by natchaitkin | Nov 22, 2016 | Uncategorized
Roger screws up.
As many of you know, my quartet, 4-Way, has been teaching this year at Woodford Paideia Elementary School – we’re helping out the 5th and 6th grade orchestra classes, and giving some private lessons. We’re also getting to know some of the kids we’ll be working with starting in January, when our after-school program begins.
Last week at Woodford, I worked with several young cellists, and one moment in particular stuck with me. I was teaching French Folk Song (a staple of beginning string players from the Suzuki method) to a very enthusiastic 5th grader (let’s call her Riley for now) – a child whose photo should appear alongside the dictionary entry for the word “radiant.” However, she became very upset with herself every time she made a mistake. “I’m a perfectionist,” she explained.
I know that feeling all too well, as most musicians do – you can’t play an instrument well without setting high standards for yourself. I gently told her that her instinct to correct her mistakes was good, but that getting upset at herself wasn’t helpful or healthy. I reminded her that I made mistakes all the time, and that she should accept and indeed, embrace those mistakes as the critical learning tools they are.
Yesterday morning, I played a Youth and Family concert with the Cincinnati Symphony – 2,500 elementary school-age kids packed the Taft Theater for a program entitled “American Journey”. I love doing stuff like this – it is always fun to witness the energy of the audience right before the concert starts, with all the kids chatting and bouncing in their seats.
During the show, I was reminded that kids understand some things better than grownups do. During our performance of the slow movement of Dvorak’s New World Symphony, Chris Philpotts, the CSO’s marvelous English horn player, gave a beautiful rendition of the famous solo, and the kids (sadly unfamiliar with the classical music tradition of sitting still and shutting up no matter how much you’re enjoying yourself) applauded wildly, until they were quickly shushed by their teachers and chaperones. Audience training begins early – sigh.
What my lesson with Riley and the stifled enthusiasm of the kids both highlight are the dangers of overcorrecting behavior. In her case, she’s decided (as too many of us often do) that mistakes are something to feel bad about. Luckily, it’s fixable – if she enrolls in our program (and I really hope she does), we can work every week on putting that perfectionism to work for her in a positive way. In the case of the audience at the Taft, it’s a little more complicated.
I am sure that many of those kids had never been to an orchestra concert before, and that their teachers, with only the best of intentions, gave them strict instructions to be on their best behavior, which is certainly good. Still, those kids experienced what music is all about during Chris’s solo, and responded naturally – I bet that many of them thought, “That was awesome – why can’t I show my appreciation?” And just as this might have been their first orchestra concert, it also could well be their last, and if their takeaway was, “Don’t show it when you like something – it’s not appropriate,” well, I could hardly blame them for not wanting to come back later in their lives.
Now, I certainly understand the importance of crowd control in a hall with 2,500 kids – without it, anarchy would set in real fast. But maybe there’s a way to have both decorum and enthusiasm. What if the conductor had acted like a jazz bandleader, and told the audience before each piece – or even just one piece – which instruments would be featured, and that they should feel free to clap after each solo? I bet it would work just fine – it’s certainly worth a try. Maybe we could try it with the adults, too – remember, Mozart expected that sort of behavior!
For my part, I can’t wait to start working with Riley and her classmates at Woodford after school every week, and help them learn from their mistakes. I’ll be posting regular updates here and on the blog at 4-WayQuartet.com. In the meantime, we are hard at work raising the money we’ll need – if you would like to help us out, please click here and scroll to the bottom of the page to donate via PayPal. Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving!
Till next time,
Nat
by natchaitkin | Oct 26, 2016 | Uncategorized
In my last post, I wrote about my summer visit to my grandmother, and the importance of our music in our relationship since I was a kid. A few weeks after my trip to LA, I attended the Bar Mitzvah of the son of one of my closest friends, who also grew up in a family of musicians. Virtually everyone in the Gershfeld clan plays a string instrument, so as part of the festivities, there was a reading of the Brandenburg Concerto #3 by three generations of the family – the Bar Mitzvah himself on cello, along with his younger brother (who leads the beginning), father, uncle, aunt, cousins and two grandparents – as well as his cello teacher, myself, and a few other guests. Check out the video – it’s a hoot.
https://youtu.be/GjXaW9x24ug&w=550
As you can see, the joy and sense of community in that room was remarkable, and the experience reminded me that this is what music is for – to be played. I know so many people who only know “classical” music as listeners, and I would bet that many of today’s concertgoers are not players themselves, which is a shame. There was a time not so long ago when families like the Gershfelds were the norm, not the exception I suspect they are today. Wouldn’t it be great to have family gatherings like this one in every home?
