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CMW Celebrates National Award
Roots & Rituals (PYAC Youth Arts Day)
St. Lawrence String Quartet Residency
Student Profile: Kirby Vasquez
Strategic Plan 2010-2015
Participatory Program Evaluation
CMW Compendium
Sharing Our Model
Earned, a CMW Commission
Orion String Quartet Residency
Daniel Bernard Roumain Residency
Tenth Year Violin
10 Years... 10 Stories
Listen Local
Imagining Art + Social Change Conference
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CMW Celebrates National Award
On October 20, 2010, CMW founder Sebastian Ruth and CMW graduate Kirby Vasquez attended a White House ceremony presided over by First Lady Michelle Obama.
Chosen from a pool of more than 400 nominations and 50 finalists, CMW was one of 15 after-school programs across the country to receive the 2010 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, the highest honor such programs can receive in the United States. The awards are administered by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
The award honors community-based arts and humanities programs that make a marked difference in the lives of their participants by improving academic scores and graduation rates, enhancing life skills, and developing positive relationships with peers and adults.
Later in the week, the CMW community celebrated this prestigious national award with a musical "Traffic Jam" in front of our storefront office and a celebratory Community Day at the West End Community Center, the West End Recreation Center, and the Met School's Peace Street Campus.
For more information, see:
Anthem performed throughout DC (video) here
Students' reflections on the trip (video) here
Photos from CMW's trip to DC here (a selection) and here (full set)
Photos from Traffic Jam here
Photos
from Community Day here and here
Download the October 20 press release for complete information about the White House award and celebrations here
A short ProJo video about the trip here
Live updates from the trip here
Special thanks here
Roots & Rituals (PYAC Youth Arts Day)
Providence is home to an unusually high number of outstanding youth arts programs for a city its size; only New York and Chicago have had as many youth arts programs ranked among the nation's finest by the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities Coming Up Taller Award. Several of the city's youth arts organizations, recognizing that working together in coordination, rather than in competition, could strengthen the broader field of youth arts, formed the Providence Youth Arts Collaboration (PYAC) in 2004.
PYAC has since organized several public events to draw attention to the importance and impact of youth arts programs, including the well-received 2008 Imagining Art + Social Change Conference. As a follow-up, in the spring of 2010, PYAC came together to organize Roots & Rituals: A Creative Day for Creative People. This public event was a day of performances, exhibitions, panels, and hands-on art workshops, free nad open to the public, organized and led by youth leaders from each PYAC member organization. Under the guidance of teaching artist Jori Ketten, nine young peole ranging in ages from 11-19 and representing disciplines as diverse as dance, drama, music, visual arts, and more, worked for over two months to curate and produce this day-long celebration for their peers and the greater Providence community. The results were nothing short of astounding, and proof-positive that Providence's creative future is in excellent hands.
– PYAC Directors, Providence, 2010
Major support for this project was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Click here to see more images from the process and the event
Click here to read the documentation book from the event, and click here to order the book |
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St. Lawrence String Quartet Residency
CMW welcomed the high-energy St. Lawrence String Quartet to Providence's West End in March 2010 through a collaboration with Rhode Island Chamber Music Concerts. Over two afternoons, the Providence Quartet and St. Lawrence Quartet members shared meals and rehearsed a "hybridized" version of Felix Mendelssohn's Opus 80 string quartet, with two musicians from each Quartet pairing up to prepare two movements of the four-movement work. Geoff Nuttall of the St. Lawrence Quartet also shared his thoughts on performing the music of Philip Glass with CMW's Fellows Quartet in a coaching session.
The residency culminated in a free community event at the West End Community Center. After the traditional spaghetti dinner, everyone headed to the gym for a concert featuring music by Haydn (St. Lawrence String Quartet), Mendelssohn (St. Lawremce and Providence Quartets sharing personnel) and Philip Glass (Fellows Quartet).
See more photos from the residency here.
