String quartet to assist Tufts in community outreach
Billy DeGregorio
Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: Weekender
It is a classic recipe that seems almost impossibly simple: Give a kid a violin, and he or she not only comes away with a few pretty tunes but also with a sense of accomplishment, dedication and confidence.
This winning formula will be on display this Saturday when the Providence String Quartet performs pieces by Czech composer Antonín Dvorák at the Granoff Music Center.
Before the concert, entitled "Dvorák in America," members of the quartet will be joined in a panel discussion by students of Community MusicWorks, an outreach organization founded by violist Sebastian Ruth. Faculty from Tufts and the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service as well as community leaders will also add their opinions to the debate on the future and efficacy of community music programs.
"One of the main things that we're going to be talking about are the ideas behind music engagement," Ruth said. "How can we design civic engagement programs that have the greatest impact?"
The violist's work has already had a big impact on students like 15 year-old Fidelia Vasquez, who has been studying with the program for seven years and will be a member of the panel.
"I have friends who claim to be in gangs, or who are doing drugs, and it was something that kept me away from it," she said. "Instead of being out there doing that kind of stuff, we were inside playing music."
In Dvorák's work, Ruth found a similar dedication to the underprivileged and disenfranchised. "It was very interesting to learn that 150 years ago, Dvorák, who we think of as a very European composer, was running this kind of school," he said, adding that the musician ran the progressive National Conservatory in New York in the 1890s. The school was particularly open to minorities and women at a time when most other colleges shunned them.
Opuses No. 96 and 97, which Dvorák wrote during this time in the United States, are sparkling and highly entertaining pieces sure to excite the audience. From the first energetic strike of the violin, there is a distinctly American flavor to the opus that lends it a peculiarly familiar aura. It is romantic, to be sure, but never boring, clichéd or academic. Ruth called the pieces "irresistibly lively," and the description is apt.
This winning formula will be on display this Saturday when the Providence String Quartet performs pieces by Czech composer Antonín Dvorák at the Granoff Music Center.
Before the concert, entitled "Dvorák in America," members of the quartet will be joined in a panel discussion by students of Community MusicWorks, an outreach organization founded by violist Sebastian Ruth. Faculty from Tufts and the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service as well as community leaders will also add their opinions to the debate on the future and efficacy of community music programs.
"One of the main things that we're going to be talking about are the ideas behind music engagement," Ruth said. "How can we design civic engagement programs that have the greatest impact?"
The violist's work has already had a big impact on students like 15 year-old Fidelia Vasquez, who has been studying with the program for seven years and will be a member of the panel.
"I have friends who claim to be in gangs, or who are doing drugs, and it was something that kept me away from it," she said. "Instead of being out there doing that kind of stuff, we were inside playing music."
In Dvorák's work, Ruth found a similar dedication to the underprivileged and disenfranchised. "It was very interesting to learn that 150 years ago, Dvorák, who we think of as a very European composer, was running this kind of school," he said, adding that the musician ran the progressive National Conservatory in New York in the 1890s. The school was particularly open to minorities and women at a time when most other colleges shunned them.
Opuses No. 96 and 97, which Dvorák wrote during this time in the United States, are sparkling and highly entertaining pieces sure to excite the audience. From the first energetic strike of the violin, there is a distinctly American flavor to the opus that lends it a peculiarly familiar aura. It is romantic, to be sure, but never boring, clichéd or academic. Ruth called the pieces "irresistibly lively," and the description is apt.
Be the first to comment on this story