Dung Beetle, Paper Wasp and Caterpillar hanging out on the sidewalk outside of the CMW office. Obviously, The Bug Opera is coming to Providence soon!

Could there be a better place for a picnic to kick off our tenth season of activities with our program families than at the "Temple to Music" in Roger Williams Park?

Following the potluck picnic, the Providence Quartet, Fellows, and Phase II members headed out to Canonicus for an overnight retreat that including chamber music, a ropes course, and some good time for bonding after a summer apart.

-Heath Marlow, CMW staff

When
I first got to Apple Hill, I was nervous and scared. Most music camps are
usually really competitive and hard to be comfortable in. But when I got to
know all of the kids, I realized that everyone was a lot like me, there to play
music and have fun. There was no stress, it was fun, and the food was great. So
there’s nothing that you should be uncomfortable about.

-Jovanne Jean-Francois, Phase II

Laura Thomas-Merino, one of two new Fellows to start work for Community MusicWorks in September, emailed from the road that her moving company had been delayed ten days and so her cross country trip from Los Angeles to Providence is not going as smootly as planned. She’s been waiting out the delay in Virginia.

Turns out that Laura, using the acronym LRTM, is a part of the electronic music scene. Her LA-based group mem1 may have to come to Rhode Island one of these days for a performance at AS220.

PS-Laura, if you have successfully arrived today per your new timeline, welcome to Providence! CMW’s got recommendations for our favorite restaurants right here.

-Heath Marlow, CMW staff

Friday was Anne’s last day working for Community MusicWorks. Now she’s packing up her car and preparing to move to St. Louis for adventures unkown.

Anne was at the center of all CMW activity over the last three seasons, from keeping the office functional to creating the annual teaching schedule (more complicated than a Rubik’s Cube) to challenging CMW’s pedagogical philosophies during staff meetings, and everything in between.

At the Board retreat last week, Anne was toasted (engraved glass pitcher) and roasted (a short film entitled "Cash Flow" with fictional footage of Anne dipping into the CMW donation basket at a PSQ concert).

Goodbye Anne (middle row, in red) and thank you for everything!

-Heath Marlow, CMW staff

Coming soon to a theater near you. In fact, very near you if you live in the West End of Providence.

Geoff Hudson and Alisa Pearson have collaborated to create a new opera designed to appeal to the entire family. How could it not? All the characters are bugs. There is the mosquito that doesn’t want to drink blood, the caterpillar that doesn’t like change, the scat-singing dung beetle. They venture on a journey of self-discovery that "ultimately leads them back to themselves."

When I learned about this new (almost-completed) opera, created in partnership with the Indian Hill Music Center in Littleton, MA, I felt that we had to bring it to Providence to share with our students and families. With co-presenter Opera Providence, we will be able to do just that.

Mark your calendars for Friday, November 17 for The Bug Opera at the Columbus Theatre. Beginning September 1, tune in to www.BugOperaProv.com for information, tickets, other events, bug related  facts and anecdotes, and opportunities around the Ocean State to learn about bugs or experience the insect world.

-Heath Marlow, CMW staff

Excerpts
from Notes on Phase II, Nov. 4 ’05

It
was late Friday afternoon at the end of the first school quarter. The students
dribbled in slowly with instruments and backpacks. The weather was lovely but
the week had been long and some were dragging, plopping down and stretching out
at 45 degrees, completely limp.

The
Providence Quartet moved the furniture around, creating a space in the big room
full of round tables and chairs in which to make a circle. There were over
twenty of us: the students, the Providence Quartet, Rob Jones (the
facilitator), and myself. Rob began by asking three questions: what has been
going well for you, that is, what are you proud of? What have you not been doing, or what are you feeling bad
about? And how are you feeling about
Phase II in particular?

Some
of the students volunteered, and after that we went around the circle including
everyone who had not yet spoken (me too, as the only comparative stranger). The
good news included being on the honor roll, getting high honors, working on the
yearbook, and the bad news included getting an F in algebra, having a terrible
time with a job. Some of the disappointments were spoken so quietly, often with
head down, or hand over the mouth, that it was hard to hear. The remarks seemed honest and the fact they
were willing to share them suggested this was already a group that had
developed considerable trust.

The
staff also spoke of ups and downs – a successful performance, planning a
wedding (hearty applause), good practicing, illness, and neglected paper work
at home. When it came to the Phase II
question, the Providence Quartet members expressed frustration with getting the
new Phase II quartets started, as members would fail to show up at scheduled
times, leaving the others handicapped. Students also regretted not making the
quartets a priority among the many things they were trying to do. Rob zeroed in
on the new quartet program and the need to make membership a commitment.
Someone asked about the plan to play in the community. Rob opened up a
discussion about how the quartets would decide what venues in the community
they would like to play in.

