Category: News

November 15, 2022
By Sylvia Sherman, Program Director

CMC’s Mission District Young Musicians Program was busy this fall with performances that commemorated Mission District culture and history, contributed to neighborhood school festivals, and celebrated Día de los Muertos.

On October 15, CMC participated in Acción Latina’s community art walk Paseo Artístico: “The 80’s Matter in the Mission”, honoring Latinx artists and activists of the 80s. The MDYMP musicians helped to kick off the day performing with original members from Los Peludos, Enrique Ramirez and Miguel Govea (MDYMP faculty member). Los Peludos was a group from the 1980s. Known for being outspoken about the social realities of the times, they addressed issues such as the U.S. interference with El Salvador with the song “Aqui no Sera” (“It Won’t Happen Here”). MDYMP students performed cumbias, Cuban music, and the original song “Paletero” created bythe students during CMC’s Centennial (Re)Imagine composition project. The performance of “Paletero,” a song about the Mission District and its diversity as reflected in the flavors of popsicles sold by the paleteros, was highlighted by the addition of MDYMP alumnus Rafael Cloarec, doing a spirited spoken word segment in Spanish, English, and French.

Later in October, MDYMP performed at the Buena Vista Horace Mann Fall Festival and the Alvarado Día de los Muertos Festival. Since MDYMP students have attended both Buena Vista Horace Mann and Alvarado, the invitation for MDYMP to perform was extended by parents who are active in the school PTAs. Both festivals were vibrant community celebrations with family participation and student involvement.

“We were delighted to have MDYMP perform. They were a great fit for the event and brought a lot of enjoyment to the community.” -Margo Hasselman Greenough, PTA President Alvarado Elementary

“I believe music connects cultures. Since Día de los Muertos is celebrated mostly in Mexico and some parts of Central and South America and Alvarado has an immersion program in Spanish, I thought MDYMP would be the perfect performer to inspire the younger audiences and potential future musicians.” -Nieves López Barrera, MDYMP and Alvarado parent

Finally, in early November, CMC Mariachi, a group comprised of MDYMP students, SFUSD Mariachi students, CMC faculty members Miguel Govea, Tregar Otton, Susan Peña, and guest artist René Peña Govea, performed for the SF Symphony’s ¡FIESTA! Día de los Muertos. The event was a donor party to support the SF Symphony’s education program and followed the Symphony’s Día de los Muertos concert. CMC Mariachi demonstrated the positive impacts of arts education with their performance, moving the audiences through the student and faculty collaborative performance.

CMC thanks MDYMP Program Coordinator Chantel Hernandez and all of its MDYMP faculty: Miguel Govea, Tregar Otton, Nena Aldaz, Charlie Gurke, and Juan Ceballos for the dedication to training young musicians, passing on Latinx culture, and preparing for these important community performances. CMC thanks MDYMP parents Julissa Winton and Nieves López Barrera, as well as Buena Vista Horace Mann and Alvarado school communities for their commitment to celebrating Latinx music and culture through their school events. Thanks also to Laura Knerler of the SF League for their work on the Symphony Fiesta.

November 14, 2022

Recent Community Music Center graduate Chris Flores, 18, has had rich experiences in his time at CMC. Chris developed not only skills and maturity that come through dedicated musical study, but he built professional know-how as he built and repaired musical instruments in a CMC internship. Chris is taking his CMC experiences, both musical and vocational, to the University of the Pacific, where he recently started as a freshman.

“CMC is very community oriented – it’s in the name.” – Chris Flores

CMC first came into Chris’s life through the tuition-free Mission District Young Musicians Program (MDYMP). He had recently been accepted to San Francisco’s Ruth Asawa School of the Arts (SOTA) and needed to find private viola lessons to support his work there. MDYMP provided those lessons, along with ensemble classes and music theory, giving him a solid foundation to build on at SOTA.

“[Chris] was an absolute joy to teach. Because of his love for music and remarkable work ethic, he made quick progress: about as quick as I’ve ever seen.”– Michael Long, CMC Strings Faculty

Chris first studied with Michael Long, who taught him time management and goal setting, and then Chris worked with viola specialist Paul Espinosa. Michael and Paul helped Chris develop structures, habits, and communication styles he continues to implement in his studies and work outside CMC. MDYMP faculty gave Chris the opportunity to explore new genres and approaches to music-making. He also learned improvisation and soloing from MDYMP faculty member Tregar Otton.

