Community Archives

Empowering Community & Creativity – Part II of a conversation with Elizabeth Rowe

Reprinted with permission from Audition Cafe. The completion of a two-part interview with principal flutist of the Boston Symphony Elizabeth Rowe, well known as a performer, mentor, and advocate for equal pay in the orchestral world. I greatly enjoyed connecting with Elizabeth earlier this fall and sharing her inspiring thoughts regarding her approach to the pandemic, as a performer and a human being, and for advice to others on healthily managing their own reactions to it. If you missed it, be sure to check out Part I of her interview! In this second part of a condensed version of our conversation, Elizabeth discusses how her desire to support musicians early in their careers and creative people of all fields and stages of life has driven her to explore some new outlets. [...]

By Andrea Beyer|2021-11-22T14:18:35-05:00December 4th, 2020|Categories: Artistic Vision, Interviews, In the Practice Room, Orchestra, Performance, Self Discovery|Tags: Career Development, Community, self-observation, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Contemporary Music, Elizabeth Rowe, Self Care|

Enharmonically Equivalent: Greetings from Kingston! — by Avery Waite

What a month is has been! It has been an absolute whirlwind of teaching, cultural discoveries, new friends, new landscapes and rainy October downpours. Despite the consuming teaching schedule, I've been able to absorb different aspects of Jamaica bit by bit. From the breathtaking views of mountainous junglescapes, to stunning sunsets, to torrential thunderstorms, the natural beauty is both staggeringly vivid and refreshingly wild. But, it's a place of extremes and contradictions. The downtown area in which I teach five days a week is definitely tough and worlds away from the well-guarded mansions that dot the mountain-sides above the city. One of the schools, St. Andrews Technical High School, is bordered by a maximum security prison and several violent ghettos. There is a constant turf war in these neighborhoods as rival gang-lords called "dons" [...]

By Avery Waite|2017-09-21T04:25:35-04:00October 22nd, 2013|Categories: Artistic Vision, Interpersonal Relationships, Performance, Self Discovery, Teaching|Tags: cello, culture, El Sistema, music, Enharmonically Equivalent, students, balance, fruit, beauty, activities, gangs, safety, passion, healing, Travel, exploration, Jamaica, Kingston, challenges, Avery, neighborhoods, energy, Waite, violence, after-school music, Teaching, Community, contradictions|

Behind the Scenes of a Music Festival (Part 1): The Vision Thing — by Aron Zelkowicz

By self-imposed annual tradition, recent weeks have been crunch time, when a year’s worth of planning comes to fruition. My pet project, the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival, held sway in early June where, for the past several years, it has settled in the form of four concerts. I thought it might serve as a useful case study to explore various behind-the-scenes topics. This is the season when myriad music festivals around the country are in full bloom. What is the take-away experience from any one of these that makes it unique? Even traditional chamber music festivals have their own trademark DNA that set them apart, from big issues (BUDGET, LOCATION) to small (I’m playing in a festival this summer that offers a cookbook featuring the players’ signature recipes—cool!). Festival X [...]

By Aron Zelkowicz|2017-11-01T00:33:07-04:00July 16th, 2011|Categories: Artistic Vision, Chamber Music, Repertoire|Tags: Beethoven, training, Performing, festivals, cello, Aron, cellobello, composer, music, resources, Experience, score, vision, musicians, Zelkowicz, Community, artistry, support|