The CMW Players are performing John Tavener’s rich piece, “The Protecting Veil,” in two events over the weekend of March 19-20. Writer and CMW board member Jill Pearlman spoke to Resident Musician Adrienne Taylor about her connection to the piece. 

As a college student, Adrienne Taylor heard “The Protecting Veil,” an extended meditative piece by British composer John Tavener, and the sumptuous music lodged inside her.  It wasn’t the most obvious for a teenager – it is ethereal, restrained, and without giving away the story line, the cello plays the voice of the Mother of God.  “It was so beautiful,” Taylor remembers.  “It became one of the pieces that I thought of as a dream to play.”

On March 19 and 20, CMW Players will perform the piece to Taylor’s great pleasure and satisfaction.  It is also a testament to her artistic commitment: she proposed it to CMW, arranged the score for a full orchestra, and of course, she is stepping into the dream of the solo cello.

John Tavener, who died in 2013 at age 69, was an unusual and powerful composer, knighted, popular and religiously inspired.  Among his many works was “Songs for Athene,” which closed the funeral ceremony for Princess Diana. His originality, the force of his own metaphysical questing, could be consuming to everyone, including himself.

A convert to Russian Orthodox Church, Tavener became fixated in the late 1980s on a story commemorated in a holiday, Feast of the Protecting Veil.  As Adrienne says, you don’t have to know the story to understand the music, but it helps: One evening in the 10th century, Greek believers in Constantinople saw an apparition: Mary and a host of saints and a large, glittering veil that she held over them.  The Greeks were facing an attack by the Saracens, and the following day the Greeks prevailed.  A visual image of divine care was given shape.

Crucially, this veil was seen, not heard, and Tavener the musician had to find language that would translate the visual into sound.  Tavener has said that he wanted to paint with music, to make a lyrical “icon” using the music of the cello as a brush.  Tavener built his composition on the eight stages of Mary’s life conveyed in eight sections based on eight Byzantine tones, starting with F major and descending down the scale.  It lets go of traditional formality, and becomes 45 minutes of sound textures, extending, shimmering cello with a full orchestra.

As Taylor explains the structure, she cautions against thinking it “difficult.” She spent months working on the arrangement: “That meant a lot of late nights, a lot of coffee and sugar,” she says.  In its structure, she found the unexpected.  “The ideas Tavener uses are very simple,” Taylor says.  “The same ones come back again and again.  He stretches them out, inverts them, but all along, the structure follows a very clear pattern.  Often you need to take a course in modern music to listen to music written in 20th century.  I don’t think you need to know something about music to understand this.”

She loops back to the underlying concept of voice: “This is telling a story using solo cello as a voice.”  Yet often Tavener alters the voice to the listener’s surprise.  The composition pushes the limits of the cello by utilizing its total range: Tavener asked Stephen Isserlis, the famed British cellist for whom he wrote the piece, what the highest notes he could play were, then wrote seven or eight minutes in that very highest range.  Taylor had the good fortune to meet Isserlis in Boston, and discuss cellist to cellist certain intricacies of the playing.

The other slippery quality of “Protecting Veil” might be its intense religiosity.  While listeners might hear the Orthodox content, Taylor feels its deep, transcendent, overflowing spirituality.  “Radiance is spreading out from the cello, and the orchestra is an extension of her protecting veil.”

It is a profound experience of going beyond.  Even Taylor playing the cello at the center can find herself so deeply immersed that she becomes almost lost in the music, not only as a musician navigating the upper strings on her instrument’s neck, but as a human.

“Even practicing, it is almost meditational.  There are moments of ecstasy when I go almost beyond myself,” she says.  “As a listener, you don’t have to be connected to a religion, you only need to come with a feeling of openness, without expectations.  This is spiritual music, and everybody has a sense of the spiritual.  By being human, you know everything you need to know.”

–Jill Pearlman
Providence-based writer Jill Pearlman worked in music journalism in New York for over a decade.  She’s currently tapping some of her experiences for her novel, Clio’s Mobile Home. www.jillpearlman.com

The CMW Players perform Wojciech Kilar’s “Orawa” and John Tavener’s “The Protecting Veil” featuring Adrienne Taylor, cello soloist.

Saturday, March 19 at 4pm
Blessed Trinity Church
1340 Plymouth Ave, Fall River, MA
Admission is $10

Sunday, March 20 at 4pm
Granoff Center 
Brown University
Admission is free and sponsored by:

 

“When I practice with all of my friends, it makes me really happy and it makes me feel like I just want to play more and see more and learn more.”