See portions of the CMW/St Lawrence Quartet concerts on YouTube:
Learn more about the St. Lawrence String Quartet at their website
Student Profile: Kirby Vasquez
A compilation of media projects by and/or about Phase III cellist and CMW Board member Kirby Vasquez. Kirby graduates from high school in June 2010 and is headed to Northampton, MA to attend Smith College in the fall. We wish her well! Click on a video image to view it on this page, or double click to view in a new window.
Blog Post 10/10/08: Kirby on the DBR concert
Blog Post 3/9/07: Kirby reports on Matt
Blog Post 1/30/07: Kirby in the Big Apple
Blog Post 10/17/06: Pawtucket house concert
Strategic Plan 2010-2015: Deepening our Roots and Spreading the Word
In February 2010, CMW’s Board of Directors approved a new Five Year Strategic Plan. The plan addresses what we feel are our primary challenges as an organization: to extend the impact of our work (reaching more people in more places), while at the same time deepening our local programming (reaching deeper with our students and community in Providence’s West Side neighborhoods).
The last 5 years
Over the last five years, as outlined in our previous strategic plan, CMW has changed dramatically. We’ve added Phase II and Phase III programs to provide leadership training, musical, and social experiences for our teens; a mentor program; and weekly supplementary classes (including Music Lab, Fiddle Lab, and Phase I Orchestra). CMW has also recently piloted a Media Lab, which will offer our students the chance to learn how to use new media to create new work, and document their learning.
Another major program shift has been the creation of the Fellowship Program, which has almost doubled the number of neighborhood students we teach, without compromising the close relationships between teachers and students that are at the core of our mission. We also won a major three-year grant in 2009 to develop and implement “learning institutes” for other musicians who want to pursue community-based music. We’ve also met our ambitious fundraising goals by nurturing a strong base of individual donors, pursuing local and national foundation grants, and cultivating local government support.
The next 5 years
As we move forward, our vision is that CMW will continue to 1) deepen our positive impact on Providence’s West Side communities; 2) enhance the musical and civic awareness of teachers and students; 3) build our reputation for presenting diverse and innovative local concert programming; 4) help shape local and national efforts to increase music opportunities for young people; and 5) develop the infrastructure to support our vision.
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1. We plan to reach out to parents, students, alumni, and community members in order to strengthen our neighborhood impact and increase local leadership opportunities. In Year One, this will mean implementing a new parent committee structure, exploring more student concerts in local venues, and continue to collaborate and build relationships with local and national youth performance and development organizations. By Year Two, we hope to be placing CMW students in summer internships in community organizations, and by Year Five, we hope that arts education for kids will be an expectation for South and West Side residents of Providence.
2. We plan to experiment with strategies to increase musical ability and deepen civic engagement for our students and our teachers. Starting in Year One, teachers will be offered yearly seminars on both instrument teaching and civic engagement, and will be encouraged to teach or co-teach supplementary classes. We’ll also expand student learning opportunities through the Media Lab, and paid student work opportunities. By Year Three, we’d like to have every student in two supplementary classes each week. And by Year Five, we plan to have CMW alumni as part of our staff.
3. CMW will continue to present varied public concert programming. In addition to developing meaningful collaborations with local and visiting composers and performers, there will be opportunities for our resident musicians to both perform and curate innovative local programming initiatives.
4. Another major emphasis over the next five years will be sharing what we have learned about musicianship and community change with the growing number of musicians interested in combining music and neighborhood transformation. In Year One, we’re planning to assess the impact of our bi-annual Institutes on Musicianship and Public Service (IMPS), and find a national opportunity to showcase CMW. In Year Two, we’re planning a symposium to celebrate our 15th anniversary. By Year Five, we plan to have the Institutes (currently supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) be self-sustaining. In the longer term, we envision catalyzing many and varied civic-minded music ventures led by a diverse set of musicians.
5. We also plan to develop and implement a space plan appropriate to our neighborhood residency and growing space needs, add additional staff hours to support new and continuing activities, and think through our needs of an endowment and/or capital fund to support staff and space needs. The board will continue to represent the neighborhood (including at least a 50 percent neighborhood residency rate) and its diversity. In Year One, we’ll be working with local architectural firm 3SIX0 to develop a plan for our short and long term space needs. By Year Five, we hope that this space plan will be in the process of being implemented!
