Let’s be real, it’s all about the Bacon-Wrapped Dates…

Mediterra’s Taverna (http://www.mediterrarestaurant.com/mediterra_photo_gallery)

Mediterra is known to be one of the best restaurants in Princeton. I was super excited to use it as my venue for the Music in Princeton fieldwork project when I found out they had Latin Jazz on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was all set to go and eat paella and drink sangria while I did my “research,” when I decided to look at the menu online before I left. What did I find? $2 Tapas. No, you did not misread that. I’m talking about bacon-wrapped dates for just TWO LITTLE DOLLARS. Screw the paella!

So I rounded up a few friends and we headed out to Mediterra around 9 on a Tuesday night. When we got there, the restaurant wasn’t particularly busy, but wasn’t empty either. The Taverna, (…also know as Mediterra’s bar section. Could they just call it the bar? Sure, but it’s so much more fun to be exotic and dangerous!) however, was PACKED. I went with two other people, and we awkwardly stood for at least five minutes trying to find a group that was leaving so we could sit together. Luckily we were able to pounce on a group of three stools together at the bar. I was excited for the food. Also for the music, but mostly for the bacon-wrapped dates.

We sat and it got even better. They had wine specials too! Spanish wine! No wonder it was so crowded in the Taverna! We ordered some wine and several tapas to share and the wait began. Then I remembered why I was even there in the first place…

Oh yeah, the Latin Jazz band! Wait, where are they? The hostess on the phone earlier said they usually start around 8 or 8:30. *Looks at watch* It’s after nine. Hmm. *Looks around* Oh, well I see some instruments over by the wine. Maybe they’re on a little break or something.

Nearly fifteen minutes go by and I see a group of three men go back up to the wine wall. I reassure myself that it must be the band. Almost instantaneously, our tapas are served to us. Victory on all fronts! A glass of Spanish Red, Falafel, bacon-wrapped dates, and empanadas… This girl was content.

The band started playing and it was groovy. It was the most perfect accompaniment for the food we had just begun to enjoy. The music sounded like traditional Spanish music, although I was not very familiar with this type of music. It was just loud enough where we could focus on the music if we chose to, but could easily have a conversation over the music as well. The band featured a drummer, a guitar player, and…wait, is that a flute?

The flute player started to play and he was fantastic! (Not to mention handsome ;]) It was all improvisation. The whole Taverna listened as he laid it down. It was exciting and different! When he was done playing, he received a lot of well-deserved applause. The rest of the band continued and the drummer and flute player joined in with some singing (in Spanish, of course). Who knew they could sing too! I was more and more impressed as they played on.

Little did I know, they wouldn’t play on for very much longer. They took another long break (exactly 30 minutes), and then continued with only one more set. Less people had stuck around for this set, but the crowd that remained was entertained and engaged. I found it very strange that they played for such little time.

It was obvious that the people in the Taverna were there primarily for the food (hello, bacon-wrapped dates for two bucks!) and drink, but it was also obvious that the Latin Jazz enhanced their experience. The music didn’t annoy a single person in the Taverna, and most of the crowd was bobbing their heads or tapping their feet to the music. One couple seated close to the band actually turned their bar stools around to face the band. No dancing, though. I guess there just wasn’t a place for it even if the diners were so inclined.

So, my first fieldwork experience was a smashing success. I was left looking forward to my next trip to Mediterra for some more bacon-wrapped “research.”

Trying New Things at Cafe 44

On February 19th, I had the wonderful pleasure of attending Cafe 44’s very first open mic night, as part of my research project on music venues in the Princeton area. The whole venue lasted for about two hours, starting at 7pm, and ending right around 9pm, when people started to leave. There were quite a few performers there, who performed all types of music, from popular music, to original works, to well known folk songs. Because this event was sponsored by Westminster students, all of the performers were students themselves. I was very surprised at how successful the event was, seeing as it was quite a small cafe, and that the only people who really knew about it were the students of Westminster Choir College. It was nice seeing how such a small little cafe could hold such a wide array of talent.