“Chris is very curious and really loves music. Through his own volition, he made the program better for himself and the other students.” -Tregar Otton, MDYMP Faculty

Chris’s interest in learning about building and maintaining instruments started during his first year at SOTA on a field trip to visit two luthiers in San Francisco – Roland Feller Violin Makers and Jesse Maschmeyer Violins. He was inspired by what he saw and took matters into his own hands, asking Jesse Maschmeyer to teach him. After Chris demonstrated his dedication and commitment, Jesse agreed to teach Chris as part of a strings internship at CMC.

Throughout his internship, Chris developed professional skills he will use for years to come. In addition to learning how to fix and maintain instruments, he worked with CMC staff and faculty as colleagues introducing him to professional communication styles and giving him, as he says, “a glimpse into the adult world.” Chris plans to focus on health studies in college and is confident that the breadth of skills he developed during his internship will support the deeply interactive work he’ll be doing.

Chris impressed CMC colleagues with his dedication, motivation, and consistent communication. According to Sylvia Sherman, CMC’s Program Director, working with Chris has “opened up our thinking about a new pathway for leadership for CMC’s Young Musicians Program students.” All the staff and faculty who have worked with him over the years agree that his time at CMC has set him up for success wherever the future may take him.

When discussing his time at CMC, Chris shared how inspired he is by the organization’s focus on helping others in the community, especially those with low incomes. Said Chris, “CMC has helped me pursue my dreams. If I wasn’t at CMC, I don’t know where I would be. CMC gave me the tools and instruction I needed to stand amongst my SOTA peers, build my confidence, and learn skills I’ll use throughout my life.”

“Chris has been invaluable to the CMC team. He’s responsive, self-motivated, and kind. We’re so lucky to have him!” – Shannon Koehler, CMC Operations Manager

 

Support CMC’s life-changing mission of making music accessible to everyone! Donate at give.classy.org/sfcmc

August 18, 2022

The Linda Blacketer Memorial Scholarships honor the life of longtime Community Music Center friend and supporter Linda Blacketer.

Dan Dodt, Linda’s loving husband, served on CMC’s board from 1995-2005 and was a fan-favorite scholarship auctioneer at our annual spring gala for many years. Linda joined Dan at the event each year and delighted in seeing the CMC Children’s Chorus perform onstage.

Linda was committed to serving CMC’s students, especially the young people who depended on our free programs and sliding-scale tuition to have access to lessons. CMC’s consistency in its dedication to the community spoke to Linda’s generous spirit and inspired her and Dan to donate yearly for three decades.

Linda and Dan had initially intended to leave CMC a significant gift as part of their estate plans, but when Linda passed away in 2021, Dan realized that seeing the impact of that gift in his lifetime would be an incredible tribute to Linda and her love of CMC, and making the gift during CMC’s Centennial Year could inspire broader financial support for CMC’s mission during this once-in-a-lifetime moment in the organization’s history.

Dan worked with CMC’s Development and Program teams to endow two new permanent scholarships, one for voice students and one for instrumental students, ensuring that more students would have access to lessons into the future without having to worry about whether their funding would be renewed.

How to contribute
If you would like to contribute to the Linda Blacketer Memorial Scholarship Fund, you can do so online (please select “Memorial Scholarship” as the designation and either list Linda Blacketer Memorial Scholarships in the comment section or check “Dedicate my donation in honor or memory of someone” and enter Linda’s name as the honoree) or by mail:

Please write a check to “Community Music Center” and state in the memo “Linda Blacketer Memorial Scholarships.”

Mail to:
Community Music Center
Development Office
544 Capp Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

About the Linda Blacketer Memorial Scholarships
Each year CMC awards the Linda Blacketer Memorial Scholarships to one voice student and one instrumental student. CMC faculty members nominate hard-working and passionate students to audition during our May juries. A panel of faculty and program staff adjudicate the juries and award scholarships considering both musical growth and financial need.