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Click here to download the full strategic plan.
Participatory Program Evaluation
In 2009, Community MusicWorks completed an 18-month participatory program evaluation designed and implemented by the consulting firm WolfBrown, and funded by The Rhode Island Foundation.
Click here to learn more about the evaluation process and findings, and to experience the data firsthand.
Click here to download the full report.
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The evaluation found that, when students are highly engaged with the program, CMW helps them forge a motivated, curious, and engaged inner life, and fosters qualities of persistence, musicianship, personal agency, and participation in a wider world. There is evidence that even outside of CMW programming, music becomes an organizing force in students’ lives, focusing their activities and relationships. The program can also result in young people learning habits of hard work, investment, and mutual responsibility.
The key questions for CMW are how more students can become persistent and engaged in deep and lasting ways. Based on suggestions from the evaluation, CMW is working to increase practicing, make progress markers clearer, encourage family participation, and create outside performing opportunities. We are also expanding opportunities for students to become involved outside of their weekly lessons: in addition to offering Music Lab, Fiddle Lab, and Phase I Orchestra supplemental classes, CMW is developing a Media Lab program to engage students in learning digital media and documenting CMW activities.
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CMW Compendium
Four essays from the first volume of CMW's collected reflective writing. Two of the four essays include links to pdfs. If you would like to read the other two essays, please contact Community MusicWorks and provide your email address so we can keep you apprised of future publications.
Half Steps: A Compendium of Writing on Community MusicWorks
Volume One, July 2009
Four essays from the first volume of CMW's collected reflective writing. Two of the four essays include links to pdfs. If you would like to read the other two essays, please contact Community MusicWorks and provide your email address so we can keep you apprised of future publications.
Music and Social Justice: Musicians Effecting Change
by Sebastian Ruth
Download essay here
CMW Founder and Artistic Director Sebastian Ruth discusses the intersections of music and social justice in the program's vision, with an in-depth look at a concert featuring the Providence String Quartet and piano virtuoso Jonathan Biss at a neighborhood community center.
"The concert with Jonathan Biss at the gym of the West End Community Center was an opportunity to offer a message to the residents of this community: that they deserve to see and hear one of the world’s great pianists, not by leaving the neighborhood, but by coming to its Center." |
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Transforming the Lives of Musicians: Uncovering new paths through CMW’s Fellowship Program
by Chloë Kline
Download essay here
Members of current and past Fellowship Program classes talk about how they found the Fellowship Program, and the impact CMW has had on their lives and careers.
"I was looking for something more… was there a way that string quartet music could change somebody’s life? At the time, I felt that the answer must be yes, but I could not find the way to do it."
Deconstructing a Mission Statement: Making music, building community, and envisioning transformation at Community MusicWorks
by Sebastian Ruth, with Chloë Kline
A look at how CMW's mission statement has grown and changed over the years.
"Our mission statement makes some pretty significant claims about how we would like to impact the community and change people’s lives. Would this statement run the risk of seeming either naïve or grandiose to a neighborhood family or child simply seeking music lessons?"
Moving Chairs: Or, what makes a workshop work?
by Chloë Kline
Interested in the nitty gritty details of how CMW works? Moving Chairs contains a nuts and bolts deconstruction of one workshop--and ties the process back in to the organization's vision.
"CMW tries to model good eating habits for our families by limiting sweets, always providing fresh fruit, and paying attention to the amount of protein, sodium, and carbs that we provide. We’ve also learned to steer clear of snacks that take a lot of clean up time! (Popcorn, for example, adds an extra half hour of vacuuming work at the end of any event.)" |
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New Initiatives to Share our Model
Community MusicWorks received a $300,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in December 2008. The three-year grant will support our efforts to share our unique model with the classical music and arts education fields.
Through a series of strategic collaborations, we will gather musicians and educators from across the country for discussion and exploration of our organization’s unique approach. Building on our three-year-old Fellowship Program, we will continue to respond to a growing desire among artists for meaningful career paths that unite artistry and service.
