I often wonder if the experience of painting would turn into a relentless grind if I were trying to be a professional painter.  When I paint, there’s no pressure.  It’s not difficult for me to achieve “flow,” that mysterious and wonderful sensation of being in the zone. It’s easy for me to lose track of how much time has passed and how much coffee I’ve put away.  However, when I’m practicing, as soon as I look up from the instrument I’m glued to the clock.  All bets are off as far as that flow stuff goes.

I should mention, though, that CMW’s Fellowship has a brilliant feature: the Practice Retreat.  You choose a week that doesn’t look too pivotal, choose a project that involves spending some quality time with your instrument, and submit a proposal outlining the plan.  If it’s approved, then voilà!  CMW pays for a sub and you have the week off to pretend like you’re back in music school.

One of my projects for the Retreat week included spending time on excerpts for a rapidly approaching audition.  Since this is the first year that I’ve been out of school and in the workforce, my practicing has been subject to an entirely new set of forces and influences.  I was happy to have a window of free-form practice time on Friday to work however and however long I pleased, instead of my normal heavy-on-the-staff-meeting routine.

The first part of the day was perfectly normal.  I warmed up slowly.  I worked on some well-known trouble spots.  A few hours elapsed, and I stood in front of my iPhone and recorded the audition material.  I had successfully completed my routine.  What came next was the surprise.

I sat down to my laptop to take a break, when I realized that I wanted to keep playing.  This was odd.  It wasn’t that the mounting audition pressure was driving my viola back into my arms.  It wasn’t that I felt “out of shape” and hoped a few more scales would fix me.  I just wanted to hang out with my instrument.

In this moment, I wanted to play the viola in the same way I always want to paint.

Don’t get me wrong: I am stunned by the wonderful things that classical music has brought to my life.  I think this career has tremendous peaks to complement its necessary valleys.  But, it is my job.  There are deadlines. There are great projects and not-so-great projects.  There is constant back-of-the-mind practice guilt.  I usually get the job done to the best of my ability, and then take a break from the instrument. (And I should clarify that as often as not, “taking a break” means teaching or going to meetings – anything that isn’t strictly practice time.)

But Friday was different.  When I realized that I wasn’t finished on the viola, I pulled out a copy of the Franck Sonata and I just played.  I let myself enjoy my capacity.  I let my mistakes go.  I lost track of time because I was wrapped up in the act of (re)creation.

Before and after the Practice Retreat, I did and probably will feel too busy to devote time to the kind of playing that doesn’t have a deadline.  But during Retreat week, my job was to take a break from a couple of those deadlines and just be a musician.  It was exciting and freeing to play some viola just for kicks.  I plan to hold onto that feeling, the feeling I get when I paint, so I don’t forget to search for that freedom on the viola as reality resumes.

Community MusicWorks is a community-based music performance and education program that provides free violin, viola, and cello lessons for students who live in the West side neighborhoods of Providence, RI. Its structure, as a storefront residency for professional musicians in an urban neighborhood, has become a new model of successful urban arts education over the past fifteen years. CMW’s Founder and Artistic Director, Sebastian Ruth, was a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 2010 for his work “forging a new, multifaceted role beyond the concert hall for the twenty-first-century musician.” Community MusicWorks offers four two-year positions to young professional musicians looking to gain a deeper understanding of the CMW model.

The post Practice Retreat (CMW Fellows Series February 2013) appeared first on String Visions | from Ovation Press.

We know that Santa’s not real because Mommy told us when she was mad at us!

This proclamation came from a smiling eight year old at the end of her cello lesson right before winter break at the end of December. Her brother, sitting on the other side of the room, immediately began to laugh; and their mother, looking a bit sheepish, also began to giggle.

“Yes,” said their Mom, “it’s true.” It was a moment of genuine love and happiness that also reflected basic realities of life: sometimes moms get angry, sometimes children discover secrets.

I remember that when I first visited CMW as a participant in IMPS (the Institute for Musicianship and Public Service), I had two basic impressions of place. First of all, I was awed by the strength of the organization, how smoothly things ran and how connected the faculty was with their students. My second impression was how much everyone at CMW laughed! Meetings, meals, lessons, rehearsals: the weekend was filled with laughter. Now that I have finished my first 3 months in the fellowship program, I am starting to realize that this laughter is more than a side-effect of the CMW experience. It is a core element of the community! I find it not only in my students’ stories, but throughout the organization. It represents and reinforces a level of comfort and friendliness that is shared by all.