Well, here’s one way to make it happen. My friends at MYCincinnati – a free orchestra program serving children in Price Hill, on Cincinnati’s West Side – are now offering a class for adults, populated largely by, you guessed it, parents of the kids who already study there. My favorite part of the picture is the kids helping their parents – they too are passing music from one generation to another, just in reverse! Let’s hope more string programs will follow their example, and more families can experience the joy of playing the Brandenburg Concertos together!
Till next time,
Nat
by natchaitkin | Oct 1, 2016 | Uncategorized
I’ve posted here before about my dad, who was central in helping me find my way to my life as a musician. Today, I want to introduce you to my mother and grandmother, who also fill their lives with music and showed me how great (and natural) that could be.
When I was little, I would go to LA for a few weeks every summer to visit my grandparents. I enjoyed this a lot (though I bet my parents enjoyed it even more) – they had three dogs and a pool, and my grandfather would occasionally take me to work with him at Paramount – he was an assistant director, and had worked on some pretty big movies (including The Ten Commandments and Vertigo – you can read his IMDB list here).
My grandmother always had classical music on in the house – the radio played KUSC every morning, and she had hundreds of records – she would make me cassettes of pieces she liked. She also supervised my piano practicing, which as you can see, was a challenge – no one in this picture looks too pleased, including the bust of Bach on the piano!
In the summer of 1977, Grandma and I flew back to New York after my annual visit. As we got close to the city, we noticed there was no light on the ground. The pilot announced that there had been a blackout (now legendary in the city’s history), and that we would be going to Boston instead. This made me very concerned – I was wearing my Yankees jacket, and the Red Sox were our archenemies. Of course, no one bothered us – as you can see in the above picture, you don’t mess with my Grandma.
Recently, my mom and I went to visit Grandma, who is 96 and bedridden. She is in the late stages of Alzheimer’s, and can’t speak more than a few words, but seemed very happy to see us, and looked at us very intently while we spoke to her. Since we couldn’t have the kinds of conversations we used to, I also wanted to play for her, so I obtained a cello from another musical family, Benning Violins on Ventura Boulevard, a three generation family business for over 60 years. Laura Benning was kind enough to give me the first instrument her mother had ever made, which seemed especially fitting – my thanks to her for her generosity and thoughtfulness.
I played Bach for Grandma for quite a while, stopping every few minutes to ask her if she liked it, and if she wanted to hear more – she always nodded and said yes. I have no idea what she was thinking, but I hope it helped her reconnect with music she loved and maybe brought back memories of us when I was a kid – it certainly did for me.
If you play an instrument, and have a relative (or friend, or a complete stranger for that matter) suffering from dementia, consider playing for them. Live music is a gift for everyone, of course, but for those whose other avenues of communication have become more limited, you’d be giving them something especially precious, and I think they deserve it even more than the rest of us.
Till next time,
Nat
by natchaitkin | Aug 17, 2016 | Uncategorized
Today, the school year begins here in Cincinnati, and as a parent of two, I couldn’t be happier. Even better is the news that Cincinnati Public Schools is putting the arts front and center at two magnet elementary schools, and I’m pleased to announce that 4-Way will begin its education program this year at one of them!
As part of its Vision 2020 plan, CPS has designated Woodford Paideia to be one of its specialized schools, with an emphasis on strings – that’s where we come in. There will also be a band program at Chase Elementary in Northside, as well as programs built around tech, entrepreneurship, and environmental stewardship at various other schools around the city. To make the arts the central, defining feature of two elementary schools is a bold step, and I hope we can help CPS make the case that all schools should have the same opportunity.
Today, 4-Way will perform for the entire school. Beginning in October, once a week, we will come in and teach chamber music and ensemble skills to the 5th and 6th grade orchestra classes. We’ll also begin identifying kids to join our free, after-school lesson and chamber music program, which will start in January. By the spring, we hope to have the kids performing short pieces, both as soloists and in groups without a conductor!