 – Ryleigh, a Newport String Project violin student

This quote from our student Ryleigh illustrates beautifully what participating in the Newport String Project means in her life – the joy and wellbeing that comes from musical togetherness and how learning new things inspires more curiosity.

Ryleigh’s observation also reveals a sense of momentum and wanting to build on things that are going well – more and more and more… We can all relate to having growth experiences where the world suddenly seemed a little bigger or being struck by a moment of insight that brought new horizons into view. It is a theme that is especially relevant to the Newport String Project in its third season.

The Newport String Project has now grown to include three class groups of students (ages 5-11) who participate in our after-school programming at the Dr Martin Luther King Community Center. With each new group, there is new energy and a new set of complexities to navigate. It’s a time when we are doing all we can to establish cultural norms for the program – a supportive and joyful atmosphere, a family-centered approach, strong discipline around attendance etc. And of course, we are also seeing cultural patterns take hold all by themselves – younger siblings aspiring to learn everything their older siblings can do. The older siblings teaching the younger ones the tricks they have picked up, but also motivated to stay “ahead of the game.” We are fortunate to enjoy a focused presence at the MLK Center in the heart of Newport – a space that allows us to learn about and engage with the community in a very meaningful way.

With each season, the concert series is a process of discovery. From string quartets at the Quaker Meeting House to barndances to chamber music for strings and percussion at the local coffee shop, we dig into this question of how live musicmaking can transform community spaces, maybe even create a moment of surprise or playfulness in someone’s day. The connections we make with audiences at our concerts are a great source of inspiration and feedback as we think about programming. It has been encouraging to see how the performer-audience relationship become more dynamic since our first season. It is an exciting time of experimentation with new venues, as well as enjoying the rituals of venues where we play regularly.

Community MusicWorks’ focus on model sharing has created a vital opportunity for many professional musicians “to play more and see more and learn more.” As Emmy and I progress further in the life of the Newport String Project, we are constantly learning about what works (and what doesn’t) and this is accompanied by a sense of expanding possibility. What might we accomplish if we could add an administrative staff member to our team? What if we could grow our community of volunteers? What if we could have a string quartet of resident musicians – how might that change the experience of living and growing up in Newport? Potential gives us a smile and a wave from the distance!

Year three of the project means that things are no longer brand new, a lot has been achieved and yet these are still very early days. We spend a lot of time living in that hectic space in between “what went well today?” and “what’s next?” – often exciting and rewarding, but sometimes not a comfortable place to be. As with any learning experience, new more challenging questions come up. Dreaming big needs to be tempered by understanding what is sustainable. We share in what I think is a familiar experience for a lot of our colleagues who are doing similar work. How to scaffold the growth of these organizations in a way that supports long-term investment by musicians, families and the community is a critical conversation for all of us. This is fundamentally optimistic long-range work connected to a big social purpose, requiring lots of support, advice and investment. Carving out spaces for students (and teaching artists) to create, innovate, practice their art, reflect – essentially, to thrive – is a bold task and one that needs attention to all the nuts-and-bolts details of resource development. Everyone – musicians, families, audiences, supporters – has a role to play in this conversation… Here’s to the next round of Big Questions!

–Ealaín McMullin, Director, Newport String Project

On Friday February 12, 2016, Phase II was invited to the opening night of the Providence Children’s Film Festival at the RISD Museum. Phase III was given the opportunity to open the event with the piece Drowning By Numbers by Michael Nyman. The directors of the program introduced the main purpose of the Providence Children’s Film Festival and also expressed how happy they were to be a part of it.

Following these presentations they showed the film Landfill Harmonic. This film is about a musical project that started in Paraguay.  The children in the story come from a town named Cateura. They live in very harsh conditions next to the main landfill of one of the major cities in Paraguay,  and their houses are not the best places to live in. These children are given the opportunity to play music on instruments made from recycled materials scavenged and forged together by one of the members of the community. In short the film tells the story about how this “Recycled Orchestra” becomes famous in the world, and they share their story.

The film gives the message that art and/or music are a basic human need. I agree with that because without music or any art life would be pretty dull. The arts are something that make each person unique, and they bring us together. I think CMW is contributing in spreading this message. CMW is also giving the opportunity to lots of children in the community to learn how to play classical music and to be able to appreciate arts in the community.