CMW is one of the few arts organizations I’ve been a part of that has cultivated this level of joy. That’s why it caught me by surprise when I first visited as an IMPS participant a few years ago. I think it speaks to the essence of our mission here, something that is a basic truth of life: The fun is in the journey – the mistakes, the rehearsing, the learning and growing. We might as well enjoy it and laugh as we move forward!

Holiday Music with CMW

Community MusicWorks is a community-based music performance and education program that provides free violin, viola, and cello lessons for students who live in the West side neighborhoods of Providence, RI. Its structure, as a storefront residency for professional musicians in an urban neighborhood, has become a new model of successful urban arts education over the past fifteen years. CMW’s Founder and Artistic Director, Sebastian Ruth, was a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 2010 for his work “forging a new, multifaceted role beyond the concert hall for the twenty-first-century musician.” Community MusicWorks offers four two-year positions to young professional musicians looking to gain a deeper understanding of the CMW model.

The post CMW Holiday Laughter (CMW Fellows Series January 2013) appeared first on String Visions | from Ovation Press.

“What you do” is only part of what makes your job everything that it is or isn’t. “Who you work with” might be equally important, and I’d be willing to bet that “how your workplace treats you” would round out the top three.

Luckily, CMW is hitting it out of the park on all three counts. This month, I have a lot to celebrate in the “how your workplace treats you” department.

The first event that caught my attention and warmed my heart was my birthday. I turned 25 on November 26th, and have successfully made it since then without a single quarter-life breakdown (only 48 weeks to go)! I think it’s indicative of CMW’s culture that each staff member’s birthday is listed on the All-Staff Google Calendar, the result being that I was treated to surprise birthday texts and e-mails throughout the day. It may sound like a small detail, but the emotional impact of those brief messages was huge. My next birthday surprise arrived a few days later, when we were enjoying Phase 2 Dinner with staff and our roughly high school-age Phase 2 students. At one point during the meal, the entire cafeteria turned to look at our staff table. I panicked. Did we just swear loudly enough that they all heard it? Did I really have that much food on my face? As the students broke into an enthusiastic “Happy Birthday,” I l scanned the room to figure out whose birthday it was. Wait, was it mine? Oh, of course, they were singing to me! How fantastic!

The next morning we switched gears and celebrated the beginning of three months’ maternity leave for Chloe Klein, our beloved Education Director. Senior Resident Musician Sara Stalnaker organized a gorgeous surprise dessert reception, and our new Managing Director Kimberly Young was drafted into holding a fake meeting with Chloe to set her up for the surprise. After at least two false starts, we managed to get our timing right for Chloe to experience that confusing combination of feeling startled and feeling loved that comes with a bellowed surprise party “SURPRISE!”

We had a beautiful party. Sara presented Chloe with a group-knitted wrap (the existence of which reinforces that positive “who you work with” piece of the CMW puzzle – more than half a dozen staff members contributed rows of stitches and our parent rep finished the project’s assembly), and then everyone adjourned upstairs to our weekly staff meeting. To my surprise, I was treated to yet another rendition of “Happy Birthday,” and presented with a birthday candle-adorned petit four. (There would have been an entire cake had we not already gorged on surprise cake only hours before. Honestly, I barely powered through the miniature cake at the time.)

A mere forty-eight hours later, we were in the midst of the final party of the week, a bittersweet farewell brunch for our outgoing Managing Director Heath Marlow. We had teamed up to decorate our office’s third floor, and the potluck’s table was overflowing. I can’t resist bragging about the spread: baked french toast, baked home fries, bagels and smoked salmon, fruit salad, gluten-free chocolate zucchini cake, cheese and tomato-adorned polenta, an Asian slaw, pastries, and more. I couldn’t resist going back for seconds, and even thirds, and somehow we still had piles of leftovers. Liz Cox, our Manager of Communications and Administration, and Chase Spruill, one of our Resident Musicians, put together an incredible video tribute to Heath. It was equal parts artistic, comedic, and poignant. Given that this was CMW, it was exactly as it should be.

It was a wonderful week at CMW. Every organization and business necessarily builds its unique culture as it grows and develops, and that culture informs the mission’s execution just as essentially as does the mission itself. CMW has an exceptional culture. You can tell by how great the parties are.

