Chameleon Arts Ensemble Wraps Residency
-- July 5, 2011
Two school concerts, ten class-visits, and a family concert later, we wrapped up our kids series in Boston.
It was hot in the basement of the Young Achievers School and stifling in the music room of the Haley School. This latter classroom was nothing more than a bump-out in the school cafeteria, extra space that had been created by building a wall and sub-dividing the kitchen into two spaces. The fans were loud and ineffective.
Nonetheless, percussionist Bill Manley, artistic director Deborah Boldin, and I presented our ideas to the third, fourth and fifth graders who came to these special music classes eagerly expecting something different than normal. The ideas were mostly simple: that composers throughout history create pieces that evoke a sense of place, that a sense of place is special and that music has the power to transport us to distant lands and remind us of places we long to return to.
The lesson activities centered around a piece I composed for the Chameleon Ensemble to play together with volunteers from the audience. Together, we were going to create music of our shared place.
The kids learned to play music they would later perform with the professional musicians in concert. My hope was to give the students a chance to experience music making not just from the outside as an audience member, yet not in the more customary way of preparing music over the course of many weeks for a culminating concert in school.
Instead, I wanted to create a vehicle for the kids to sit in the music with professional musicians after a minimal amount of preparation. So the piece required two layers: one was music scored normally for the pros. The next layer was a set of simple tasks and repeating patterns that fit together with the pro part. The piece opened with the students creating a rhythmic groove against which the musicians improvised. The middle section involved a simple chord progression that the kids played on xylophones, over which the pros played bouncy, rhythmic melodies. Yet another section had the percussionist directing the kids in playing cymbals and gongs ad lib while the pros played a lyrical theme.
I was nervous about whether it would come together, about whether the musicians would find the music too simplistic in form, and especially whether the students would remember to listen while they played: would it completely fall apart? Remarkably, in both school concerts, the kids did an amazing job. By the second one I felt confident enough to invite almost twenty kids on stage, and it was incredible. It never ceases to amaze me what kids can do when you set a high bar, give them respect, and offer them unusual opportunities to try new things.
Of course, none of this would have happened without the persistent behind-the-scenes work of Deb, the brilliant musicianship of the seven Chameleons (Gary Gorczyca, Nancy Dimmock, Margaret Phillips, Rafael Popper-Keizer, Jesse Irons, Scott Woolweaver, and Bill Manley), and the support of music teachers Joy Roster and Kimani Lumsden. As a former school music teacher myself, I know that this is one of the hardest jobs a musician could take on. You are always in the limelight, yet rarely given the adequate scheduling or resources to do the kind of work you dream of. Nonetheless, these two generously devoted several of their class sessions to our work with their students and supported us throughout the process. For that I am very thankful.