I very much enjoyed the film and the event. I found it to be a great connection to the work Community Music Works is doing in Providence.

–Jessenia Grijalva, Phase II student and CMW board member

Our fourth Sonata Series concert of the season is coming up this Thursday February 18th.  We are looking forward to another cozy hour spent listening to pieces by Benjamin Britten and Ludwig van Beethoven in RISD Museum’s Grand Gallery.

Viola Fellow Hannah Ross will perform Lachrymae: Reflections on a Song of Dowland, op. 48 by Benjamin Britten.  This haunting work (literally translated as “Tears”) was composed for violist William Primrose in the year 1950, but it takes its theme from a melody written approximately 300 years prior, a melody by notoriously melancholy English Renaissance composer John Dowland.  Interestingly, for a piece that is essentially a theme and variations, the theme does not appear until the end.

Violin Fellow Kate Outterbridge will perform Beethoven’s Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 7. The Sonata is in the key of C minor, a key Beethoven is famous for popularizing perhaps most famously in his Fifth Symphony and “Pathetique” Piano Sonata.  This sonata is appropriately stormy, and Kate remarks, “I love how turbulent and gutsy the piece is!  It is really fun to play!”

Both Hannah and Kate will perform with pianist Ben Nacar.

Sonata Series Event
Thursday February 18th, 7:00pm
RISD Museum Grand Gallery
Admission to the museum and concert is free

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working with our teenage group, Phase II, on the “Sonic Meditations” by composer Pauline Oliveros. (For a great article on Pauline’s work, see http://soundamerican.org/on-deep-listening). Through these text based scores, we’ve been trying to focus on attentive listening and non-judgmental perception. These are not easily attainable concepts for most, but the students are progressing surprisingly well. At first, our meditation attempts were riddled with uncontrollable giggling, but a week later, we were so wrapped up in our successful group meditation that we unknowingly went past the time parents were supposed to pick everyone up. Through the Oliveros exercises, I’m preparing the kids for a performance of André Cormier’s “Cratères d’Impact”. André’s piece calls for a series of complex sustained tones to be played over 22 minutes with lots of silence in between. My hope is that our meditations will allow them to perform this piece as a shared experience with the audience, shedding all (or at least some) self-consciousness they might have possessed before this endeavor.

Phase II in sonic meditation

Also on this program will be a piece that I have composed. I wrote a small idea down for this concert and feel very lucky to have such open and willing musicians to play it. The work is basically a meditation on the note E-flat and some of its overtones. Every note, or fundamental, has a series of notes that make up the defining character of that specific tone. These overtones are sometimes difficult to single out, even for highly trained musicians, but if you listen very intently, you can pick out these notes, which can in turn bring you much deeper into the sound produced. In “finding/obscuring,” I’ve directed the cellos to play their E flats emphasizing different overtones through the use of a special bow technique. While the cellos struggle to get their instruments to make these tones speak, the violinists play those exact notes, but just slightly off. This finding and obscuring of tones (hence the title) should result in moments of crystal clear harmony, mixed with sparks of shimmering dissonance.

The stunning centerpiece of the program is one of my absolute favorite compositions for string quartet, Jürg Frey’s “String Quartet No. 2”. It combines unconventional string playing along with ghostly humming by the performers. It is rarely performed and should not be missed. Hope to see you there.

–Laura Cetilia
Media Lab Co-Director/Resident Musician and Curator, Ars Subtilior

Sunday, February 7, 2016 at 3pm
Providence Public Library
150 Empire Street – Ship Room

It was a real treat to be in the company of so many CMW family members recently for the annual Alternative Models fellowship seminar*. What a remarkable intentional community that welcomes the ongoing participation of so many interesting–and interested–individuals! By a quick count, I noticed 1. current staff members, 2. current board members, 3. current fellows, 4. former staff, 5. former board members, 6. former fellows, and even 7. a former student visiting while home from college on winter break. This learning community aspect of CMW–a culture of supporting professional colleagues–is probably one of the under-publicized aspects of the organization’s annual programming, and definitely one of my favorites!

–Heath Marlow
Director, Sistema Fellowship Resource Center
New England Conservatory

*Learn more about the Alternative Models Seminar on Heath’s blog.

Our first Performance Party of the school-year is quickly approaching, so we’re sitting down with some students to ask them about their preparation for the event.  You can read part 1 of our Student Spotlight Series here.  In the following interview Laura Cetilia talks with her cello student Jay.