Community MusicWorks is a community-based music performance and education program that provides free violin, viola, and cello lessons for students who live in the West side neighborhoods of Providence, RI. Its structure, as a storefront residency for professional musicians in an urban neighborhood, has become a new model of successful urban arts education over the past fifteen years. CMW’s Founder and Artistic Director, Sebastian Ruth, was a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 2010 for his work “forging a new, multifaceted role beyond the concert hall for the twenty-first-century musician.” Community MusicWorks offers four two-year positions to young professional musicians looking to gain a deeper understanding of the CMW model.

The post How the Workplace Treats You (CMW Fellows Series December 2012) appeared first on String Visions | from Ovation Press.

The week of November 6th-12th was CMW’s annual Bach festival. This year the festival consisted of two formal concerts, an all-night marathon of Bach’s music and contemporary music he inspired, as well as countless “pop-up” performances all over Providence. For Annalisa and I this meant that over the course of four days we performed at:

1. the home of a former CMW Board member,
2. a local, 93 year old family-owned hardware store,
3. for CMW students at Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts,
4. a library,
5. a church,
6. an art museum!

In addition to these performances, much of our day time hours were devoted to rehearsing Bach concertos and cantatas for our more “official” performances.

Yes, we are exhausted! Yet I can say it was well worth the effort! While in school, I was always working on Bach’s music, but as one of many projects. This past week, for the first time, I focused completely on it: listening to my friends and colleagues perform, playing continuo for the famous Bach double violin concerto, and practicing the first cello suite.

The thing that impresses me about Bach’s music is that it is a never-ending journey. This music constantly challenges you to hear something new. If you listen just a little closer, a little more carefully, you will discover a whole new meaning to a piece that you have known for years. Pablo Casals knew this, and that is why it took him almost a life time to feel comfortable performing the cello suites. Sebastian Ruth, CMW’s artistic director and founder, echoed this sentiment in an e-mail he sent out inviting friends of CMW to come hear his performance of Chaconne. He wrote, “This has been a 21-year+ project for me in loving and learning this piece, and I am still only scratching the surface.”

I think the lesson that Bach teaches us — the importance of listening closer and working hard to hear what the instruments say — extends into every aspect of my work with Community MusicWorks and my life. With students, board members, potential donors, friends and colleagues, taking the time to listen, consider and truly understand their point of view goes much farther than speaking louder and emphatically trying to convince them of MY perspective. For years and years my teachers told me to listen: “follow my directions”, “listen to recordings” ect., and I have passively engaged these activities. Only now am I realizing that I missed their point. Instead of focusing on the individual, the focus must be on the whole, the overall goal. This seems to me to extend way beyond successfully performing music; it seems possible that the solution for many of our society’s contemporary problems lie in the cultivation of this value taught by Bach, the skill of deep and careful listening.

Community MusicWorks is a community-based music performance and education program that provides free violin, viola, and cello lessons for students who live in the West side neighborhoods of Providence, RI. Its structure, as a storefront residency for professional musicians in an urban neighborhood, has become a new model of successful urban arts education over the past fifteen years. CMW’s Founder and Artistic Director, Sebastian Ruth, was a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 2010 for his work “forging a new, multifaceted role beyond the concert hall for the twenty-first-century musician.” Community MusicWorks offers four two-year positions to young professional musicians looking to gain a deeper understanding of the CMW model.

The post CMW Annual Bach Festival (CMW Fellows Series November 2012) appeared first on String Visions | from Ovation Press.

As current first-year Fellowship Program participants, Ms. Boerner and Ms. Latessa each teach a studio of private students and frequently perform as members of CMW Players and the Fellows String Quartet. These ensembles perform throughout Providence and further afield in Southern New England, both in concert halls and in nontraditional community settings. Once a month, throughout the school year, Ms. Boerner and Ms. Latessa will share their highlights from their experience at CMW with us.
–Colin Cronin, Creative Director

By Annalisa Boerner

The CMW Players performed Joachim Raff’s Octet in C Major at the Armory Farmers Market on September 13, and the experience served as a microcosmic view of the world my colleagues have created at Community MusicWorks.

When I arrived at the Farmers Market, Sebastian was warming up on violin and had already attracted a small herd of children around his knees. He played children’s songs for them and smilingly engaged them in conversation. A few yards away was the spot where we would perform (following the end of a drum circle performance), so we set up our octet under a tree at the edge of the Dexter Training Grounds.