A CMC Merit Scholarship provides a full year of private lessons at CMC. The Linda Blacketer Memorial Scholarships were two of five newly endowed scholarships inaugurated in the 2022-2023 school year and are among the 39 merit scholarships awarded each year.

February 22,2022

On April 4, CMC is launching (Re)Imagine: 100 New Works from Cava Menzies & Community Music Center to commemorate 100 years of music for everyone. This project is in collaboration with artist, composer, and educator Cava Menzies and will result in 100 new works—50 created by Menzies in collaboration with international and local musicians and 50 created by YMP and MDYMP. These works will be shared digitally from April 4 to May 23 with an in-person event on May 14. 

(Re)Imagine emerged from collaborative pieces that Menzies made during the earliest days of the pandemic. Menzies, who has been a music educator for nearly 20 years with a long affiliation with Oakland School of the Arts (OSA), began remote collaboration videos with her students soon after shelter-in-place started. These short pieces were powerful moments of self-expression and creative responses to landmark moments during 2020, including the murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. These videos spread quickly on social media, resulting in collaborations with other artists, OSA alumni, and international artists. 

In the (Re)Imagine project, Menzies is further developing these impactful compositional methods under the overarching theme of “reimagine.” For Menzies, this theme speaks to a world slowly reemerging from an unprecedented pandemic. As Menzies shared, “We’re reimagining what collaboration looks like, what connection looks like, what community looks like, especially as we’re seeing all the different ways that people have been impacted by the pandemic.” 

Menzies, who has been an artist-in-residence with YMP and MDYMP since January, is providing a framework for the youth to explore three topic areas: cultural identity, critical community issues, and world music/culture with an emphasis on student-centered learning, inquiry, and self-expression. As Cava said, “It actually doesn’t matter what your skill level is or where you’re at on your journey as a musician. Music has a healing quality as a tool to comment on what’s going on in your life and in the world.” 

For Menzies, working with the young musicians has been revelatory. “I love the genius of young people,” said Menzies. “I think there’s magic in them. Just to be able to tap into how young people are thinking about the times right now—that’s a message that we all have to listen to and take the time for.” The residency concludes in March. 

The (Re)Imagine project is a powerful tool to creatively respond to a world that is struggling to find balance. “We’re all grappling together,” said Menzies. “None of us know the outcome. None of us know how this is all going to unfold. The idea that we would embark on something together with the unknown and infuse it with beauty, creativity, and thoughtfulness is a beautiful representation of humanity.”  

Watch your email box in the coming weeks for an invitation to receive daily videos from the (Re)Imagine project, bringing musical inspiration to your day!

An inside look at the (Re)Imagine residency

YMP and MDYMP students are developing a wide range of work from exploring concepts related to racial division in the U.S and gentrification, to invoking thankfulness despite loss “Gratitud y perdición,” to “CMC Feelings” about the joy of music at CMC, to exploration of the traditional music from the heritage of students in the program. Cava Menzies and the faculty have been helping the young musicians identify what musical concepts can best express their reflections and creative ideas, as well as providing feedback throughout the process.

Miguel Govea, MDYMP faculty:
“The project and composition process has been fascinating and fun. Mainly, I wanted each student to play within their comfort level on their instrument and to focus on conveying emotion rather than exhibiting proficiency. It only took a few weeks to get them used to playing without written parts, to trust their ears, and to believe in their own abilities.”

Gian Velasquez, MDYMP student, age 17:
“I was inspired by ‘Mambo Mongo,’  a Latin jazz/funk piece by Mongo Santamaria. I liked it because it takes music from different cultures and brings the music together into a cultural melting pot. In our group, we are creating a similar kind of piece. My idea was to take Latin music and fuse it with American bebop— two seemingly separate genres that are African at their core. Having this experience for me and for the group is beautiful. I’m experiencing what it would be like to become a professional musician, since we’re learning to start a song from scratch. It’s super empowering.”

CMC’s Chamber Music Ensemble Program has been growing by leaps and bounds. Since the Fall Quarter, the program has blossomed from three students to 22. The program still offers standard classical music groups, but has opened up the formation of groups based on the musical interests of the applicants. This has resulted in folk and blues chamber ensembles, along with the classical groups the program is known for.

