Diversity in Classical Music: Our 2nd Annual Workshop! (4/4/2025)
On Wednesday, some of our Suzuki violin and cello students participated in StringFest, an improvisation workshop with guest artist Michael Block and for which we collaborated with Community Music Center of Boston and Project STEP. This experience is remarkable by the seemingly opposing disciplines of Classical music and improvisation. This is our second special event following our February 2024 concert with Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) at The Strand Theatre in Boston and in collaboration with Project STEP.
We created these concerts to stimulate the conversation about diversity in Classical music, hence the title of our projects. What does Diversity mean? What is "Classical Music"?
In Classical Music as we most commonly know it, we are learning Western European music to be as close to "perfection" as we can possibly achieve. This is the music of renowned composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Bartok, Chopin, etc. The details of refinement stimulate our perception and our senses to be sensitive to subtle differences in sounds and feelings. We draw attention to intonation, rhythms, tempi, dynamics, bow strokes and articulations as well as phrasing, style and tone quality. From this ability to be disciplined in the art of playing, we can unleash more expression and potentially creativity.
The famous 20th century composer Igor Stravinsky (Firebird, Rite of Spring, etc.) wrote: "The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution." When he talks about composing, he also said: "The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees oneself of the chains that shackle the spirit." This is to say that by giving oneself strict parameters, one can unleash more creativity. I interpret this by thinking that if one is constrained to achieve the highest level of technique (of playing the notes), perhaps one can unleash self-expression and creativity in the performance.
The workshop we had on Wednesday with Michael Block was focused on improvisation. The music used a variety of tunes, but as Mr. Block stated, it all starts with "scales." Another very famous 20th century composer of the Classical music realm is Arnold Schoenberg (Verklaerte Nacht, 12-tone music, Pierrot Lunaire, etc.) said:
"Composing is slowed down improvisation; often one can not write fast enough to keep up with the stream of ideas." -Arnold Schoenberg
The students in the workshop were improvising on a jazz tune, an original tune by the Hip-Hop duo Black Violins, and a Greek tune -- all played with a groove. Students played in D natural minor, harmonic minor, Bb major, D Phrygian), D pentatonic and D Dorian. This was all in a 2-hour workshop.
How does this relate to "Diversity"? Learning to play diverse music is a great start. Learning that improvising is the source of all composing is fundamental to any music "Classical", "Jazz", "Hip Hop" or "Greek." The famous composers of Western European Classical composers (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven,etc.) were often known for their brilliance at improvising in performances. Changing our openness to listening and learning about other music traditions can lead to connecting us with the people that represent these traditions.
Perhaps the most important definition of diversity is to consider we are all people on the same planet. If we can learn to connect to each other through music, we learn to understand one another better. We may become more empathetic as we learn that we human beings must share this planet. Most of all, we want our students to learn that what we teach here at the Suzuki School of Newton are the fundamentals of playing an instrument well with proficiency or excellence. We want to reach the ability to express oneself through the music. Most of all, we want our students to know that their instrument does not depend upon just Mozart and Beethoven. Each student can use their instrument to express whatever music they may choose and find their own personal expression. The musical instrument can be an expression of their own voice.