L: Have you played at a performance party before?

J: Yes, I have.

L: How many times?

J: I don’t know, I can’t remember but probably ever since I began.

L: You mean every year since you’ve been at CMW?

J: Yeah, every year.

L: Is this performance going to be different experience?

J: Yes.

L: Why?

J: Because I have to count everyone in.

L: Oh, for the cello quintet?

J: Yeah. Since I’m doing it for my solo piece with Sakiko I said, “Well, what the heck, I’ll do it.”

L: You volunteered?

J: Yes.

L: Wow! So you have a lot more responsibility?

J: Yes, plus I’m playing three times.

L: What are all the performances you’re doing?

J: I’m playing with Green Magic, my cello group, and I’m playing this song. (Humoresque by Dvorak)

L: Are you nervous about it?

J: Yeah.

L: How do you deal with your nerves?

J: I don’t. I dunno, it goes away. By the time I leave the stage I calm down. 

Join us for the Performance Party!
Friday, January 22 at 5pm
Calvary Baptist Church
747 Broad Street, Providence
A potluck supper will follow. Bring a dish to share!

Our students are hard at work preparing for the upcoming Performance Party on Friday, January 22. An evening of music and food will celebrate the mid-point of a year of music-making at Community MusicWorks. CMW fellow Josie Davis recently talked with two of her violin students Ella and Genesis about how they will go about preparing for the concert. 

Interview with Ella: (Ella is preparing May Song from Suzuki Book 1)

What do you like about May Song?

It’s fast and energetic and it’s fun to play! It makes me feel happy and joyful!

What are you doing to prepare for the Performance Party?

I am going to practice for 20 minutes every day. I listen to the recording my teacher made for me of May Song and I try to play along. I am also working on playing the piece from memory.

Do you like performing?

Yes! Because I get used to having an audience and playing in front of people.

How old were you when you first started taking lessons at CMW?

9!

Why did you decide to play the violin?

Because I thought it would be a fun instrument to learn and I wanted to play different kinds of fun pieces.

What’s your favorite CMW memory?

When we got to perform at the end-of-year Gala last Spring.

Interview with Genesis (Genesis will perform Andantino from Suzuki Book I)

What do you like about Andantino?

I like how the accents are written–they add joy. I also like how the piece has similar notes and rhythms throughout. I feel like it’s a happy piece. Especially when I play on the E string because the high-pitch section sounds flowing.

What are you doing to prepare for the Performance Party?

I go home most days and practice Andantino for around 15 minutes. I try to go through the more difficult parts.

Do you like performing?

Yes, because it gives me more confidence in everything I do.

How old were you when you first started taking lessons at CMW?

8 years-old!

Why did you decide to play the violin?

Some of the songs I liked to listen to would have the violin, so I decided it would be fun to learn how to play.

What’s your favorite CMW memory?

When all of the students went on a retreat. We played fun games and got to meet new people.

Join us for the Performance Party!
Friday, January 22 at 5pm
Calvary Baptist Church
747 Broad Street, Providence
A potluck supper will follow. Bring a dish to share!

Over the winter break I had the opportunity to join a string orchestra led by former CMW Resident Musician Jessie Montgomery in a concert featuring Jessie’s own compositions at New York City’s historic Trinity Wall Street. It was an exciting way to bring 2015 to a close, and it was a great chance to spend time with Jessie and celebrate her work!

–Adrienne Taylor, Resident Musician and Director, Daily Orchestra Program

Watch the full concert here.

This month in our Not Far from the Tree Series, former  CMW “Cello Fellow” Lauren Latessa checks in with a report on her moving and important work with the elderly in Maryland:

Hello dear CMW friends and Happy 2016!

 Last February I took a position as the Musician-in-Residence for a retirement community in Rockville, MD.  It was a brand new position, and I’ve spent the past year creating a music program for the elderly based on many of the same principles on which CMW is built.  Here I run daily group classes and work individually with residents.  Additionally I run and perform on a chamber music series that has concerts on campus once a month.

Thanks to a Tarisio Trust Young Artist Grant, I was recently lucky enough to have Emmy Holmes Hicks and Ealain McMullin, now heading the Newport String Project, along with violist Isabella Mensz here for a week-long Chamber Music Festival featuring the music of Mozart and Dvorak. Here are some highlights from our week together.