Liz Cox, whom I’ve discovered to be a blend of superhero, comedienne, and all-around facilitator, brought a stack of literature and our iconic red stickers from the office so that we had some tangible CMW materials to offer to the crowd. Some physical literature was essential as we were unable to effectively introduce ourselves from the grassy “stage” with our audience of shoppers in near-constant motion.

When we had eight instruments in tune, eight binders of music settled on eight stands, and eight pairs of eyes in contact, the ensemble launched into the Raff. Given our new and disconcerting acoustic (Mother Nature furnishes no reverb), the Players leaned in, watching, listening, and focusing with the sort of attention that adrenaline and acoustic uncertainty readily provide. Our pages flew about in the breeze and the sun indiscriminately shone in our eyes, but we held to one another when the musical going got tough. The Raff is a roller coaster of emotional content, and it was a pleasure to ride it with my colleagues.

The performance and its environment appear to me, even at this early stage of my Fellowship Program experience, to be quintessential CMW. We offered our music to a new audience, and several of the people we met were so enthusiastic as to donate on the spot. We took on a performance that that would stretch and challenge our understanding of the Octet, and we learned volumes from the experience. We made new connections in our neighborhood and took a step toward expanding the space that the arts occupy in our local landscape, and I’m excited for our neighborhood arts adventures of the year to come.

Community MusicWorks is a community-based music performance and education program that provides free violin, viola, and cello lessons for students who live in the West side neighborhoods of Providence, RI. Its structure, as a storefront residency for professional musicians in an urban neighborhood, has become a new model of successful urban arts education over the past fifteen years. CMW’s Founder and Artistic Director, Sebastian Ruth, was a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 2010 for his work “forging a new, multifaceted role beyond the concert hall for the twenty-first-century musician.” Community MusicWorks offers four two-year positions to young professional musicians looking to gain a deeper understanding of the CMW model.

The post The View from a Fellowship – Monthly CMW Series appeared first on String Visions | from Ovation Press.

-Colin Cronin

String Visions (Hans Jensen): I am delighted to be able to visit with and interview you here at The Royal Danish Academy of Music. First of all congratulations with all the success you have already had, including the half-million Danish Crown Culture Prize awarded to you by the Danish Crown Prince a couple years ago. That is a remarkable accomplishment, and I’m sure you were delighted to receive such a distinguished honor.

I would like to discuss a number of topics and issues related to cello playing, our profession and – if possible – some of your visions, dreams and hopes for the future for classical music in general.

LISTEN FOR FULL AUDIO, TEXT EXCERPTS BELOW

String Visions: But first, I’d like to know a little bit about your background as a cellist and your early upbringing. I understand that you grew up in a musical family and that you first studied with your father, Ingemar Brantelid, a cellist in the Danish Royal Opera orchestra. Tell us a little bit about your early studies.

Andreas Brantelid: Yes, absolutely. I grew up in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. For those of you who hear this, you will probably hear that I’m speaking with the same accent as Hans.

String Visions: [Chuckles] Yes, except mine is heavier.

Andreas Brantelid: [Chuckles] Yeah. We both have a heavy Danish accent. My father, Ingemar, is also a cellist who plays as principal cellist in the Royal Danish Opera Orchestra, and so of course I was very fascinated by the instrument and by the music right from the start. So, when I was 3 years old, I think, I started to beg my father for a cello of my own. In the beginning he didn’t think that was a good idea. He wanted me to play the violin, piano or maybe football or something instead [chuckles], because he, well, there are too many cellists in the world. Anyway, I didn’t give up, so finally I got my first cello, and that was the size of a viola actually.

String Visions: Do you remember any thing from when you first started playing the cello?

Andreas Brantelid: Yes my father would practice one hour every day with me and we kept that up for 10 years.

String Visions: Wow. That’s fantastic. Did you also practice some on your own or did you only do it together?

Andreas Brantelid: Yeah, sometimes I practiced on my own, but maybe not the first few years. But I played a lot for fun also. But one thing that I now, later, think is very important when I look back is that I got this one hour of concentrated practice every day, where I learned it the right way, right from the beginning. I think that it was a very good thing that there was a lot of playing around and a lot of, you know, just having fun, but also every day a little serious practice. I learned how to hold the cello and the bow properly, it was not only a game, and maybe most importantly, I learned how to play in tune. My father helped me develop a great sensitivity for intonation.

