The Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society’s (MVCMS) Artist in Residence Program has touched the lives of many young musicians in our schools. And since last October, 13 professional musicians have come from off-Island to share their expertise with Island students, mentoring them in the schools and giving a free concert for the public. Four more programs from the Rasa String Quartet, including student workshops and two evenings of performances, are scheduled for March 18 through 22.
This monthly program came about through a generous grant from the West Chop Community Fund, and additional support from the Martha’s Vineyard Community Foundation and the Peter and Elizabeth Tower Foundation. The funding has allowed the MVCMS to offer free concerts. “As the word has gotten out, the concerts have gotten more and more packed, which has been just so gratifying for us and the musicians,” says past president and longtime board member David Behnke. “In the schools, likewise, we’ve gained momentum as we’ve gone through the year. The teachers are seeing what we are offering and what we can do, and embrace it.”
The musicians have been teaching in the Oak Bluffs and Edgartown schools, and at the Charter School. They have also been conducting and mentoring the Middle School Orchestra, the High School String Orchestra, and the High School Honors Orchestra. Behnke says, “They’ve also done individual coaching sessions with kids just to teach or, in several cases, as the students have been preparing for various off-Island competitions. After an hourlong session, they are playing markedly differently. The kids have loved it. The teachers have loved it. And the musicians have loved it. Every group has asked to come back, which says something about our students and the programs in the schools,” says Behnke.
MVCMS provides students with approximately 60 string instruments, primarily violins, each year, in various sizes, so parents do not have to purchase new instruments as their children grow. With the growing number of students interested in learning to play the cello, MVCMS has recently acquired five additional cellos for loan, thanks to a generous donor grant. Several visiting cellists have offered to come to the Vineyard regularly for individual instruction, addressing a gap, since the Vineyard schools do not have a cello teacher on staff. “It’s because they enjoyed working with the kids so much, and that’s just game-changing,” Behnke says.
He continues with a few of his favorite moments so far. One of the musicians was working with the violins on a pizzicato section. “The kids were just strumming the top of the string, and he said, ‘That isn’t clear. Here’s what you do.’ He taught them how to bend their finger over so they plucked the side of the string. It completely changed the sound, technique, and the piece. In 10 minutes, these kids had learned something remarkable.” Another was at the Charter School. “After performing an interactive concert, this little 8-year-old pigeonholed the cellist. I couldn’t spring the guy loose to get to the next school, because she was peppering him with questions. It was just amazing,” Benke says. Another time, a young girl who had quit the orchestra approached her teacher after one of the assemblies and said she wanted to rejoin: “You can’t put any kind of evaluation on that. It’s just priceless.”
The awardwinning Boston-based Rasa String Quartet is known for exploring the musical space where classical and folk traditions intersect and influence one another. This is not their first time working with Vineyard students. During the pandemic, they taught over Zoom for an entire semester. Quartet member and managing director Kiyoshi Hayashi says they are excited to work with the students in person, introducing them to Celtic music and helping them learn about alternatives to “conventional” performing careers. During their stay, they will hold mock adjudications of the High School Orchestra as they prepare for a competitive festival.
On Friday, March 21, and Saturday, March 22, they will also perform two free concerts, one classical and another family-friendly, with Celtic and folk music. The classical concert will be “Journey & Transformation,” which evokes longing and nostalgia for distant places and cherished memories. From William Grant Still’s tender mermaid fairytale to composers’ reflections on faraway homelands and the lively melodies of a Haydn quartet, this concert invites us to reconnect with the beloved stories that shaped our past. The family-friendly Celtic and folk program showcases the group’s diversity. There will be everything from a piece by Erik Satie to one by Joseph Haydn and another by Pink Floyd.
Hayashi shares about the concerts: “We are passionate about presenting our programs, not only with the repertoire we pick, but also how we introduce them in a way that is fun and informative. Our concerts are [more] relaxed than a standard classical one. We like to say that we have the banter and vibe of a folk concert or show, and take that into the classical concert experience in a way that’s entertaining and educational.”
The Rasa String Quartet will perform on March 21 at 4 pm at Stillpoint, 20 Stillpoint Meadows Road, in Vineyard Haven, and on March 22 at 4 pm at Featherstone Center for the Arts in Oak Bluffs. Reservations for free tickets can be made at mvcms.org/events.html.
