alice Kanack. She heads her own music school
there, the Kanack School of Music, which is now about ten years strong. The
reason for my visit was not only to see her and catch up on about twelve years
of time gone by, but also to observe some of her Creative Ability Development
(CAD) classes.

CAD is a method she started when I was just a
wee lass in her studio in the mid-late eighties, focusing on the development of
creativity in young musicians (young meaning beginning at around four years
old). She taught this through a series of group improvisation games and
activities that we would repeat weekly along side our regular individual
lessons.

The idea behind the method of CAD is that a
child will develop their sense and understanding of the musical language more
quickly and deeply when they are given a chance to explore music through the
regular practice of improvisation. In Rochester, I had the honor of sitting
with her while she explained all of the exercises she used to do with me when I
was a kid, and what was the purpose of each.

It was extremely fulfilling to revisit this part
of my musical upbringing. I began to understand and appreciate what she had
given me as an 8-12 year old even more now as an adult musician and educator.
She gave me a love for music and a tool for discovering my own voice.

I’ve started using some of the CAD techniques
with the CMW Music Lab students and so far, they’re catching on well with all
of the exercises and there are some really beautiful things happening in class
every week. We’ll try to bring Alice here next season to do a CAD weekend where
all the students in CMW can benefit from a little musical freedom.

-Jessie Montgomery, PSQ

February brought
the first of two practice retreat weeks for the PSQ. I took my practice
retreat in my hometown, Ithaca, where I holed up in a cabin on Cayuga Lake to
work on the Brahms Eb Viola Sonata. And I logged 18 wonderful hours with
my teacher Rolfe Sokol, finding inspiration in Milstein and Zuckerman
videos and lots of Brahms.

We started practice
retreats as a perk for CMW musicians several years ago, when we realized that
mid-winter was a time we needed recharging. When normal days as
a community organizer / quartet musician / teacher
/ non-profit administrator are so busy, a welcome feature of the
practice retreat is an empty schedule. Long days of practice, exercise,
lessons, watching the lake.

At the end of my week, I performed the Brahms with pianist Hisako Hiratsuka at
Providence’s illustrious Music Mansion. The week has left me with a new
approach to making sound, and I’ve been exploring this in quartet
rehearsals. Also, fresh from this retreat, I brought a video of Nathan
Milstein to my teaching last week and played it for students. The
inspiration is passed along…

-Sebastian
Ruth, PSQ