One of the nation’s largest private foundations, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s grant-making philosophy is to build, strengthen and sustain institutions and their core capacities. The Foundation’s grant to Community MusicWorks will support our ongoing seminar series, as well as two new projects—a facilitated visits initiative and a collaboration with Brown University’s Cogut Center for the Humanities—that will extend the impact of our work.
We also plan to compile a written compendium that will disseminate our practices to the general public.
Click here to download a more detailed description of our new initiatives.
Earned, a CMW Commission
Earned, a double string quartet
by Anthony Green (b. 1984)
Earned was commissioned by Community MusicWorks with major support from the Argosy Foundation
Contemporary Music Fund. Additional support was provided by The Aaron Copland Fund for Music.
Sebastian Ruth, Executive-Artistic Director:
| This commissioned work reflects a new direction for Community MusicWorks. 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.
Each of the three new pieces we’ve commissioned this year reflects Community MusicWorks’ mission in a different way—Daniel Bernard Roumain's 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 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. |
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Anthony Green, Composer:
Earned is a statement. On the surface, it immediately makes the American ask how much he or she knows about his or her mother country. Deeper, it makes the American realize how much foreigners need to know about this country to be considered an American, bringing to light a curious double standard. Deeper still, it forces one to ask how “American” most Americans are, if answering these questions is the standard. This work is my homage to those immigrants who are diligent, honest representations of the American dream. It is also my allegory of humankind. Realizing that the piece does not cover every country and language of the world, nor all of the most populated and popular ones, it does attempt to emphasize that we all are on one earth, and there are inalienable similarities amongst us all as humankind. One of these similarities is music. |
Movements
I. Sweet Mother (Dance); The East is Red, Jana Gana Mana (Anthem)
II. El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido (Introduction and Fugue)
III. Atur mitzchech (El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido, Intermezzo I); Avinu Malkeinu (Aria)
IV. Plum Blossom, Shumba (Passacaglia); O Sole Mio (I), Londonderry Air (Intermezzo II, part 1); O Sole Mio (II), Arirang (Intermezzo II, part 2)
Coda. Cielito Lindo (Londonderry Air, Avinu Malkeinu, El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido, and Shumba, Finale)
First performed on Friday, May 15, 2009 at the John Hope Settlement House in Providence, Rhode Island.
Providence String Quartet & CMW Fellows Quartet with Frank Ward, narrator |
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Click below to see the Earned world premiere at the John Hope Settlement House, May 2009 (in three parts due to YouTube video length restrictions):
Introduction to Earned by composer Anthony Green
Earned part 1
Earned part 2
Orion String Quartet Residency
Community MusicWorks welcomed the acclaimed Orion String Quartet to Providence's West End in October 2008 through a collaboration with Rhode Island Chamber Music Concerts. Over two afternoons, the Providence and Orion Quartet members shared meals, discussed rehearsal techniques, and enjoyed two warm autumn days together. The residency culminated in a free community event at the West End Community Center. A spaghetti dinner was served by the West End staff and then everyone headed to the gym for a concert of music by Hugo Wolf (Orion Quartet), Mendelssohn (Orion and Providence Quartets sharing personnel) and Daniel Bernard Roumain (Providence Quartet and Phase III student quartet).
The Orion String Quartet is a member of Community MusicWorks' Advisory Council.
"Speaking for myself as well as the other members of the Orion Quartet, this collaboration was one of the highlights of our musical career! What a fabulous, enlightening experience to see the impact that music can have on each player, each listener, and all who support it in their community." -Steve Tenenbom for the Orion String Quartet
Read more about the Orion String Quartet residency on our blog.
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Click here to see a YouTube video of members of the Orion String Quartet and members of the Providence String Quartet performing at the West End Community Center (Jessie, Daniel, Steve, Sara)
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Click here to see a YouTube video of members of the Orion String Quartet and members of the Providence String Quartet performing at the West End Community Center (Todd, Jesse, Sebastian, Tim)
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Daniel Bernard Roumain Residency
In October 2008 Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) visited Community MusicWorks for a two-day residency that included a Musical Workshop and culminated in a high-energy concert at the RISD Auditorium, presented in collaboration with FirstWorks. Community MusicWorks students, families, and staff were captivated by DBR's time in Providence. One CMW parent who was part of the RISD Auditorium concert trip had this to say, "I want to quit my job and become a musician!" CMW students were impressed by "how he can dance and play at the same time," and with DBR's "plucking, using the stick on the string, and how he sometimes held the bow in his mouth."
