Good luck Jessie, and we’ll miss you!Community MusicWorks staff, students, and board bid a very fond farewell to Jessie Montgomery who, after five years in Providence, has relocated to New York City to pursue her dreams as a composer. Below is an excerpt from Jessie's recent letter to her violin and Music Lab students. Dear Students, This spring marks the end of my term here as your teacher at Community MusicWorks. I want to send my personal farewell to you all and I want for you to know that I will miss you very, very much. I am going to move back to New York City, my hometown, to focus on new creative projects in composition and to team up with old friends in music. I am planning to attend school again for a higher degree, to learn to compose music for movies and TV and for the many musicians who live in New York. As you know, I have been composing music the whole time I have been here, and now I want to spend as much time doing that as possible so that I can share even more of my music with even more people. Being a part of your lives and being your teacher has been the most meaningful experience in my life. In the past five years, I have watched many of you grow and change and find a connection to your music that I know will be everlasting. You guys have helped make CMW the fantastic place that it is, with all of your hard work and love and enthusiasm for music. You are bold and courageous, always stumping our workshop presenters with insightful questions and a “ready-to-try-anything” attitude with music. You have given me so much ammunition that I will take with me on my journey. Collectively, you guys have a truly original perspective on what music means, and it has been contagious. I hear new sounds and possibilities when you talk about how “cool” it would be to make a piece with fiddle, hip-hop, jazz, classical and freaky improvisation all mixed up together. You are SO right! Keep thinking that way, and the world is going to be a better place for it. You are a part of something so big, a new generation of musicians and positive contributors to society, and you will have so much of the world open to you if you keep working hard and dedicating yourselves to the things you love in life. Keep listening to new music, keep trying new styles, and find a way to enjoy the struggle of the practice of making music. I know that it’s sometimes hard, but just think about you, at your best, on the stage, giving it all you’ve got and feeling awesome—practice your musical expression! Improvise! I hope I can remain a positive example for you, even as I move on to a new chapter in my life. You all have made a permanent impression on me and have warmed my heart countless times over. Your faces and stories will live with me forever, and I thank you for them. I have made some of my best friends here and I will always make an effort to come back home to CMW whenever I can. New York City is really not that far away, after all, and Sebastian even has me signed up next year for a concert or two already! So this is not a "goodbye forever" goodbye. Just think of it as if I am changing my position from your Teacher, to your Worldwide Advocate in the Arts. If there is ANYTHING you need as you go through your studies that connects you to places beyond Providence, I will do anything I can to help. Your adoring Teacher and Friend,
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