When I walked in, initially, the place was packed with people and performers from front to back. Most of the people I saw there were friends and people I knew from school, but there were a few Princeton residents spread out amongst the crowd, as well. I was lucky enough to get a seat right in front, so I could see all of the action right in front of my face. They were promoting their new dinner service, so people were sampling things from their new menu while the show was going on. The atmosphere of the event was very relaxed and casual. People would chatter amongst themselves as performers would sing or play. There was even some interaction between the audience and the performer at times, which was very nice to see. I even saw the manager out and openly interacting with the rest of the people there, which was something that I’m not really used to seeing myself. It gave the venue a very comforting feeling to me, and I felt like I was right at home. There were small groups who performed popular tunes by Mumford and Sons and Bon Iver, and even an a cappella group from Westminster called the “Deaftones” there performing. They mostly performed popular tunes from Florence and the Machine, and David Guetta. There were a few students there performing original songs, as well. Overall, it was very successful first showing of the open mic night, and it inspired them to put on another one, which took place on March 12th. I cannot wait to go back and see what the next mic night has to offer for the Princeton community!

Music at Bunker Hill

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing one of my teachers and mentors, Martha Frampton, about her musical upbringing and her experience creating Music at Bunker Hill, which is a concert series set up in Washington Township, New Jersey, geared towards bringing classical music to a small community which wouldn’t normally have access to it. I sat down with her at Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church, where she hosts her concert series, and we had an extremely insightful conversation about how she began her interest in starting the project, and how it grew from something so small into what it is now.

We began the interview with a brief overview of her life, like where her musical beginnings were, and what kind of education she had prior to pursuing her career in education and theory/composition. I was surprised to learn that she began on the flute when she was younger, and was self-taught before she tried her hand at the bassoon in college, which became her primary instrument. I then asked her what her collegiate background was, to which she replied she attended the University of Florida for a general music degree, because she really had no idea about what she really wanted to do until the end of her college years, which then lead to her receiving her teaching certification and teaching theory at Pennsville Memorial High School in Pennsville, NJ. I found it very interesting that Mrs. Frampton didn’t really have a direction in music, right away, but rather had to sort of go through discovery to find out her true passion. When I asked her about the thought of being a performer, she simply laughed and said that she never felt like she would be good enough to perform, and the thought had never occurred to her.

In the second half of my interview, I began to ask Mrs. Frampton about the beginnings of Music at Bunker Hill, to which she told a very interesting story about how she attended an auction and decided to bid for a piano, specifically a Steinway, which, she didn’t win, but then was later told about another piano which she could have for her church, and she then bought that piano, instead. This piano was just the beginning of Music at Bunker Hill because she finally had an instrument for the church which musicians could play on and showcase their talents to the community. The series eventually grew to include other instrumentalists and vocalists from the Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New York area. When I asked her about her initial struggles with starting the program, she explained that putting together a program wasn’t the hardest part, but marketing became the main struggle. She had trouble with this part most because none of the people who helped to create the program were business people; so learning to market their product was a learning curve. We ended the interview with speaking about how this music series has had a positive affect on the community, and how she is happy to have the opportunity to present such high quality music to her community and how is able to help educate people on an art which is mostly overlooked in her community, as a whole. I had a great experience interviewing her, and getting a more in depth insight into a project she has worked so hard for, and has dedicated a lot of time and effort to get where it is, today.