END RECORDING

String Visions: Yes to develop a great ear is one of the most important aspects of being a musician.

Andreas Brantelid: Yes I actually believe that anything to do with music and cello playing is about what you hear.

String Visions: Absolutely.

Andreas Brantelid: It’s all in the ear, and when I now try to develop something new in my playing, I always realize that it’s all in the ears. I can never learn anything unless I first have it in my ear.

String Visions: Yes in your inner ear… in your mind.

Andreas Brantelid: Exactly, in my mind.

String Visions: And then, when we perform, we use our ears to make sure that the sounds we create are very close to what we visualize.

Andreas Brantelid: Yes, and that could be numerous things, including timing, intonation, etc.

String Visions: What about your studies as you grew older?

Andreas Brantelid: Well, the interesting thing is that I always had other teachers in addition to my father.

String Visions: Oh really?

Andreas Brantelid: That was also a good thing. So I could… if it didn’t work with him… if we were not friends…

String Visions: If you disagreed?

Andreas Brantelid: Exactly. If we disagreed, I could always say to him [my father]: “Oh, my real teacher says something else.” I first began my studies with the Suzuki method here in Copenhagen, and then I went to study with Henrik Brendstrup, a terrific Danish cellist. When I was about 11 years old I went to Mats Rondin, who was a professor in Malmo in Sweden. He was really wonderful and exceptionally good at teaching younger students. He has a very concrete way of teaching. It’s not so philosophical and it’s very straightforward.

String Visions: Right to the point.

Andreas Brantelid: Yes, right to the point, and he has a great way of relating to children. One great thing I will always remember is that he made me play a lot of Popper etudes, and [chuckles] it was probably good for me then… along with a lot of scales… and yet, I have never touched the Popper etudes since that time.

String Visions: Did you learn all of them?

Andreas Brantelid: No, no. But, that was also because when I practiced with my father he insisted that I play them well.

String Visions: Yes, perfect. I agree with that. There are a number of different ways to study and learn etudes, but in the end they have to be mastered in great detail. Otherwise, it doesn’t mean or help anything.

Andreas Brantelid: Yes, exactly. I think it’s actually the opposite. It would be bad for you to learn them incorrectly, to play them out of tune for example.

The post SPECIAL FEATURE – Interview with Cellist Andreas Brantelid appeared first on String Visions | from Ovation Press.

Al Nour Wal Amal Chamber Orchestra Inspires with Remarkable Musicians

Sometimes we feel like playing an instrument is an insurmountable challenge. There are so many feats of technical velocity, accuracy, and coordination to master that often it feels like there’s not enough time in the world to figure it all out. As music students slave away in the practice room, they sometimes forget how far they’ve come, or how lucky they are. The task of learning an instrument could be even more challenging than they could ever imagine.

The Cairo-based Al Nour Wal Amal Chamber Orchestra is one example of how far will power can take you. The orchestra (whose name means “Light and Hope), which performed a concert yesterday in Veletta, is comprised entirely of blind young women. The women of the 38-piece orchestra come from all different walks of life in an effort to raise money that will go towards helping the blind. They have performed in 17 countries, including Austria, Germany, England, Japan, Thailand, and Canada.

In their most recent concert, the group performed works by Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Khachaturian, Bizet, and also works by Middle Eastern and Indian composers. How do they do it? Each musician learns the notes from a braille score and then commits the piece to memory. The conductor then tells them what piece they’ll be playing next and dictates the tempo. Such an inspirational feat should be a lesson to all of us: no matter how great the physical difficulty, learning an instrument is foremost about a love of music and will power. With a strong effort and the right attitude, 38 sightless women can put together an internationally performing orchestra. The Al Nour Wal Amal Chamber Orchestra should remind us that no difficulty is too great to overcome. Hopefully the 18th country they visit will be ours!

The post Daily Bow: An Orchestra of Blind Musicians? appeared first on String Visions | from Ovation Press.

“We didn’t even know the implications of the name — ‘these are the knights.’ But sometimes you grow into a name,” Colin Jacobsen said.

-Article: Knights Perform Iconic Classical Music Friday

Sometimes, we can never know what something will grow into. That is exactly what happened with violinist Colin Jacobsen of the young musician group The Knights and his brother Eric when they started coming together with other like-minded artists in meetings they humorously labeled as “The Knights of the Many-Sided Table.” In the meetings, these young musicians would gather around the coffee table in their New York City apartment for informal readings of musical scores.