This will take a lot of help, from Woodford’s students, parents, teachers and staff, and we’ll need your help too! We’ve already secured grants from ArtsWave and the Ohio String Teachers Association, and will be doing lots of fundraising this fall to raise more money for the program. Here are three ways you can help us:
- We’ll be performing a series of house concert fundraisers – if you’d like to host one, click here to e-mail me.
- In a few weeks, we’ll begin an Indiegogo campaign – we’d love to hear your suggestions for 4-Way swag to be given to donors, so please post them in the comments, or e-mail us!
- If you’d like to contribute directly, click here to go to the Paypal site set up by our fiscal agent, the Kennedy Heights Arts Center, to accept tax-deductible donations to 4-Way’s education program. You can also find the link to donate at our website, 4-WayQuartet.com
Sorry, got to get to class now! More news soon – thanks for your support!
Nat
by natchaitkin | Jul 12, 2016 | Uncategorized
The horrific events of last week in Louisiana, Minnesota and Texas have evoked the usual calls for healing and greater understanding – of course I hope that those calls are heeded, though the number of times they’ve been made in recent years suggests that they’re not working. Though it is certainly the job of politicians and other leaders to find a way out of times like these, I’m not real optimistic that they can – maybe it’s up to everyone else instead.
Much ink has been spilled and airtime occupied in analyzing recent events – I have read and heard several thoughtful commentaries (and many more thoughtless ones). However, as I’ve noted before, it is a cellist who has provided a truly meaningful response to what has happened – here is Cremaine Booker (aka That Cello Guy), playing the Barber Adagio for Strings (by himself, no less). I was deeply moved – hope you are too. It’s a start.
https://youtu.be/hfcZheDtUXc&w=550
by natchaitkin | Jun 22, 2016 | Uncategorized
One of the amazing things about music is that we all experience it in our own way – two concertgoers, or even two members of the group playing, can have wildly different reactions to the same performance. In ensemble playing, as I’ve noted before, this is both the challenge and the reward – while rehearsing, we have to shape our different perspectives into something cohesive and unified. This is often exhausting but well worth the effort – the whole is definitely more than the sum of the parts.
I regularly ask my cello students to make up a story to go with the piece they’re working on, and the answers I get are quite amazing. From a lamb’s journey through the woods to someone recovering from a car accident, these stories often reflect what is on the mind of the player as much as the music itself, but that’s fine – verbalizing these ideas helps the student play the piece in a much more engaged way.
Recently, I met Elsa Kennedy, a young voice student, when I was playing at Second Sunday on Main, a big street festival in downtown Cincinnati. It was very hot that afternoon, and most people who came by my spot seemed much more interested in the StreetPops vendor nearby than the Bach I was playing. But Elsa stopped and stood for a couple of minutes with her eyes closed, listening intently.
When I finished the piece I was playing, she came over and explained that she sees colors when she hears music, and that those colors change depending on the notes and keys being used. This condition is called “synesthesia” and is actually not uncommon – here’s a list of some well-known musicians who have reported some connection to color in their hearing. Russian pianist-composer Alexander Scriabin, who may not have had the condition himself, still became so intrigued with the idea that he designed a special keyboard, with each pitch having a different color.
There was some chalk nearby, thanks to the intrepid Margy Waller, of Art on The Streets, and so Elsa sat down and drew what she heard as I played pieces in different keys. Here’s what she came up with – each title and picture is linked to an audio file of the piece so you can hear what she saw.
Bach – Allemande from Suite #4 in E-flat major
Bach – Gigue from Suite #3 in C major
And finally, the Prelude from Gaspar Cassado’s Suite for Solo Cello in d minor
Her work inspired another young artist, too:
Playing in situations like this is often a roll of the dice – bad acoustics, weather and a less than captive audience can make for an experience many performers would rather skip entirely, and I’ve played many an outdoor gig that I swore would be my last. However, this particular afternoon reminded me that a successful performance need only reach one person, and that you never know exactly how that will happen.
As I said before, we all experience music differently, and it’s quite mysterious how that works – there’s much research being done now on how music affects the brain. What is clear, though, is that though each of us may react differently to what we hear or play, music touches our very core. Let’s close with a video from a London home for dementia patients, where music is reaching even people whose way of interacting with the world has otherwise been radically diminished or even cut off – a powerful reminder that though our experiences with music may vary, they are an essential part of being human.
https://youtu.be/dvmIKmg8u68&w=550
Till next time,
Nat