Music in the Community

In the small, South Jersey town of Washington Township, NJ, lies a tiny, yet promising community of young musicians who are willing to show there talents to their small community of people who are generally interested in the arts, particularly the performing arts. Each year, Martha Frampton, who co-operates, and is currently president of this society of musicians called “Music at Bunker Hill,” calls upon musicians in the South Jersey, New York, and Philadelphia area to come and perform at a small church in Washington Township, to help expose the community to music and the arts, as a whole. Each season, this small musical community rounds up about 5 to 6 performances, each with a different soloist with a different musical background. From violinists, to singing soloists, Music at Bunker Hill features them all, and features them in a way that the community can easily relate to and understand. This season, artists such as Arnaud Sussmann, Barbara Dever, William Frampton, who is actually Martha Frampton’s son, Soovin Kim, Jessica Lee, The Conwell Wind Quartet, and Ran Dank will be featured in this exciting and elaborate program of the 2013-2014 season. This group was founded in 2008, and was founded on the basis of preserving classical music while still observing other musical genres. The goal of this organization is to make great music both affordable and accessible to everyone in the community.

This community of musicians means a lot to me as a musician. Growing up in the South Jersey area, it was always hard to find performance opportunities to attend or to be a part of. The community in which I live is very rural and cut off from the regular world, to put it lightly. I would always have to travel to either Philadelphia or New York City in order see or be a part of a performance, besides my high school performances. So to have a community of musicians who regularly perform classical and new music near my town was a big deal for me, because I was still able to be exposed to that type of music and be educated about it. Being able to have this plethora of musicians around me has ultimately made me a better musician, as a whole, because I have been able to learn from trained professionals how to perform in a small setting. It was a great tool for me to dip into performing, in general, and really got me into my own career path. Seeing those people on stage bringing life to music really inspired me to pursue my own profession, for the simple fact that I felt the strong desire to create beautiful works of art that would touch people emotionally and physically. I’m very proud to say that I come from such a thriving musical town, and that even though it can be difficult to promote such an atmosphere in a cut-off place, this town has done just that, and so much more.

Building a Foundation for a Music Career

For many people, the idea of pursuing a full-time career in music is considered laughable. Due to the economic upheavals being suffered by our current generation, and the lack of support for paid and unionized musicians, the average American is bound to look at a music performance education tentatively, if not suspiciously. Basically thinking, why pay so much money for an education that cannot guarantee a secure job or other typical employment benefits?

Fortunately some students are not so easily convinced of promised failure and the myth of the starving artist. Many decide that pursuing a liberal arts or performance degree in a university environment is quite worth the financial commitment. Besides the obvious academic advantages, these environments allow students to combine their passion and skill for their chosen instrument while simultaneously cultivating their overall musical ability. The undergraduate and graduate level of a musical education are also designed to hone the professional skills needed for their specialized field post-college. They also provide an introduction and specific study of private teaching, choral conducting, accompanying for solo and choral performances, as well as composing and arranging.

One of these former students is a young woman by the name of Nicole Cochran. Growing up in the town of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, Nicole played many different instruments from a young age. This ranged from clarinet lessons in middle school, to the viola and bassoon, and her main focus: the pipe organ. Deciding in high school that her passion could be pursued seriously at the Juilliard School of Music, Nicole auditioned and was accepted into the undergraduate program for Organ Performance. After completing the program, Nicole decided to pursue a Master’s Degree for Organ Performance in order to raise her marketability as a musician which she completed in 2012 at Westminster Choir College in Princeton.

Now living in the Princeton area, Nicole has been working steadily to create a musical resume that will give her the foundation she needs to acquire any job she wants. This includes accompanying for several high school choirs in New Jersey, including Princeton High School. She also teaches piano and bassoon privately, and plays keyboard and sings back-up vocals for a local Princeton cover band. Her schedule can be hectic at times, as she must drive to different towns and homes for rehearsals and lessons. She is also required to juggle lots of repertoire, and simultaneously learn and perform many pieces of music widely ranging in style and genre.

So how can such a magical career be achieved? Well there is really no specific insider secret to Nicole’s success in these early stages of her musical career. Not only are her skills varied over many styles of playing, but her flexibility and adaptability allow her to approach any musical task as an opportunity to learn and to teach. Generally, the musician’s adaptability is what allows them an honest confidence when applying for jobs that they have not necessarily studied or been specifically trained for. As with many careers, the musicians must balance between many factors when taking on any job. The music degree, however, is what gets the proverbial foot in the door.