Day 1:

Open Rehearsal – Residents were able to observe the quartet as they rehearsed and learn a little more about the musical process.

Q&A with the Quartet – During this question and answer session we had a fantastic discussion about the role of musicians in society and the importance of teaching kids to pass on musical traditions. Emmy and Ealain shared insight about their work with the Newport String Project in Newport, RI.

Recital: Music from the Ring House Songbook – This event was particularly special because it featured music that was chosen by Ring House residents. Twice a month, I lead a sing-along with residents at Ring and during this time we’ve been putting together a Ring House Songbook. All of the music featured in this recital came from the Songbook and included some of the Ring residents’ best-loved ballads. Many of the melodies were new to our festival musicians, and they learned so much about them from residents.

Day 2:

Open Rehearsal

Lecture/demonstration on Dvorak’s American Quartet – We explored Dvorak’s life and experiences and played excerpts from the quartet to highlight how he translated experiences and emotions into his music.

Master Class – This was a particularly thrilling event for residents. During the class, two young cellists from a local high school performed and received feedback from our festival artists. The evening had a very welcoming and encouraging feel! After each student played, residents noticed their improvement and clapped and cheered. This was an inspiring day for all. In particular, it allowed residents to see more of what it takes to gain expertise with an instrument and how the right guidance can make all the difference.

Day 3:

Exploring Jewish Music – Emmy, Ealain and Isa joined our weekly Exploring Jewish Music class as observers and learners. They were all moved by how passionately the residents spoke about music that is close to their hearts. For this special class we discussed the question, “What is Jewish Music?” and focused on four examples: Shema, Kol Nidre, Bei Mir Bistu Shein, and Jerusalem of Gold.

Recital- This was the capstone event of the week! The quartet performed the music of Dvorak and Mozart for 125 residents, friends and family. It was a captivating evening.

Day 4:

Cohen-Rosen House Recital – Cohen-Rosen House provides the highest level of memory care on the campus, serving older adults with advanced cognitive needs. Because of this, I was not sure what to expect from the quartet’s visit to the residence. Part of me was preparing for a half-hour session where we would just play, but not actually interact much with residents.

But, this couldn’t have been farther from what happened. This performance turned out to be the most powerful thing that happened all week. It was a stirring moment when residents used their instruments (drums, egg shakers, tambourines) to connect thoughtfully with us. Some residents cannot converse easily, but they were nonetheless communicating and helping us to create something significant as we performed the first movement of Dvorak’s American Quartet. It’s hard to describe the impact of that moment, but all of us—quartet members, residents and staff members—could feel it. Together we produced an experience more inspiring than any of us could of have done individually.

Part of what excited me most about this particular performance was that it demonstrated how classical music might have a stronger presence in memory-care facilities. There is much well supported research on the benefits of performing recognizable popular and folk music for this population.  We saw first-hand the potential of using classical music to engage residents in the creative process, even those living with advanced stages of dementia.

Responses from residents:

“When I heard the string quartet my first reaction was that these musicians truly love and enjoy what they are playing. This Chamber Music Festival introduced me and us all at Ring House to the magic and beauty of chamber music.”

From members of the Chamber Music Festival Committee: “You know, most of us just sit around feeling like we are no longer needed. But this project has helped me to see that there are beautiful things to do in the world.”

From a community member: “This is all so wonderful. They are playing [music] with great sensitivity and beauty. What a distinguished group—and social service-minded to boot! CESLC may be unique in the USA and even the world in being able to offer something like this to residents.” 

Personal reflections: I realize the CMW community already knows this, but one of the wonderful things about chamber music is that it challenges both listeners and musicians to continue to grow. A one-time experience of a piece of chamber music may be exciting, but its real power comes from spending time with it and exploring its complexity and depth. At CMW, I saw how chamber music can foster a vibrant community and I am beyond excited to begin to see the same kinds of effects here!

The societal view of our elderly is changing rapidly as physicians and healthcare provides begin to recognize the importance of quality of life.  I believe that programming like our Chamber Music Festival is crucially important in establishing the type of living environment that we all want for our elders and for ourselves.  Moving forward, I am excited to explore this new paradigm!

Sending love from Maryland and missing you all!  Have a happy and healthy 2016!

–Lauren Latessa, CMW Fellow 2012-2014

Read more about Lauren and other Fellowship Program alums here.
Learn more about the Fellowship Program here.
Images are from Lauren Latessa and the Charles E. Smith Life Communities