Transforming lives one day at a time :: The online journal of Community MusicWorks

Dig this.

Here's a snap of Sara Stalnaker's cello students as they serenade both seedlings and shoppers at the recent Southside Community Land Trust plant sale. Photo by Jori Ketten.

Congratulations Jessie Montgomery!

Community MusicWorks is proud to share the news that our good friend and former colleague Jessie Montgomery has been named Sphinx Virtuosi's Inaugural Composer-In-Residence.

                                            photo by Jiyang Chen

An announcement from the Sphinx Organization describes the Sphinx Virtuosi Composer-in-Residence program as an important avenue to engage young composers of color in new commissions and arrangements for the ensemble. 

Jessie Montgomery, former musician in residence at Community MusicWorks, is a Sphinx alumna and violinist of the Catalyst Quartet. This fall, her works will be featured during the 2013 Sphinx Virtuosi Tour, which includes the ensemble’s 10th anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall.

Of this honor, Jessie states, "I am thrilled to be selected as the Inaugural Composer-in-Residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi!  I look forward to the opportunity this position offers me to create new works that will further diversify the palette of contemporary American composition."

Learn more about Jessie Montgomery here, and get more information about the Sphinx Virtuosi Tour (including concert dates and locations) here.

 

"I feel like I'm in another world when I play music."

 

-Quote from Diego, 6, cellist in the Daily Orchestra Program.

Music, Food, Dancing...Free! Join us Friday!

What more could you ask for? Bring a friend and wear your dancing shoes this Friday, May 17 at the John Hope Settlement House!

Video by Jori Ketten.

Join us as we present a World Premiere Afro-Cuban Violin Concerto!

Community MusicWorks is pleased to present the world premiere of Fantasía de Guayaba Habanera, a newly commissioned violin concerto based on Afro-Cuban rhythms and the idiom of Salsa music. This piece, written for violinist Jonathan Gandelsman (of the Silk Road Ensemble and Brooklyn Rider) and the Community MusicWorks Players with their teenage students, represents composer Gonzalo Grau’s own heritage as a person and musician. Grau describes his musical voice as reflecting his upbringing, living in Venezuela and studying classical cello, while also playing and being surrounded by popular Latin music. 

                                   Composer Gonzalo Grau really enjoys Salsa!

For Community MusicWorks, this piece represents an opportunity to address a question we push ourselves to ask, which is ‘how are we in musical conversation with the communities and heritages of the students we serve?’  For sixteen years, CMW has been deeply rooted in the South Side neighborhoods of Providence, Rhode Island, where more than 50% of our student body comes from countries of Latin America. Commissioning this piece of music for students and professional musicians connects our young people’s musical study with the heritages of their families and deepens the ways we are able to make musicianship central to community life.

To support the development of this project CMW has formed a Latino Advisory Committee, comprised of leaders from the Latin American communities of Rhode Island, to promote the concert event in the members’ networks, to build interest in Community MusicWorks, and to support the students’ experience connecting their musicianship with their community.

Important partners in this event include the Rhode Island Latino Arts Network, which will co-host the concert, and Latino Public Radio, which will create a live broadcast of the concert.

The concert will be a community celebration, and will feature dinner catered by a local Bolivian restaurant, the musical performance, and salsa dancing with a live Salsa band.

Here's the effect Fantasía had on the folks lucky enough to hear a preview:

On May 17, this will be you!

Date: Friday, May 17, 2013

Time: 6 PM dinner, 7 PM concert, 8 PM Salsa dancing

Location: John Hope Settlement House, 7 Whitten Way, Providence, RI

For more information: www.communitymusicworks.org , or call: (401) 861-5650

Rare and Unusual...

On Saturday, May 18 from 11 - 12 our CMW Cello students will be performing at the 21st Annual Rare and Unusual Plant Sale at City Farm, 109 Somerset Street in Providence. To learn more about Southside Community Land Trust's Plant Sale and get directions to City Farm: http://www.southsideclt.org/plantsale.