Music Education: A Tree of Knowledge

In a society where budget cuts are made all over the country, it is no wonder that music education seems to feel as if it is going through a “reconstruction” phase. That is not to say that music educators are trying to start over, but music educators are trying to reform their practices to keep music from being cut out of school budgets. Music programs are usually the first to be taken out of schools because music is seen as “less valuable” than other areas of academia and “not directly related to the work force.”

What non-musicians fail to see is that music education is much more than just teaching how to “sing” or “play an instrument.” It is not merely listening to music and being able to tell the teacher “how it makes you feel.” The aesthetics of music are definitely a huge tenant of music education, but there is so much more. Music education is a real industry. It is a true profession in which educators have various means of fulfilling their own purposes as music enthusiasts. Music educators can be private teachers, public school teachers, traveling clinicians, or collegiate-level professors. It involves even more work than that which is put into the classroom setting. Music education involves going out into the world and finding new ways of teaching. It involves social networking – collaborating with other artists and educators in a search of new ideas to make music education more engaging, more interactive, and more relevant to society. There are not only classroom teachers, but traveling clinicians, and music historians. Music education changes lives in ways that are not only musical, but psychological, developmental, and spiritual.

A music teacher is not just a “teacher.” A music teacher is a researcher. Music teachers are constantly seeking out other methods to incorporate into their lesson plans. Not only do they seek out other musicians, but they try to include other areas of education into their classroom, including history and literature.  A music teacher is an innovator. Music educators are always trying to be relevant to their societal contexts. Music is always changing; therefore, music education must also change. A music teacher is a philosopher, always reflecting on their practices and experiences that transform their own personal beliefs, values, and philosophies of both music and education.

Music education is an innovating industry that is sympathetic to human beings in all aspects of music, education, and life. Why, then, is music education at a risk all over the nation? Music education does much more for the world than it is given credit for. Music education is aesthetics; it is social justice; it is multiculturalism; it is literature; it is historical; it is contextual. Music education, in my opinion, involves teaching students to use music as a means of understanding the world, humanity, and themselves. There is not a singular type of “music education,” either. Music education is an infinite tree of knowledge that branches off into various areas of life that can be explored.

Saving Music in Schools

It would be overkill to give a huge long statement about the cutting of funding from arts programs in schools. We all know that this de-funding happens more often than not, and we all just sit and accept it. Well, personally I am not one of those people to lie idly around. Music has always brought me a strange joy, a beautiful outlet, and a yearning desire to always be around it. For someone to not be exposed to this joy and beauty like I was is simply heart-breaking to me.

This de-funding started happening when I was in high school, and it nearly destroyed our musical theatre program with the budget cuts. With fundraising we were able to put on a show, and it showed me that people out there cared about what we did on that stage. So that got me thinking about how else I could bring music out into the world and show people what we can do, and maybe even expose them to something they’ve never been exposed to before. At the time, I was a part of an organization that raised money for building schools in a small African country called Uganda. I began thinking about programs that would raise money for this organization that played on my own strengths. The only thing I knew anything about was music, so I started a choir called “Generation Choir.” We rehearsed twice a week for a total of 3 hours, exploring choral repertoire far out of a normal high schooler’s skill level. It was hard, frustrating and nearly tragic getting everyone together every week and working on these extremely difficult pieces, but we all pulled through. We all had a common goal: to raise money for those less fortunate, and to share our gifts with the our community.

We traveled to churches, synagogues, and other public spaces singing our program. The amount of positive response we got was unbelievable. We raised thousands of dollars for the children of Uganda. Of equal importance, we enlightened many of the audience members in the beauty and dedication of music. They saw and heard the difficulty and complexity of the music we performed, and really appreciated what we had to offer. Generation Choir will always be one of my proudest achievements. Not only was I able to help kids in need, but also spread the beauty of music all around my hometown and promote the arts programs.

