We have a rich season to share with you beginning in October, marked by CMW’s continuing
spirit of experimentation and innovation.
A centerpiece of our 16th
season will be the opportunity to deepen our commitment to the intersection of
community and performance. CMW is one of
47 organizations around the country to have received funding from ArtPlace, a
national initiative interested in the ways artists and arts organizations make
a positive impact on their communities. Our ArtPlace-funded project entails nine
events in Providence’s West End that experiment with how performance can become
part of community and vice versa. Expect commissioned works, performances
around the neighborhood, pop-up events in vacant commercial storefronts, and concerts
in homes.
After a year-long sabbatical from Providence String Quartet
activities, we are continuing in the vein of last year, having the CMW Players
be the primary ensemble-in-residence. We recognize that, in so many ways, our
growth calls for an ensemble larger than four. That said, string quartets are
still an essential and favorite form, and we will be presenting all of Beethoven’s
string quartets in F, both major and minor, that represent the first, last, and
two quartets from his middle period. The
Sonata Series that launched last year, featuring CMW musicians in solo roles,
will continue at the elegant main gallery of The RISD Museum.
We’ll be hosting several guest artists to enhance the season
of music making, including a return by violinist Jonathan Gandelsman, who will travel
to Providence in May to premiere a new violin concerto that CMW is
co-commissioning from Venezuelan composer Gonzalo Grau, and that will involve both
the CMW Players and our students!
Student programs and performances continue to grow and deepen.
Tenth-grader Liam Hopkins’ compositions last spring were such a
milestone—student works performed by professionals in an experimental music
concert. We plan to see where this strand of programming can lead as we
continue the experimental music series. You can expect to see these experiments
chronicled on CMW’s Media Lab website.
A daily string orchestra program, led by former Fellow
Adrienne Taylor, is the most ambitious innovation CMW is launching this
year. Adrienne will combine her understanding
of CMW methodology with that of El Sistema, the wildly successful Venezuelan
youth orchestra system, to create opportunities for twenty first graders to
begin musical study in a program that meets every day after school. Adrienne brings a nuanced understanding of
the potential for this program, having spent a year as a Sistema Fellow at the New
England Conservatory.
In addition to Annalisa Boerner and Lauren Latessa, our two new
Fellows, we’re delighted to welcome Chase Spruill and Lisa Barksdale who, as resident
musicians, will help us meet the demands of our expanded educational programs
as well as adding new violin voices to our chamber music ensembles.
Please join us to help make these innovations come to life
this season, at events in the West End, concerts around Rhode Island, and at
student performances too. I look forward to seeing you!
-Sebastian Ruth, Founder & Artistic Director
