I’ll start with my favorite: On the last day of CMW's Summer Program, a number of parents came down to Wickford to see their kids perform what we’d been working on all week. After the afternoon performance, instead of going home with their parents, some students me asked if they could ride home on the bus instead, to have as much time as possible with the new friends they’d made that week.

This year's Summer Camp was based at the First Baptist Church in Wickford, and from there, after a morning of group games and intensive musical activities, we were able to go on walks to the playground, to the water, and take afternoon bus trips to the Gilbert Stuart Museum (where we all got to go in row boats in the pond behind the museum!) and Scarborough Beach. 

On Friday afternoon, we sang the CMW Round, had pieces to perform from our Orchestra, Fiddle & Chamber Music groups, and shared some of the Improvisation Games we’d been playing all week. Because of Jason’s All-Camp Choir class, our bus full of CMW students started recognizing lots of intervals and learned all the solfege hand signs to go along with them.

I can’t end this blog post without mentioning the incredible staff who were committed to making the week really fun for every student. They not only helped with straight-forward needs like tuning instruments, pouring juice, and leading the cheers, but they helped with much more subtle and challenging things like encouraging new friendships, boosting students’ musical confidence, and modeling enthusiasm for trying new things. I felt really lucky to be working with Josh, Andrew, Ian, Ali, Anne, David, Jason, and Laura. 

We solicited written feedback from the students. One of the comments that stands out because we saw it more than once: “Don’t change anything!”

-Rachel Panitch, CMW staff

Guilford College's newest viola student! Pictured with viola in hand, a gift from his doctor (!) and fixed up by Jesse, and with Sebastian's old viola case. Want to learn more about Josh's tenure at CMW? Read about him in the 10 Years… 10 Stories interview project or in this 2008 feature article in Rhode Island Monthly.

More photos by Bobbie Hunger is CMW's Flickr account.

Morning introductions

3SIX0 feasibility study presentation by Jack Ryan

Thank you! All of us at CMW are so grateful to the many, many supporters across Rhode Island (and some from much further afield) who made our 13th season such a success. In particular, I'd like to thank the 67 friends who responded to Kirby's appeal and helped us raise $18,407 between June 1 and June 30 to end our fiscal year with a balanced budget. (To see a complete listing of our generous corporate and institutional supporters on our website, click here.)

CMW's 14th season will be particularly exciting and challenging, as we undertake several in-depth artistic projects and experiment with newly redesigned youth programming and weekly curricular activities. During Saturday's all-day retreat, CMW's Board of Directors approved an operating budget that includes a 13% increase to support our ability to carry out our mission of community transformation with even greater effectiveness. How are we going to accomplish this? Stay tuned for more details about our projects and experiments coming this fall… And thanks again for playing your part in ensuring our success!

-Heath Marlow, CMW staff

Congratulations to Kareem Roustom, longtime friend of CMW (and Chloe's husband), on his recent Emmy nomination!

Kareem earned this national recognition for the original musical score that he composed for the 2009 documentary film The Mosque in Morgantown. You can listen to several tracks by clicking here.

In this photo from March 2004, Kareem, playing the oud, leads CMW students in Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (using an Arabic scale) during a Musical Workshop at The Met School.

Next month, CMW's 14th season gets under way. From the performance perspective, here are a few morsels to whet your appetite.

Funded by an American Masterpieces grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Providence String Quartet will present a season-long survey of the 20th century depicted through the narrative of the chamber music of American composers Charles Ives, Samuel Barber, Steve Reich, and Osvaldo Golijov. The four featured works are…

Something written in 1896 by Charles Ives (photo: Halley Erskine)

A Romantic work by Samuel Barber completed in 1936

A work about pre- and post-war America by Steve Reich composed in 1988

An evocative composition by Osvaldo Golijov from 1994

In November, expect a collection of related events and concerts featuring the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Fred Jodry, harpsichordist and Brown's Director of Choral Activities will play a central role. Psyched for a marathon concert of Bach's works for solo strings? We are…

Spring brings an experimental music festival, including collaborations between CMW musicians and a number of our Providence friends and colleagues. Undoubtedly, the return of Laura and Mark Cetilia will make Mem1's presence felt.