DBR's visit featured the world premiere of The Kompa Variations, a work for double quartet commissioned by Community MusicWorks for the Providence String Quartet and Phase III student quartet, with support from the Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO BY PHASE III STUDENTS ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH DBR.
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DBR is an amazing person. During our rehearsals, I felt important, almost famous, due to the fact that I was going to meet a famous musician, that I was going to play with my favorite teachers of all time, and that the piece which we were going to play would be heard for the first time. DBR has so much passion for playing, for culture, family, people, wisdom, and music, and for the connections between each.
Words to describe the performance I'd say would be mind-blowing, moving, awesome, miraculous, spiritual, epic, and some other words that would make those happy/excited tears come out of you.
The whole experience was intense. I found out who I am, and who I am not. It was like a journey through the important things in my life. Some sacrifices were made, times got hard, but everything was worth it.
Luis Ortiz, Phase III |
Click here to see a video of Sebastian Ruth introducing The Kompa Variations on YouTube
Click here to see a video of DBR explaining The Kompa Variations on YouTube
Click here to see a selection from a public workshop led by DBR ("Classical Music Moment") on YouTube
Click here to see a selection from a public workshop led by DBR ("Kompa Rhythm") on YouTube
Click on the following links to view The Kompa Variations on YouTube:
Part 1 (7:42 min)
Part 2 (5:56 min)
Part 3 (5:33 min)
Part 4 (5:37 min)
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My favorite memory had to be playing with my role models. I looked to my left and I saw my cello teacher who I've known since I was eight. Then I looked to my right and I saw the founder of Community MusicWorks. What could be better than being surrounded by the people I trust and look up to the most!
While we were playing I felt like I had an out of the body experience, as if I were just looking at everyone. I was so proud of what we had accomplished over the last few months. We struggled together, we learned together, we grew together, and we celebrated together! What more could you ask for?
Kirby Vasquez, Phase III |
My favorite part of the DBR performance consisted of many moments. The first had to be where we played the piece he wrote. That piece was such a memorable moment for us. We all played with our teachers and it felt amazing. Finally I thought that we had made it, I just had one of those times where I look back and say to myself, "We have gone so far."
That night Sebastian told me he was very honored to be playing with me and that this day meant so much to him. Before the performance he was tightening my tie and just that moment felt so great and so much of a relief. A final moment I loved was when Luis took his solo and the crowd went crazy.
Josh Rodriguez, Phase III |
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Tenth
Year Violin
Through a collaboration unique in the violin making tradition, three
of Rhode Island's premier makers have created an exceptional violin
and donated it to Community MusicWorks in April 2007 to commemorate
our ten years of transformative presence in Providence's West End
and South Side neighborhoods.
Rationale. It is simply a matter of time before a special
child comes along with the exceptional talent and dedication to
successfully pursue a career in music at the college level. Now,
through the extraordinary generosity of three local craftsmen, Community
MusicWorks is in possession of a fine violin that will help that
child gain access to a world of opportunities that his or her family's
resources would likely not otherwise permit.
The Violin. Modeled on a 1742 Guarneri
del Jesu, the violin is constructed from the finest Boznian
maple and high altitude Austrian spruce. Click here
to view photos of the building process.
The Makers. Karl Dennis, Tucker Densley, and Andrew Ryan
are the three premier violin makers in Rhode Island. Each is a member
of the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers, and all three
have acquired many accolades for their work. Fine violins made by
these local craftsmen are in the hands of some of the most renowned
violinists in the country.
Your investment is needed. The violinmakers' in-kind contribution
is valued at $25,000, and they have challenged Community MusicWorks
to raise 25 gifts of $1,000 or more to match their generosity during
2007, our tenth year. Please contact Heath Marlow, Managing Director,
for more information.
Click here
to read about the
Tenth Year Violin in The Providence Journal.
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