For Katrina Wreede, Chamber Music Program Coordinator, the goals of the program are to get CMC students playing music together, playing the music they are most interested in playing, matching them with compatible musicians, and finding inspiring chamber music coaches from the CMC Faculty who have expertise in the genre. Chamber group configurations right now are duos and trios to limit possibilities of COVID exposure. Groups are limited to older teens and adults, and require a short Zoom audition.

It’s not too late to join a group this quarter!

Learn more about the program at the link below, and then fill out the chamber music inquiry form to get started. Tuition for group classes is reduced by 50% with concurrent enrollment in private lessons. (Limit one group class reduction per private lesson enrollment).

Chamber Music at CMC

December 17, 2021

By Grace Huenemann and Tregar Otton

Two highly successful projects from last year, “CMC Sessions,” from the cultural traditions department, and “Spotlight Seminars” from the piano department, are joining together in an exciting collaboration funded by a CMC Faculty Partnership Grant.

CMC Sessions: Traditions Moving Forward will begin in January 2022, and will showcase the talents of ten CMC faculty members from diverse classical and non-classical traditions. The online presenters will use video, audio, and lecture-demonstrations to illustrate the influences and musical education that shaped them, and to highlight how their unique interests impact their teaching and performing at CMC. Their personal stories illustrate the breadth of talent among CMC’s teachers and show some of the ways the school is creatively adapting historical traditions to inspire and guide the musicians of tomorrow. These presentations by our fantastic faculty are going to be fascinating. Be sure to tune in!

The free series will be broadcast live through Zoom on Thursdays from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Students, faculty, and friends of the CMC community are welcome. The participants and topics are listed below.

Meet these talented and inspiring faculty:

January 13 Jennifer Peringer A CMC Teacher’s Musical Journey of Multicultural Explorations, Creative Expression, and Community Engagement

January 27 Larry Dunn How Jump Swing Influenced My Music Making

February 10 Tregar Otton Classical Foundations, Popular and Traditional Performance and Pedagogy

February 24 Omar Ledezma Jr. The Music of Pacific Mambo Orchestra: A Percussionist’s Perspective

March 10 Jon Jang One Day American, One Day Alien: Black & Brown Artists Who Made the National Anthem Their Own

March 24 Evelyn Davis Beginning Improvisation

June 9 Joshua Saulle Vocal Traditions and Choral Innovations

June 16 Lilia Zheltova Traditions of the Russian Piano School and Their Implementation in Today’s American Teaching

June 23 Michaela Overall Teaching and Supporting the Neurodiverse Piano Student

June 30 Martha Rodríguez-Salazar Bridging Cultures and Creating Communities: How My Binational Experience Shaped My Musical Perspectives.

RSVPs for this series at the above links. 

As the year comes to a close, CMC’s Older Adult Choir Program is excited to celebrate the season with a return to in-person performances with festive concerts during the month of December. The concerts take place at CMC and around the city. These year-end performances feature songs in many styles and languages: from jazz standards to traditional folk songs from Latin America and the Philippines, to showtunes and oldies, these songs are sure to bring holiday cheer.

Due to public health restrictions, some concerts are not open to the public unless by performer invitation. Please note health and safety rules for each venue.

Older Adult Choir December Concerts:

Friday, December 1o at 2:00pm – CMC Solera Singers of Mission Neighborhood Center at Mission Neighborhood Center, 362 Capp Street. Audience by participant invitation only.

Saturday, December 11 at 5:00pm – Parol Lantern Festival Sing-Along with performances by CMC Bayanihan Equity Center Older Adult Choir at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 710 Mission Street

Monday, December 13 at 2:00pm – CMC Castro Older Adult Choir at Community Music Center Concert Hall, 544 Capp Street. Audience by participant invitation only.

Wednesday, December 15 at 1:30pm – CMC Bernal Heights Older Adult Choir at Community Music Center Concert Hall, 544 Capp Street. Audience by participant invitation only.

Wednesday, December 15 at 5:00pm – Caroling with CMC IT Bookman Older Adult Choir at San Francisco Civic Center. More details to be announced.

Stay tuned for more performances to be announced!