Mike and I teleported Matthew up from Buenos Aires early, heading to Ithaca for all of our first performance at the Gates. We stretched out on a completely improvised night of music for the small but appreciative crowd, washing electronic manipulation with spoken word.
**Discovery of the day--Short Stop Subs***
Nick and Chris Z took an overnight bus from NYC to arrive just in time to start the first sessions of our two day residency at the Harley school. We worked with Kristy Houston's 6th grade general music class on both days on learning Radiohead's Packt Like Sardines In a Crushd Tin Box by ear--moving, singing, playing, and improvising with enthusiasm. The class created a new "what does your community sound like" piece, riffing on dog relationships, angry parents, Black Friday, and the cold of Rochester:
The Harley upper school string ensemble premiered Matthew's new piece, Southern Castellano featuring adventurous solos from Henry Smith (violin) Andrew Wang (cello) while the wind ensemble gave a strong performance of Louis Steps and a percussion-driven, poly tonal happy birthday for two of the students. Our friend and head of the Harley Lower School, Terry Fonda Smith, wrote a comprehensive overview of the week with pictures.
Wednesday put the IfCM Collective in front of what we thought would be our largest group of students with Eileen Yu's Franklin Middle School:
The students brought Louis' Steps to life and ended the morning swinging by learning Blues by Five by ear. One of the students wasn't sure how he would remember the melody that we'd learned without sheet music but there's a very good chance that if we catch up with him in a year or two those riffs will still be under his fingers...
After a quick nap and a bucket of coffee the band reconvened for a jazz performance at Fairport High School. Bill Tiberio and the students asked some great questions about our compositions and use of electronic manipulation to expand out sonic palate.
A full day at Rochester's School of the Arts packed an average of 80 students per period into Doug Stone's classroom, getting 100 people playing together at one point. As the name states, SOTA immerses their students to a wide range of musical styles, drama, dance, and visual art so we had the opportunity to see the impact that the arts has on students, teachers and guests . Some of the students even knew the words to sardines! We are extremely excited to involve these amazing schools in our project at the Chesonis Commons in March--more to come shortly!
Part two of our Rochester/Buffalo tour up shortly...
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