A Summary of the 2001 and 2002 Seasons

by Michel Singher

The Weekend of Chamber Music's eighth season, 2001, was marked by further expansion without any dilution in the remarkable quality of its programs, either in the concert hall or in schoolrooms.

A record-high ten players participated in the three weekends of Festival programs, which heightened further the always considerable variety of programming, now including some previously inaccessible mainstays of the chamber music repertoire, such as piano quartets of Brahms and Fauré. In addition and for the first time, four student apprentices, from Monticello High School, participated, performing a piece composed for them expressly on one of the Friday night programs after being coached intensively by WCM players and attending the grown-ups' rehearsals throughout the Festival. The three Friday night open rehearsals, "At Work and Play Behind the Notes," each focusing on the most contemporary of the weekend's works, continued to engender lively audience interaction. Embracing new audiences not necessarily inclined to attend evening concerts, WCM also for the first time presented two afternoon concerts, at reduced ticket prices and with programs pitched more to the uninitiated listener, at the Liberty Museum and Arts Center (LMAC).

Stimulating and satisfying as these programs continue to be for WCM's loyal subscribers and first-time visitors, the long-lasting effect of the organization's endeavors will probably be through its continual work in Sullivan County elementary and secondary schools. From February to May, six WCM musicians made repeated trips to Monticello High where, individually and in teams, they gave one-on-one lessons to a couple dozen young people and coached half a dozen chamber music groups of various assortment. This venture once again culminated in a public program shared by adult and student performers. Further, WCM presented its "Music and Imagination" series of interactive concerts in six of the county's eight high schools, performing for over 1,000 impressionable sets of ears in addition to holding clinics for those already playing instruments. In another initiative sponsored by the Board of County Educational Services (BOCES), WCM is working with 16 fifth-grade classes in Monticello and Liberty to develop listening skills. This fall, yet another WCM educational project will focus on school bands, as WCM players will, within one visit to each school, demonstrate fundamentals of proper wind-playing technique, critique student players, and finally join them as senior colleagues. Few school systems in the nation, let alone any in as economically challenged an area as this, could boast such high-powered enhancement of their arts education programs.

Digging deeper its roots in its home community, WCM also initiated The Memory Project, a remarkable collaboration with several institutions to discover and celebrate the region's living heritage. A ninth-grade English class at Sullivan West Narrowsburg interviewed elderly local residents about their memories and set their findings to verse. These poems were, in turn, given musical accompaniment by musicians of the WCM, and were presented in two concerts at the LMAC, in a setting of relevant photographs taken by area photographers. The New York State Council on the Arts has already funded the second phase of this project, to begin in the fall and be extended to other county schools.

Other granting organizations that recognized the value of these various endeavors in 2001 with their support included The Amateur Chamber Music Players Foundation; The American Music Center; The Beaverkill Foundation; The Foundation for Worker, Veteran and Environmental Health; The Louis R. Cappelli Foundation, Inc.; and The NYSEG Foundation, Inc.