Community MusicWorks: Context and ContentToday’s concert reflects a new direction for CMW. Until recently, our mission of transforming the lives of children, families, and musicians, was largely expressed though the context of where and how we as artists perform. Whereas a traditional string quartet may make its living playing on well-worn stages of prominent concert halls, we have chosen to make our career playing often in venues one would not associate with string quartet performance—such as in the common spaces of settlement houses.
This season marks an exciting new direction in that we are now, though the performance of a series of new works commissioned by CMW, expressing our mission through musical content as well. Each of the three new pieces we’ve commissioned this year reflects CMW’s mission in a different way—the Daniel Bernard Roumain Kompa Variations highlights the mentoring relationships between a professional string quartet and a student string quartet, Jessie Montgomery’s Anthem reflects our commitment to celebrating important milestones of civil rights history through music, and now Anthony Green’s Earned takes on the vital social issue of immigration policy that affects our families and communities every day. We are honored to be partnering with these composers, and to have a role in bringing these new and important works into the world. -Sebastian Ruth, Providence String Quartet [Editor: Read more in today's Boston Globe article by David Weininger featuring an interview with Sebastian and a preview of Earned.]
|
