New the - Programs | Chamber Music America · 2016. 6. 23. · School of Music, and composer Robert Sirota, president of Manhattan School of Music, represented the older generation.

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1 Bobby McFerrin 2 Rebecca Fischer, Chiara Quartet 3 Pianist/composer Gabriel Kahane, radio host Terrance McKnight, composers Missy Mazzoli and Tyshawn Sorey

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NE TG E N E R AT I O N

RepoRt fRom the ConfeRenCe

At Chamber Music America’s National

Conference in New York City this past

January, the emphasis was on the

crossroads—of youth and experience,

innovation and tradition, improvisation

and devotion to classic scores. + TR

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By SuSan MuScarella

Photography by

Shelley kuSnetz

26 march/april 2011

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1 Gerald Clayton and Nadia Sirota 2 Wayne S. Brown 3 Bobby McFerrin 4 Robert Sirota 5 Violinist Arnold Steinhardt 6 Frank Salomon and Anthony P. Checchia, of the Marlboro Festival and School, receive the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award

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cross the Generations,” the opening general session, addressed the Conference theme head-on. Skillfully moderated by Wayne S. Brown, director of music and opera at the National Endowment for the Arts, the discussion

brought together two generations of noteworthy musical families. John Clayton, bassist and recently retired faculty member of the USC Thornton School of Music, and composer Robert Sirota, president of Manhattan School of Music, represented the older generation. Pianist Gerald Clayton, along with violists Jonah and Nadia Sirota, represented the younger. Both sets of parents are noted artists, composers and educators whose children are now successfully following in their footsteps.

The intergenerational perspective of the discussion had a touching dimension; hearing both generations speak candidly of the challenges

and joys they have experienced as musical families captivated the audience. Not surprisingly, during the question-and-answer period, Jonah and Nadia Sirota were asked what inspired them both to play the viola. After all the viola jokes had subsided, Jonah recalled a childhood memory: falling asleep each night listening to his father compose at the piano. His father’s ongoing search for relevant harmonic material, he said, motivated him to choose the viola in particular because of the harmonic role that that instrument often plays. What was so touching about this story is that we learned it was the first time Robert Sirota had heard it!

The relationship between older and younger generations in an artistic family struck me as similar to the relationship between long-standing artistic traditions and innovations. Just as the two generations of families derive support and inspiration from each another, traditions and trends co-exist synergistically. That is, a new trend cannot evolve apart from the context of an established tradition—and together, tradition and innovation provide the tension necessary for artistic creation to thrive.

Listening to the panelists, I realized that the divide between traditions and trends and generational attitudes wasn’t absolute. Transcending the generation gap, the panelists converged on a number of issues. Everyone agreed, for exam-ple, that while music students strive for what John Clayton described as artistic “honesty and clarity,” institutions, by their very nature, often box them in. Gerald Clayton agreed that the tension lies in the compulsory standards and schedules all students must conform to if they undertake formal study.

For students in the arts, a “one size fits all” regimen is often antithetical to their nature, not to mention the nature of the arts. The legitimacy of traditional conservatory training was also addressed—and quite passion-ately questioned—by the youngest panelist, Nadia Sirota, who credited many of her non-conservatory-trained colleagues as composers and performers whose work was among the most leading-edge and “legitimate” she knows.

Among the many informative and inspiring Conference events, “Improvising a Life in Music,” featuring vocalist and conductor Bobby McFerrin, was especially riveting. McFerrin’s presentation centered on the concept, “Music is here; music is now.”

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The CONFeReNCe’S FIRST MAJOR SeSSION ADDReSSeD INTeRGeNeRATIONAL ISSUeS. The SeCOND eXPLOReD The eSSeNCe OF IMPROVISATION.

A MeMBeR OF The AUDIeNCe RePORTS ON BOTh.

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7 Mitch Marcus 8 Oleg Kruglyakov 9 Huang Ruo, composer, and Jonah Sirota 10 Tara O’Connor, June Han, and Frank Morelli 11 Wang Guowei 12 Jason Kao Hwang 13 Sumire Kudo, counter)induction 14 Sarah McElravy and Catherine Cosbey, Linden String Quartet 15 Tokyo String Quartet 16 J Freivogel and Sae Niewa, Jasper String Quartet

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30 march/april 2011

17 John Nuechterlein, American Composers Forum 18 Adam Benjamin, keyboardist 19 Michael Barrett, Caramoor Center and Moab Festival 20 Susan Cheng, Music from China 21 Katie Scheele, oboist, Threeds 22 Publicist Christina Jensen, composer Nico Muhly, and Chiara Quartet cellist Greg Beaver 23 Violist James Dunham, conference chair, and Louise K. Smith, chair of the board, Chamber Music America 24 Jason Treuting, So Percussion

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McFerrin grew up in a household in which the family members listened to just about every kind of music—Western European classical, jazz, 1960s Top 40, and more. Throughout his rousing presentation, he more than once credited his parents for giving him the opportunity to explore this wide range of genres; and he expressed his belief that this kind of open attitude not only held the key to his own success as an artist, but also that it is a critical component of any successful music education program.

Although it was impossible to determine the breakdown of improvisers and non-improvisers in the audience, most of the questions and com-ments that arose revolved around a deep-rooted fear of improvisation—the fear of playing the wrong note. As a jazz educator, I was struck by a central irony: on the one hand, non-improvisers are often afraid to improvise for fear of playing a wrong note, and on the other, improvisers are often just as afraid to read music for fear of playing a wrong note! Here we were—all afraid of playing the proverbial wrong note!

A story told by McFerrin beautifully illustrated the concept of music’s being “in the moment” and its intrinsic connection to improvising. The anecdote involved his friend Yo-Yo Ma’s experience in Africa. In an attempt to develop his own improvisatory skills, the famed cellist emulated an African shaman’s melodic line. The shaman sang the line once and asked Yo-Yo Ma to repeat it, but the cellist felt he needed to hear it one more time to be able to play it correctly. The shaman sang

again; but much to Yo-Yo Ma’s dismay, this time he heard a completely different melody. When Ma brought the problem to the shaman’s attention, the shaman explained that the first time he sang the line, the Sun was just beginning to rise over the river. By the time he sang it the second time, the Sun had risen much higher, so of course, the melody was different—it reflected a different moment in time. To quote the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, “You can’t step in the same river twice,” and that was the shaman’s concept of music as well.

Next, Mr. McFerrin asked us all to imitate a series of short vocal phrases that he would improvise. Most every-one in the audience quite easily imitated these vocalized melodies—and without relying on a single written note.

In a sense and to a limited extent, in imitating Mr. McFerrin’s tunes, we were improvising (in the sense that improvising involves singing or playing something heard in the moment). The only difference (and granted, this is no small matter) was that the ideas originated with Mr. McFerrin, not with us. Nevertheless, we sang melodies that were created in the moment—melodies we had never heard before and that were not written down. I’m not sure whether or not the non-improvisers in the audience knew that the imitation exercise Mr. McFerrin employed is one of the most commonly used and effective tools for developing the ability to improvise; but one way or another, they were nailing it.

Was it possible that Mr. McFerrin’s presentation was really a hands-on lesson on the nuts and bolts of improvisation in disguise, and all the while, he watched gleefully as we—improvisers and non-improvisers alike—had a field day rising to the occasion?

Pianist Susan Muscarella is the founder and executive director of The Jazz School in Berkeley, California, and a member of Chamber Music America’s board of directors.

heRe we weRe—ALL AFRAID OF PLAyING The PROVeRBIAL wRONG NOTe!

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