by natchaitkin | Feb 18, 2016 | events, Uncategorized
With me from left – Bayla Keyes and Lois Shapiro of Triple Helix, and concert presenter Ruth Haddock, director of the Jefferson Academy of Music. We’re in front of a mural of Alexej von Jawlensky’s “Schokko with Red Hat.”
First off, sorry to be gone so long! I realize that it’s been far too long since I posted, but I do have a good excuse. Many of you know about my dream to start a community-based string quartet, and it’s up and running. We’re called 4-Way (in honor of Cincinnati’s famous chili), and we’ll have a website and PR materials up any day now. In fact, we are rehearsing for our debut concert, on Sunday, March 13 at Cincinnati’s Taft Museum. I will post more about that soon, but today, I wanted to share a story about a recent adventure I had.
As our recent quartet rehearsals have reminded me, so much of playing chamber music is slow, painstaking work – everyone practices their part, comes to rehearsal and hashes out the details of how the music will sound. EVERYTHING is up for discussion – how fast is it going to go; how loud is this section; does this phrase go to here or to there; up-bow or down (there’s a discussion that can kill an entire afternoon!); could we play this section more in the style of a hurdy-gurdy; etc.
And then, there’s the dots. Many notes in a piece of music will have dots on them, and musicians love to sit around and talk about what they mean (usually, that the note is shorter than it could be). This can take all day. There are some rehearsals where I’ve felt “Forget about seeing the forest for the trees, we’re arguing about one pine needle on the ground.”
In all seriousness, all this detailed work is essential to making music, and the back and forth that goes on in rehearsal is actually a lot of fun. But, sometimes I wonder, “What if we could skip all that and fast forward to the fun part?” I had that exact experience this past Sunday.
Thanks to some quick thinking by one of my employers, the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, I got a last-minute chance to fill in with a terrific piano trio, Boston’s Triple Helix. Their cellist, Rhonda Rider, got sick and couldn’t make the trip for their concert at the Columbus Museum of Art (luckily, she has recovered).
It was a real treat for me to play with such a high-level group – I felt the way a minor league baseball player must feel when they get called up to the big leagues. Pianist Lois Shapiro and violinist Bayla Keyes, who have played in this group for 20 years, were incredibly gracious and welcoming – I felt right at home immediately.
And of course, we didn’t have time for any of the discussion I mentioned earlier- we had one rehearsal Sunday morning, and the concert was that afternoon. I had played the music before, and the trio of course had as well, and so my job was very easy – just jump in and try to keep up with their interpretation. They had done all the decision-making already – I just got to have fun!
In one way, it reminded me of the very first chamber group I ever played in, when I had only been playing the cello for a year.
My teacher got a call from the School for Strings, a New York Suzuki school – they needed an extra cellist for a string quartet, and she sent me. I was 12, and walked into a group that was made up of 14 year-olds. We started playing a quartet by David Stone (I still remember the opening tune), and I remember thinking, “I have no idea what is going on here, but I’m enjoying it!” From that day forward, playing quartets has been my favorite way to make music.
Being the least experienced player in that group was great for me, and over the years, I’ve had the chance to be the low man on the totem pole a few times, both as a student and professional. Sunday’s concert was a nice reminder that there’s always lots to learn from great colleagues, and I’m looking forward to doing more of that with 4-Way in the weeks and years to come. As I mentioned, I’ll have an update from our rehearsals and more information about that March 13 concert soon.
In the meantime, to Bayla and Lois from Triple Helix, presenter Ruth Haddock of the Jefferson Academy of Music, as well as my ProMusica bosses, Executive Director Janet Chen and board president Steve Keyes – thanks for a great time!
Till next time,
Nat
by natchaitkin | Nov 26, 2014 | Uncategorized
In the rush of preparation for a holiday devoted to being grateful, I’ve been thinking a lot about the great gift of being a musician and getting to share it with others. In the midst of all that, two recent stories of less than salutary behavior in the music world have caught my attention, and I’d like to share them as a reminder that we all need to keep our eye on the ball and not get caught up in less productive efforts.
Most people view classical musicians as pretty well-mannered, especially the string players (the brass section is a whole other story, believe me!). Early childhood educators are also are pretty good about minding their manners. Lately, however, the intersection of these two seemingly polite groups has seemed like a war zone. Two major figures in the beginning education of string players have recently come under fierce attack.
First, Mark O’Connor, the well-known fiddler, has accused Shinichi Suzuki, father of the ubiquitous method that bears his name, of having falsified his credentials and endorsements from well-known musicians of his time. The Suzuki Association of the Americas has fired back, and many teachers have weighed in, mostly to rebuke O’Connor for his rather nasty comments. You can hear an NPR story about this whole thing here.
O’Connor has a method of his own, and is quite up front about his frustration with the Suzuki method’s popularity and its effect on his own market share – reading O’Connor’s posts, it’s nearly impossible not to connect his business ambitions with his attacks on Suzuki.
There are a couple of big problems here – first of all, O’Connor looks really hypocritical for suggesting that Suzuki behaved less than honorably in promoting himself. As a good friend of mine loves to say: “One finger pointing out, three fingers pointing back.”
Secondly, O’Connor’s criticisms of Suzuki’s methods, many of which have merit and are shared by others in the string world (myself included), have been lost in the fuss over O’Connor’s ad hominem attack on someone who can’t defend himself.
Full disclosure: I was not a Suzuki student, but got excellent training in playing chamber music at the School for Strings, a Suzuki school in New York. I am also not a Suzuki teacher, but I use the early books with my beginning and intermediate students – for the most part, they are put together well, and do a good job. I do use other materials to supplement them, though.
I do share some of the popular misgivings about the method itself, the biggest being the note reading weakness of many Suzuki students. I have former Suzuki students who struggle with this and it is a big problem. However, I also have had former Suzuki students who read very well. And this brings us to a critical point.
O’Connor, to his credit, shares an excellent article on his blog by Melissa Tatreau, a violin teacher who hits the nail on the head: with any method, Suzuki or otherwise, IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE TEACHER. As with any subject, there are good and bad teachers, and results vary widely.
If you are interested in the details of all this, read Tatreau’s piece – it’s first rate.
My main point here is that this whole thing is a really bad waste of energy – for those of us working in a field wrongly viewed by far too many people as a luxury, we can’t afford to be seen as petty. If you truly believe that making music is a life-changing and enriching experience, and that everyone should have the chance to do it, as I do, picking fights with dead people is not a good use of your time.
I’ve long respected Mark O’Connor as a great fiddler, and his attempts to broaden the options for teaching string playing should be welcomed by all of us who do it. However, he should not be using ad hominem attacks to promote himself. And I have to say, having not yet explored the O’Connor method, I’m less inclined to at the moment, because of this whole thing – it leaves a sour taste in my mouth (one which I will ease with cranberry sauce tomorrow!).
Next week I will turn to El Sistema, the Venezuelan method of community building through youth string education, which has received tremendous attention in recent years, and has inspired many new programs in countries around the world, but is also currently under attack.
In the meantime, count your blessings, and stay focused on what really matters – good intonation and pumpkin pie. Happy Thanksgiving!