-Heath Marlow, CMW staff

This summer, I had the opportunity to teach and coach chamber music at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in the town of Sullivan, New Hampshire. Just two hours from Rhode Island, Sullivan lies amongst the trees, hills and wildlife approximately ten miles northwest of Keene, NH, the closest town. The festival takes place every summer on a dramatically beautiful campus—the converted farmland boasts colorful flower gardens, an old-world gazebo nestling in the trees, a 1780 farmhouse which hosts the administrative offices and a red-roofed barn used as the concert hall. The festival, for chamber music enthusiasts of all ages, abilities and backgrounds, runs from mid June to mid August, in five ten-day blocks. 

Apple Hill is, in many ways, an experiment in social and musical communication. What happens when this astonishingly diverse group of people are brought together to live, eat and play together? Here it is common to see two hotshot 13-year-old violinists and two 65-year-old adult amateurs learning a Beethoven string quartet, or two participants from conflicting countries and cultures working on a Schubert four-hands piano piece. The results continue to come in beautifully year after year. Lines that are sometimes sharply drawn in our world blur and eventually dissolve over each session. Lifelong friends are made across these lines in the most organic way. 
     
Playing chamber music is the perfect vehicle for learning to listen to others, knowing when to step up and be a leader, when to follow without compromising oneself. Sports teams can still occasionally excel and win championships with selfish egomaniacs onboard (the L.A. Lakers and Kobe Bryant?)—but the chamber music process simply cannot work unless the musical work is placed above the individuals playing it. Composers often invest their most personal thoughts and ideas in their chamber works. Thus, while Apple Hillers are putting together transcendent works of Mozart, Messiaen and Mendelssohn, they are experiencing deep artistic, emotional and social growth. 

Coupled with this is an entirely supportive atmosphere. Artistic and technical excellence is encouraged in the coachings, which happen four times daily in one and a half hour blocks. In the weekend performances, communication, creativity and joy are the performance goals. If a group happens to hit all the notes, that is gravy! No matter what happens, each group and each participant are cheered as boisterously as if they just aced a performance at Carnegie Hall.

Since I did not have to practice this summer at Apple Hill due to an injured shoulder, I had a lot more time to simply observe and contemplate this wonderful kibbutz of a festival. I think it is extraordinary and one of the most powerful venues for artistic and human growth that I have had the privilege to be a part of.  If you play an instrument professionally, are a devoted amateur or have only been playing for a couple of years and are just starting your musical journey, there is a place for you up here. Even if you don’t play an instrument, you will be cherished as a valued member of one of the most attentive audiences around! Don’t miss out on a visit to Apple Hill some summer—undertaking the scenic two hour road trip from Rhode Island will yield rich rewards…

-Jesse Holstein, PSQ

Jeremy Eichler, writing for The Boston Globe, has produced a wonderful three-part look at El Sistema USA, its roots in Venezuela, and its potential for changing the future of classical music and music education in America.

Ultimately, it is not only those
passionate about musical access and the plight of underserved youth who
will be invested in the success of El Sistema-inspired programs — and
their preexisting sibling efforts — in this country. It is also the
embattled classical music establishment itself. Whatever the market
research might be telling orchestra administrators, long-term solutions
to the problem of dwindling audiences will not come from singles nights,
video game takeoffs, or pop stars fronting orchestras. Gimmicks or
pandering will not work. Savvy would-be listeners can sniff the
desperation.

These problems
will require fixes from many angles, but in the end, solutions cannot
come without a radical redrawing of the map of who has a stake in
classical music as an art form. El Sistema posed this challenge for
itself in its first 35 years, and it has produced some impressive
results, so much so that it set off a surge of international interest
that has officially arrived in this country. Now the challenge for this
incipient US-based movement is to harness the energy and excitement in
the air, but also to build wisely and organically. There is too much of
genuine value here to risk this work being mistaken for a passing fad.

Part I: There is Magic in the Music
Part II: "You're Part of Something Bigger"
Part III: Catching the Upbeat to a New Movement

I would like to share some good news with the CMW community. The series of 09-10 season postcards that many of you received by mail will be
published in an identity design book in Seoul, Korea. This is one of many
times that the work I have done for CMW has been published. But it is
the first time the work will be showcased in international catalog
dedicated to unique branding and identity design. This is the result of
countless hours of hard work collaborating with Heath to
translate the CMW mission into a visual form and the excellent photography of Jori Ketten.

I'm looking forward to
the next season and another great year of design. It is a pleasure to
be a part of your wonderful efforts.

–Don Tarallo, graphic design consultant