Fast forward to today and you’ll find that The Knights have embarked on a “noble crusade” to discover themselves through music… and in the process are reshaping the role in which music can play in the lives of performers and audiences.

“We think of ourselves as a fellowship. We play classic scores and new music, and make audiences feel as if we’re playing them for the very first time.”

The Knights just recently returned from a third tour in Germany and kicked off their very first North American tour just last Friday, when they performed at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall as part of the Troy Chromatics Concerts series.

The ensemble is a perfect symbol of how music is fitting into the personal and professional lives of musicians today. As the model of the “full-time salaried orchestra musician” becomes increasingly irrelevant to the reality of most working musicians, new forms of organization are emerging to fill the void left behind.

Most of the musicians have other performance commitments, other ensembles. “It’s not a full-time group,” Jacobsen said. “It’s assembled for various projects, and the size of the group is not fixed.” At their largest configuration, on tour, they comprise about 35 musicians, led by Eric Jacobsen as conductor, and with Colin serving as concertmaster and first violinist.

“But it’s not all top-down,” Colin Jacobsen said. “We view it as a fellowship, and it’s flexible.” The selection of repertoire is likewise very egalitarian; everyone has their say in rehearsal. “In a way, it’s inefficient, but we’re not interested in efficiency, but in the process, being in the moment,” Jacobsen said.

Being “in the moment” can mean a rather free-form performing style – and tends to drive them to an eclectic repertoire, heavy on the likes of Schubert and the minimalist composers. “We chose that repertoire because, in a way, it models our rehearsal process,” says Jacobsen.

In other words, The Knights as an ensemble is dynamic and flexible, not just in their repertoire or performances but in the very structure of their organization. In a world and industry marked by constant change, this type of creative structure with the ability to adapt to shifting circumstances might be exactly what we need to not only boost ticket sales and support the arts, but also to help artists and audiences find fulfillment.

The Knights were featured in a program on New York’s Thirteen station. Check out the except and full program below!

Meet The Knights, the trailblazing group of young musicians Yo-Yo Ma has called “a chamber music experience in orchestral form.” Brought together by brothers Eric and Colin Jacobsen, The Knights are a collaborative collection of friends from diverse musical backgrounds working to change the face of classical music. With influences from Bach to rock, the orchestra energizes audiences around the world, delighting and surprising both discerning classical music patrons and newer listeners. In We Are The Knights, host Paula Zahn brings you behind the scenes with The Knights to see the group’s unique rehearsal practices, touching history, and promising future. We Are The Knights features interviews with Colin and Eric Jacobsen, their father Eddie, members of the orchestra, “Performance Today” radio host Fred Child, and Yo-Yo Ma. Best of all, We Are The Knights takes you to incomparable performances of works by Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart, Copland, Jimi Hendrix, and more.

View the program on its original website – Meet the Knights on Thirteen (WNET) New York Public Media

The post The Knights Classical (Monday’s Bow, April 9th) appeared first on String Visions | from Ovation Press.

Women of Classical Music: Jennifer Higdon

As mentioned in Monday’s Bow, the radio station WCPE celebrated Women’s History Month yesterday by playing recordings made by female conductors. Keeping with the theme, String Visions is proud to honor a woman who has had an enormous influence on classical music in recent years—the composer Jennifer Higdon. While some contemporary composers write in complex styles understandable only by educated musicians, Higdon strives to write music that is “ as hospitable as a Southern dinner.” She’s written piano sonatas, concertos for violin and various wind instruments, songs,  and orchestral works. As Kevin Berger explores this fascinating musician in his recent LA Times feature, Higdon emerges not only as inspirational woman of classical music, but a role model of dedication and determination that we all should admire.

Jennifer Higdon was born and raised on a farm rural Tennessee. Her father was an artist who painted rather than weeded fields. She describes her parents as hippies; unlike many composers who attribute an early introduction to classical music as a source of inspiration, Higdon grew up with Bob Marley and the Beatles rather than Bach and Mozart. The course of her life was set, however, when she discovered a flute in the family attic one summer. She wanted to do something square, unlike her parents, and taught herself the instrument well enough to become the principal flutist of the Heritage High School Marching Band of Maryville, Tenn by her senior year. She then continued on to study music at Bowling Green State University and later earned a PhD in composition from the University of Pennsylvania under the tutelage of George Crumb.