My interviewee is Melanie Clarke, the executive director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and the founder of BRAVO!. BRAVO! is a program that brings music to schools all around the Princeton area and tries to inspire young kids to participate in their school’s music programs. I believe that this is so important, and I am really looking forward to learning more about where this idea came from. She is also a mother of four kids, one of whom is the age I am now. I am interested in learning how she balances family life, personal time, BRAVO!, and her job as executive director.

Programs like BRAVO! are the reason that music is not completely cut out of schools. I hope to start a program myself one day to promote the arts, and I am ready to learn as much as I can about running one. We cannot let the arts die in our schooling system. After all, “the earth without art is just ‘eh’.”

Interesting Musicians in Princeton Series #5: Joseph N. Straus, scholar of Music and Disability

I always read the Acknowledgements and Introduction to scholarly books.  In them, you are privy to the authors’ intent and motivation in writing the book.  In Princeton-resident Joseph N. Straus’ Extraordinary Measures, you find not only a scholar and professor, but also a parent. In a few weeks, Professor Straus (Professor of Music and Director of Doctoral Studies in Music at the Graduate Center, CUNY) will convey the keynote address following student presentations at the 6th Annual Celebration of Westminster Student Research.

Here, in an online interview, Prof. Straus answered a few questions as a preview.

The Scholar:

1. When most people think about disability in relation to music, they think either about pedagogy (accommodating students with disabilities in the classroom) or therapy (using music to assist people with disabilities), but your approach seems to be much more theoretical.
In your view, what do disability and music have to do with each other?

My thinking about disability in music is grounded in the new, interdisciplinary field of Disability Studies.  Like what feminist theorists do for gender and queer theorists do for sexuality, disability scholars are trying to do for music.  For musical scholars like me, that means studying the ways that music both reflects and assists in the cultural construction of disability. Disability is understood not as a medical pathology (something that resides inside your body and needs to be cured by a doctor) but as a product of social interaction. Disability, as both a concept and a lived experience, is different in different times and places.  It has a history and a culture, and I’m thinking about how that plays out in relation to the history and culture of music.

2.  In your introduction, you acknowledge the boundaries that you had made in choosing composers (Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg, Webern, Stravinsky, Bartók, Copland, and others).  Can you reveal more about your choices?  Which composers were clear to include, which did not make the cut at this time, and which might have been a surprise to you?

If you start thinking about major classical composers with disabilities, I think anyone would think first of Beethoven.  The one thing that absolutely everyone knows about him, including people who’ve never heard a note of classical music, is that he was deaf, and in fact his deafness does have a major impact on the music he wrote and the way that people have responded to it.  Then you realize that lots of composers had disabilities: Schubert dealt with the disabling effects of syphilis, Copland had dementia in his later years, and so on.  And then, if you take a sufficiently broad view of disability, and start thinking about the sorts of stories music can tell–of impairments heroically overcome, of extreme, seemingly pathological emotional states–you start realizing that disability is absolutely everywhere.

The Professor: 
3. Are there other musical scholars working in the area of music and disability.

Yes! This work has been going on within musicology for about ten years, and during that time we’ve seen an explosion (well, maybe a modest but rapid expansion) of activity.  I’m co-editing a book right now for Oxford University Press called the Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies.  My three co-editors are younger scholars in the area and two of them were actually students of mine.  The volume will include 45 essays and an amazing variety of musical topics!

The Parent:
4. Is it true that your interest in this field of study grows out of your own personal experiences.

Yes, like many people in this field (and like many feminist and queer theorists), my interest grew out of my own life experience, in my case the experience of raising and living with my autistic son, now age 21. Initially, I thought of him as having a sort of medical defect, and I hoped for a cure.  Now, partly through my engagement with disability studies and disability political activism, I understand him as having a distinctive way of being in the world–he’s not a medical patient with a disease but a somewhat unusual but thoroughly engaging and loveable young man. So he has helped me to think about music differently, and this new way of thinking about music has changed my relationship to him.  The fact that he and I play piano four-hands together is an added bonus!

