Last weekend, the Providence String Quartet collaborated with photographer and digital media artist Sheri Wills in a performance called Art of the Fugue/Light of Bach. On Thursday, the group performed for a sold out crowd at the Providence Athenaeum; on Friday, they were featured at the West End Community Center, after a spaghetti dinner for the community. At the West End Community Center, the quartet was also joined by bassist Max Zeugner for a performance of Dvorak’s quintet for strings Op. 77.
Chloe (blog caretaker)

Some reactions:

"It is our pleasure to support Community MusicWorks in any way we can. We wish we could do more. The work you are doing fills a major gap in American culture and American lives."
–audience member at Athenaeum

"The Bach at the West End Center Friday night was one of the most moving moments of Bach in my life, for music, for setting, for context, for the future. Many, many heart-felt thanks."
–Charles, audience member at WECC

"Some of the nicest playing came in the two triple fugues, which use three different subjects. There was a nice sense of thrust and energy to the playing…"
–Channing Gray, Providence Journal

Heath Marlow, CMW staff member extraordinaire, has created this fabulous interactive map of CMW’s neighborhoods. Click on any of the brightly colored symbols on the map for more information about the site (for example, you can find out where Sara gets her daily–or is that hourly?–coffee fix). A listing of all the spots included on the map can be found in the navigation bar on the left of the map page.

Once you’ve explored the street map version, be sure to check out the satellite and hybrid versions by clicking on the links in the upper right corner of the map page. You can even zoom in for a bird’s eye view of the office!

Chloe Kline (blog caretaker)

Too bad that this evening’s Providence String Quartet performance and fixed price dinner event at Al Forno was postponed (until Fall ’06). Maybe the silver lining is that, since Jesse’s Sunday evening flight back from the American String Teachers Association conference in Kansas City was canceled and he was forced to sleep in a Chicago airport lounge last night, he’ll be well rested by the time the three performances at the end of the week come around.

With the free evening, the Providence Quartet was able to work in some extra rehearsal time on the Dvorak Quintet with visiting double bassist extraordinaire Max Zeugner.  Of course, additional rehearsal time also necessitates pizza and other diversions in the office…

(Sicilia’s Pizzeria on Federal Hill is not quite Al Forno, but it’s still pretty excellent pizza in its own right.)

-Heath Marlow, CMW staff

We had a remarkable horn player this week for our workshop. William
Stalnaker is from Oregon. He is obviously a superb teacher. In one
hour he laid out in the simplest, most accessible, and engaging
manner a number of principles about practicing. He succeeded in
making the process fascinating, engaged us in discovery as we tried
to do certain movements simultaneously or to see what it took to
manage a tongue twister; generally he held us all in rapt attention.
(All includes youth ages 7 to 17, faculty, guests, parents, Board
members.) It was masterful.

As with all good teaching Stalnaker managed the rich content in his
talk with effective pacing, the skillful ordering of the material,
and a fluid presentation. Explanation was balanced with hands-on
experimentation, and the didactic was off-set by the personal. He
spoke as if addressing peers, including as he referenced a scholarly
article of 1956 (Miller) which established the principle of "7 plus
or minus two" as a way of introducing the concept of "clustering" ,
– or focusing on a limited passage that needs improvement.

Periodically he would return to the simple overhead that kept us
focused on the three areas where improvement occurs : the body, the
notes, and the music. At the end of the hour he asked the students
to define what practice is, and they came up with five principles
that his talk had illuminated but not listed. It was clear they had
been listening.

William Stalnaker is a tall, white haired man, with an easy dignity
and straight forward manner. He started off the workshop by taking a
couple of what looked like loops of tubing from his pocket. They
turned out to be his travelling French Horn, and for about two
minutes he made the most gorgeous sounds on it. There was no
question about his authority!