Now Jennifer Higdon is a star of the contemporary music world. She teaches composition at the Curtis Institute of Music; her livelihood is funded solely by commissions and royalties, including recent requests from the Santa Fe Opera and the Opera Company of Philadelphia for an opera based on the novel “Cold Mountain;” and she received the Pulitzer Prize in 2010 for her violin concerto, which is closely associated with the performances and recording made by Hilary Hahn. Higdon claims that she tries to communicate with everyone in the audience when she composes, rather than writing music solely for complexity’s sake. According to the conductor Marin Alsop, the “pulsing rhythms, layered harmonies and lithe melodies betray exceptional skill and emotional power” in Jennifer’s pieces reflect her personality, creating a genuine, personal experience for the listener.  This kind of open-mindedness and audience awareness is at the heart of why Higdon has been so successful. If classical music is to thrive in our culture it must be not seen as only relevant to listeners, but also accessible, welcoming. Too many view our art as confusing and reserved for the elite. Higdon turns those expectations upside down and welcomes everyone to listen with her music.  Hopefully young composers both male and female will be inspired by Higdon’s “hospitable” approach as she continues to make history as a pioneer woman of classical music.

Check out this feature video on one of Jennifer Higdon’s most popular works, Blue Cathedral

The post Daily Bow: The Hospitality of Jennifer Higdon appeared first on String Visions | from Ovation Press.

The stage, the recording, and the performance… all of these can impact people on a large scale, reaching those at the furthest points across the globe. But sometimes, the most beautiful examples of music are the subtle, personal, and less-publicized ones.

Leavenworth is a (relatively) small city in Kansas. It doesn’t typically make the headlines in music. But it’s possible for any place and time to add value… you just have to know where to look.

I hesitate to raise this issue, but I wonder if all the disparate groups that are presently involved in the arts in Leavenworth would be willing to work together to promote and support the arts by forming a committee or consortium or whatever it needs to be called. Personally, I would include groups such as those who paint, weave, dance, sing, play music, perform on stage, etc.

It is not that there is too much competition between the groups right now. I know that at least a few folks are already participating in several forms of the arts already. For example, it is not unusual for someone who is working with wood or who paints to also play an instrument. There are many ways for us to express ourselves through the arts and I believe that many individuals are actively involved in several forms on a regular basis.

At the least, many who are active in one form may also attend performances in another genre. For example, while I often work in fiber, I will sometimes attend live stage performances or go to live musical performances.

I believe that a reason for forming a consortium for the arts would be to strengthen the groups already practicing and to introduce new practitioners into the various folds that are possible.

For example, it would be possible for persons to perform live stage performances at the Heritage Center on the large stage that is available and, according to one informant associated with the River City Community Players, persons could perform a play by using a script that they read on stage. They still need to practice, of course, but not for the many hard hours that the RCCP must endure for one of their performances.

Such an activity would allow many community members to enjoy the challenge of performing on stage without undergoing the long hours of practice and memorization required for a normal stage performance. The Heritage Center could prepare a meal and the whole thing could be done as dinner theater for the evening, thus providing satisfaction for the players, the audience, while raising some funds.

Our local schools are also very active and do very well in all of the above and hopefully an arts consortium would provide a transition between school and post-school arts. In fact, such an organization could provide an outlet outside of school for students to get more exposure and experience. I have no doubt that it would also increase the communityís awareness of their programs.

For example, the Lions Club in Leavenworth regularly enjoys performances by various groups from Leavenworth High School at the weekly Thursday lunches. Unless you decide to attend a performance at the high school, the only other opportunity for many may be the exposure at a Lions’ lunch. In this way, more cross pollinating between activities helps the community learn about what is going on in the schools and certainly has a positive effect on the support from the community.

There are a lot of personalities involved in all these groups, but maybe it would be possible to get together on a regular basis to discuss how we can promote and support the arts in Leavenworth.

All of this above was written, not by a professional musician, but by a natural resource manager. At one point, this man may have been touched by music in a way that gives him the strength to stand up now and make his voice heard.

This story, from a place most people probably have never heard of, has much to teach all of the great cultural, artistic, and musical centers of the world. It doesn’t matter how great the virtuosic talent or how valuable the instruments… without the people, without the community, the soul of music cannot thrive.

You can read the original passage as it appeared in the Leavenworth Times.

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