6th Annual Celebration of Westminster Student Research

Where: Williamson Hall, Westminster Choir College.
When: Tuesday, April 23 at 6:30pm.

For more information on Music and Disability:

1. The official website for Music and Disability: Society for Music Theory Interest Group & American Musicological Society Study Group.
   http://smt.esm.rochester.edu/dismus/
2. On Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/groups/musicanddisability/
3. The official blog for the Music and Disability Studies at the American Musicological Society and the Society for Music Theory. http://musicdisabilitystudies.wordpress.com/
4. Neil Lerner and Joseph N. Straus. Sounding Off: Theorizing Disability in Music (New York: Routledge, 2006).
   

Also a Princeton-area resident, Jennifer C.H.J. Wilson is a Ph.D. Candidate at The Graduate Center, CUNY.

Princeton Festival Gala Tonight!

One of the great events in town each June is the Princeton Festival.  Over the course of three weeks, the Festival puts on a major operatic production, concerts by major artists and area youth ensembles, a piano competition, and much more!  Led by Artistic Director Richard Tang Yuk, former Director of Choral Music at Princeton University and currently on the choral faculty at Indiana University, this year’s offering includes Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, steelpan virtuoso Liam Teague, the renowned medieval ensemble Bernardus, and New Jersey’s own Lustig Dance Theater.  I will have more to say about the Festival’s program in the coming months.

This evening at 6pm, the Festival has its annual Gala at the Greenacres Country Club in Lawrenceville.  The evening includes delicious food, a live auction, dancing, and entertainment by Doug Miller (piano) and Bernhard Geiger (bass), the Courtney Colletti Band, John Dominick III (vocal bass) and Akiko Hosaki (piano), and drummers Aaron Potocny, Charles Madden and John Thompson.  Tickets for the entire evening start at $250.  You can also attend the cocktail hour for just $45.  Proceeds go toward the Princeton Festival.  To register for the Gala, call 609-258-2787.

The Children Helping Children Performathon: A Gathering of Great Musicians! by Fermin Santiago III

This year marks the 8th annual Children Helping Children Performathon!  This event, organized by the New Jersey Music Teachers Association, is the highlight of many musicians at Westminster Choir College, as they get to see performers from the Princeton area showcase some of the pieces they learned over the past few months.  The 2013 Performathon took place on Feb. 23-24, 2013, and over 300 local performers played on back-to-back concerts.  (View photos from the event here.)  The goal was to raise money for three Ronald McDonald Houses in New Jersey.  This event has always been a great experience for me, as I could hear all types of music from classical to reggae.  For the last three years, I have lent a hand and offered my time to help them move instruments or to set up and break down.

 

Ronald MacDonald House in New Brunswick, NJ

Ronald McDonald House is a charity that “creates, finds and supports programs that directly improve the health and well being of children,” and most are  connected to local children’s hospitals.  They provide a “home away from home” for families whose child is undergoing intensive treatment at the hospital.

I was able to interview one of this year’s performers and fellow volunteers.  Her name is Julianne, and she is a sophomore at Westminster Choir College who studies with Mrs. Betty Stoloff.   She said, “It was great last year to hear all of the local musicians and young talent.”  She added, “It will be an honor to be able to do this event and share my talent this year and be able to help fundraise for the Ronald McDonald House.”

Last year, the festival was able to raise $19,000; with more performers this year, we expect to see even more donations (the final tally has not available yet).  This year’s event was open to both piano teachers and students.  In total, there were 11 recitals on Saturday and 16 recitals on Sunday; each was an hour long, with 45 minutes for music and 15 minutes for awards and photos.  All took place in Bristol Chapel and Williamson Hall on the Westminster Choir College campus. 2013 marked the biggest Performathon yet!  Congratulations to all performers, and thank you to everything who donated their time and money for children in need!