At
first, people were vague about how to proceed, and he reminded them that they
had been given a three page handout, which described the steps in detail for
developing ideas for sites, contacting a key person to explain about the
quartet initiative, finding possible dates to play at the site, checking out
proposed dates with quartet members etc. He directed each quartet and their coach
(member of the PSQ) to work together for ten minutes and brainstorm possible
venues, identifying a contact person where possible. The groups moved swiftly
to work, as if this was important to them.

When
the groups reported back they had identified excellent community venues where
they might play – sites with which they had some familiarity — City Hall, the
school and the community center, both of which provide space for their lessons
and workshops, a library, a nursing home where a parent worked, the sidewalk by
the storefront office of CMW and others. The students worked with great
attention and the reporting back was done with clear, strong voices, — unlike
most of the earlier communication — with some lively interaction between the
groups, a bit of competition for the "best" list, some delight on
coming up with some of the same places.

After
a supper of chicken wings and drumsticks, bread and salad, the seats were
rearranged in a half circle for the first master class in the new quartet
program with Jenny Elowitch, a professional violinist invited down from Boston
to work with the Phase II students that evening.

By
the time they had worked for forty minutes, the piece was sounding very
together and pleasing. The students had learned that the first violin may not
be the key voice in spite of its prominence, that rhythm may come from moving
notes rather than emphasized beats, that learning to listen to what each part
is playing is part of the undertaking of quartet playing. She had built on what
she had covered with Tae in interaction with the group on dynamics, and how you
can make a greater distinction between a forte and a piano. Moreover, a number
of students who thought they had things all figured out were enabled to see how
much more was going on than they thought. The interplay between the audience
and the players as elicited by Jenny’s questions and ways of involving them in
mutual support and inquiry further strengthened an environment of interdependence. 

-Karen Romer, Board
of Directors

Sara Stalnaker reports that she has been performing this month as part of Montana’s annual Chamber Music Festival in Bozeman. She most recently performed Mendelssohn’s Octet with members of the Muir and Cascade String Quartets at Georgetown Lake. She regrets that she has no photos to send in at this time!

Meanwhile, Heath attended his first concert at Marlboro Music School and Festival in Brattleboro, Vermont, where he ran into old friend and CMW artistic advisor Jonathan Biss. What an incredible environment, where young professionals of immense talent share the stage with master teachers and performers (Richard Goode, Charles Neidich, Arnold Steinhardt, Kim Kashkashian). The combination of the creativity and enthusiasm in the performers and the receptive appreciation of the knowledgeable audience was rejuvenating.

-Heath Marlow, CMW staff

This is my first time here in Banff, Alberta
where I’m participating in the Banff Centre’s Master Class session. I’m getting
lessons for the first time in three years, which is refreshing, and playing
lots of BRAHMS. Can’t get enough.

The faculty is all very
forward thinking in their ideas on the future of classical music, which is also
refreshing. It seems very clear to them that our audiences will dwindle if we
do not make some real changes. We can build our future in other ways other than
following the “traditional” route. You cannot expect to simply win an orchestra
job or become a soloist
anymore, or to always aspire to play a ‘certain way’, or to become the next
Jascha Heifetz. WAKE UP! It’s not going to happen for all of us. We have to
spend the time discovering our own voices. We have to reach within ourselves
and our communities and learn how to share music on a ground level so our
audiences can continue to grow and feel connected to what we are doing. 

I’m
learning how to trust my musical instincts, to define them and make clear
decisions based on them. I’m learning to be honest and not go on automatic
pilot in performance (oops!). I find myself daydreaming about the character of
the beginning of
Brahms’ Violin Sonata No. 1 or the second theme of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet.
There is just a whirlwind of ideas floating around here!

This
has been a truly inspiring experience so far and I’m looking forward to the
rest of my summer…(Apple Hill, rock on!). I’ll be glad share more with you
all when we get back. Best wishes to all the CMW community. I hope you are all
finding things that inspire you this summer so we can come back revitalized and
ready for new challenges.

-Jessie
Montgomery, Providence String Quartet

Tai and I knew that there would be plenty of chamber music at our June 17 wedding in Ithaca, but we were not quite prepared for the highlight of the pre-wedding party: Jeff Louie’s faithful rendering of "Vision of Love" with a back up band comprised of the Providence String Quartet, Minna, and Chloe. Move over Mariah!

In case you are not as devoted a Mariah Carey fan as my wife, I’m including a sample of the (subtly altered) lyrics:

"Treated Heath kind
Sweet destiny
Carried Heath through desperation
To the Tai that was waiting for Heath
It took so long
Still Heath believed
Somehow the Tai that Heath needed
Would find Heath eventually…"

It was wonderful to have my CMW family so much a part of the festivities.

-Heath Marlow, CMW staff