|
|
Yamaha In-Residence Fellowships
 Fabiana Claure and William Villaverde are Doctor of Musical Arts candidates in piano performance at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music, studying with pianist and composer Dr. J.B. Floyd. Their programs will reach, through a highly original concert format, several multigenerational and diverse audiences. A series of lecture/recitals, performed during the 2009-2010 academic year, will reach a wide audience consisting of children, teenagers, and senior citizens in the Miami area. The purpose of the program is to expose these diverse audiences to wide-ranging musical styles. The concerts' theme will be "A Journey on Improvisation and Variations: from Bach to Jazz." In addition, due to the great Cuban and Hispanic population in the Miami area, the program will include standard classical piano repertoire and Cuban music, Jazz-influenced classical music, and improvisation on jazz standards. In this way, the program will create an effective and unique connection with the local community. Moreover, in order to give the audience further insight into major historical and formal aspects of each piece, both performers will offer a series of introductory remarks before each piece with valuable pointers for the audience. The conclusion of the program will include a brief question and answer session that will allow the audience to interact with the performers, allowing each event to be an engaging and meaningful experience for everyone.
 The Dahlia Flute Duo (Mary Matthews and Melissa Wertheimer) will develop a series of adult education lecture-recitals which demonstrate the relevance of classical music to the humanities. A vital component of these lecture-recitals is inclusion of comprehensive information about how audience members can directly impact the musical environment of their communities, including and beyond monetary support. These lecture-recitals will be presented at senior centers and museums in the greater Baltimore area. "Art and Flute Music" will juxtapose visual art with contemporary flute duo compositions, such as John Cage flute duets and paintings by Jackson Pollock. "Literature and Music" will discuss programmatic flute arrangements with their corresponding literary works, including Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream. "The Operatic Flute" will focus on the relationship between flute and opera with selections from The Magic Flute, Carmen, and The Barber of Seville. "Women Composers of Flute Repertoire" will cover 18th20th century flute compositions by women. Informational booklets tailored to each lecture-recital will be provided for audience members. Each booklet will contain a program, program notes, performer biographies and photos, information about the CMS-Yamaha In-Residence Fellowship, an outline of the lecture, and blank pages for audience members to take notes. The largest section of each booklet will be the uniform "Arts Advocacy Appendix," which will contain information about how each audience member can become an active supporter of the arts. This section will include a directory of organizations, such as local arts councils; professional, locally-based ensembles and their main performance venues; local arts scholarships for students; recommended reading and listening materials; and a "How To" list for every day arts advocacy.
 The IMPRESS Project (Claudio Olivera, Director) IMPRESS (Innovative Multimedia Piano REsidency SerieS) is a series of educational and entertaining piano recitals directed mainly to, but not exclusively for, middle schools where lack of appropriate funding results in deficient music education programs. The multimedia recitals will focus specifically on programmatic repertoire, which will be introduced to the audience through a casual, humorous and storytelling approach, including anecdotes and age appropriate facts about the music and the composers, all this accompanied by multimedia presentations depicting the particular program with images, animations, videos, and audio samples of related orchestral or instrumental works. Thus, the students will have the opportunity to experience program music in a manner seldom found in a concert hall or classroom, understanding and even creating individualized "stories" to the music that's being played. To encourage a more engaged listening, tasks regarding the identification of various elements in the music will also be assigned to the students during the presentation of the pieces. The primary educational goal is to help middle school students to develop active listening skills and audience involvement, targeting mainly economically disadvantaged communities of the Columbia area in South Carolina, where many schools have been forced to cut their music education programs due to decreasing budgets. By helping these students to increase their level of interest and participation in Classical Music, through a model of Arts education articulated in an innovative and modern way, this project also seeks to plant the seeds for a wider and younger audience in the future.
 A Low Brass Choir (Julie Wilder, Master's Tuba student at Western Michigan University, Director) in the Parchment, Michigan, schools is being used to encourage students to chose a low-brass instrument. With the cooperation of Beth Jonker, Parchment Schools Band Director, the choir is meeting weekly during the school day, continuing the positive rehearsal techniques students have come to enjoy in band while further developing musicianship. Supplying the students with more individualized attention encourages students participation; having small-ensemble music to play also heartens them and provides a unique opportunity to explore their instruments. Chamber music performance is a great tool for developing independent playing, as well as teaching balance and blend with other musicians. All music for the ensemble has been arranged by Julie Wilder, to allow for each member to have his or her part and a greater responsibility within the ensemble. The high school brass players will have the opportunity to perform, learn, and appreciate brass choir craft, and through teaching and encouraging younger students, enjoy further musical motivations. The ensemble will perform at each of the regularly scheduled Parchment High Band Concerts, as well as at the yearly Solo and Ensemble Festival.
 Music of Argentina (Maria Fernanda Nieto Pulido, DMA Candidate, Piano Performance, University of Colorado at Boulder) An engagement program for elementary school students, "A Musical Trip to Argentina" is a lecture recital of piano music that will show the variety of musical and folkloric expressions of the country, together with the most distinctive geographical and cultural features of its regions. This engagement program is intended for elementary school students, specifically fourth to seventh grade students in Boulder, Colorado. Even though this program is directed mainly to students to students in later elementary school and middle school, it would be also suitable for students in earlier grades. The main objective of this program is to acquaint elementary school students with the folklore of Argentina, share the Argentinean cultural identify, and provide a learning experience based on rich South American music. Because Argentina covers such a wide geographical area, the cultural expressions that characterize it vary from region to region, as do the characteristics of the population, their customs and traditions. Each region of the country reflects the interaction between indigenous groups and European immigrants to a different extent. Thus, Argentina's musical identity is kaleidoscopic. Argentina's identity has always been attached to the tango an urban musical expression born in Buenos Aires and many of the dances and rhythms of the country are unknown to the world. This engagement program is a unique opportunity for elementary school students to learn about Argentinean folk music that they may not encounter otherwise. The lecture recital will contribute to students' experience and appreciation of diversity, enriching their perception of the world through music. Through this program, students will not only understand the cultural features of this South American country but will also experience it closely, performing its rhythms, listening to its music and meeting an Argentinean native. The lecture recital will be accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation showing maps of the regions, examples of the music performed in these areas, and the traditions of the people that inhabit them. The instructor of the class and the students will be directly engaged and included by identifying and performing the rhythms that characterize the various musical expressions. After participating in a rhythmic, melodic, or harmony-oriented activity, the students will listen to a performance of the musical examples discussed at the piano. I will perform pieces by the Argentinean folklorist Ariel Ramirez and the father of Argentinean nationalism, Alberto Williams.
|