–Karen Romer, CMW Board member

Community MusicWorks staff enjoyed a full week without the usual bustle and
intensity of teaching. We used this relatively relaxed time for a variety
of important projects:

1. Preparing the upcoming "Art of the Fugue/Light of Bach" and Dvorak Bass
Quintet concert programs
2. Brainstorming about improving our programs in our tenth year
3. Teasing out organizational development issues with facilitator Ellen Lynch
4. Celebrating Heath’s birthday with exceptional carrot cake made by Sara
5. Discussing strategies for dealing with disruptive student behavior with
Ferdinand Jones, professor emeritus of psychology at Brown University
6. Tidying up the office, including the addition of two very official
"Manager’s Chairs" from Staples

Heath Marlow, CMW staff

What do you get when you cross PSQ, Kate Sullivan, a hammer, some sandpaper, a musical saw, puppets and video footage of original paintings and shadow images? You get PINOCCHIO!, Kate Sullivan’s tour de force new musical setting of an old Italian tale.

On Friday, the Met School was transformed into a magical story-telling theater. Kate read her narration, a bi-lingual tip of the cap to author Carlo Collodi. She began, “C’era una volta, once upon a time….there was…a piece of wood, un pezzo di legno che piangeva e rideva comme un bambino…yes, it laughed and cried like a baby…” and off they went, with the quartet playing eleven short movements, from “The Workshop” to “La Notatta Orribile” (The Terrible Swim) to “Pesce Cane” (The Dog-Fish). Jesse, Sebastian, Jessie and Sara used their instruments to add the meows of cats, the groans of whales, the eerie harmonics of monsters. (They also got a few chances to ham it up in the acting department.)

Audience members of all ages enjoyed the show and had plenty of questions for the composer after the performance. “How did you make Pinocchio walk into the fish?” “Can your musical saw cut real wood?” “When can we see this again?”

Good question. We’re working on that one already!

–Kate Sullivan, PINOCCHIO composer

On Friday, the Aurea Ensemble gave a masterclass for Phase II students. Here’s CMW parent Frank Ward’s reaction to the performance and discussion:

I enjoyed the Community Music Works’ Phase II workshop on the Harlem Renaissance. Aurea did a nice job melding together the poetry of African-American Poets with the music of the time. It was very exciting to hear the explanations of Paris as the center of artistic freedom during this time when artist from all over the world came together to explore new ways of expression. The discussion following, led by Rob Jones, was very educational and enjoyable. The students were very involved in the discussion and felt ‘free’ enough to have a frank and open dialogue about music, life and expression.

This was followed by a brief but enjoyable master class by Consuelo Sherba. Her information was clear and valuable to all who attended. The master class began late because the discussion was so energized and went over the allotted time. How exciting to see young students involved in something positive and constructive.

Thanks for the opportunity to attend.
Frank (CMW parent)

Strings Magazine recently had an article about drones. In it the author spoke of drones in improvisation, and particularly talked about a technique for teaching improv in a group: you get the students each to come up with a sentence and start out by playing the rhythm of it in an octave with the drone; when the rhythm is set, the creator then makes the sentence melodic as well, leaving the drone to the other members of the group (always starting from the drone note in octave and returning to it at the end of the improv).

Since the Performance Party last Saturday featured such a wonderful example of improv, especially by the beginning violinist Heather and by Matt Haimovitz, the article set me to wondering if there are teachers out there who have used this "sentence" technique for stimulating improvisation, and if so what they think of it. Possibly an interesting way, among other things, to encourage musical identity making?

I have to confess I was trying it out today, with a simple sentences like "Matt Haimovitz is an awesome cellist and cool," and before I knew it a lot of time had slipped away!

Karen Romer- CMW Board member

Has anyone else had experience using drones as an improv tool? Check out the Strings Magazine article by clicking here.

Chloe Kline (moderator)

Matt Haimovitz played a concert with the Providence Quartet and McGill University students (UCCELLO) last night at the Carriage House in Providence.  It was a wonderful event – sold out, even in the heavy rain, and the crowd energy was palpable. (Not to mention Matt’s energy!) Several people who spoke to me were struck by the originality of Matt’s playing.  He seems to be an utterly unique musical voice – not shaped by any specific tradition or school.  Any thoughts??
Chloe Kline (moderator)

One student’s reaction to Anthem, Matt’s Jimi Hendrix-inspired riff on the Star Spangled Banner at this afternoon’s Performance Party in Olneyville Square: "That’s messed up. His cello’s not supposed to sound like that!"

Heath Marlow, CMW staff