{"id":37418,"date":"2016-06-23T14:45:16","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T18:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=37418"},"modified":"2016-06-26T00:42:53","modified_gmt":"2016-06-26T04:42:53","slug":"feature-toronto-summer-music-community-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2016\/06\/23\/feature-toronto-summer-music-community-academy\/","title":{"rendered":"FEATURE | Toronto Summer Music Community Academy Gets An Encore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Musical Toronto’s Robin Roger prepares to join 40 advanced amateur musicians to hone her skills at the Toronto Summer Music Community Academy.<\/p>\n

\"Toronto
Toronto Summer Music Community Academy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

F<\/span>rom July 31 to August 7, I\u2019ll be returning to the second Toronto Summer Music Community Academy<\/a>. A program for advanced amateur musicians, last year it was attended by over 40 players of string, brass, and woodwind instruments, as well as pianists and vocalists whose idea of a good time is to take a week off from their day jobs to work on their musical skills.<\/p>\n

The term \u201cCommunity Academy\u201d needs some explanation. The program could be described as a sibling to the Toronto Summer Music Academy, which consists of the Art of Song Program and the Chamber Music Institute, for young adult professional musicians. These elite musicians come from all over the world to attend the two to four-week program, which overlaps with the Community Academy, and takes place in the same location, the Edward Johnson Building, home of the University of Toronto Faculty of Music.\u00a0 That the word \u201cCommunity\u201d is what distinguishes the amateur program from the professional one indicates the Festival\u2019s intention to cultivate a group of committed adult music lovers who will have an ongoing connection to the Festival and each other.<\/p>\n

According to Artistic Director Douglas MacNabney, offering a learning experience to serious adult amateur musicians has been a mission of the Toronto Summer Music Festival from its inception. \u201cIn the very first year of the Festival, our program included chamber music instruction for adult amateurs.\u00a0 It gives me an immense sense of accomplishment to be able to return to our roots and give our supporters an opportunity not only to listen to music but also to play music.\u00a0 It\u2019s a great way to build community.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question that for many participants of the inaugural Community Academy, this has been the case.\u00a0 One definition of community, \u201ca feeling of fellowship with others as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests and goals\u201d perfectly describes the experience, which felt like a musical barn-raising as everyone worked towards the concert which culminated the week of classes.\u00a0 The sense of common musical purpose created a feeling of cheerful industry, as did the sounds of practice in the halls of the Edward Johnson Building. Some participants who are returning shared their sense of accomplishment and musical growth with me recently.<\/p>\n

Christina Wolf, who played second violin in the performance of Beethoven opus 18 number six at the final concert last year, is coming back from Vancouver to once again experience getting \u201cmore and more into the nuances of the piece, being challenged by bowings, bow speed, dynamics, passing phrases, balance, intonation and stylistic approaches\u2026playing on my personal edge\u2026all within a supporting and positive environment.\u201d\u00a0 Her fellow violinist from her Vancouver Chamber Quartet, Christine Choi,\u00a0 recalls that concert as \u201cone of the few times when I found myself experiencing more enjoyment than nerves.\u00a0 There is an electricity in a performance that cannot be replicated, and I remember feeling an incredible high while sitting on stage, making Beethoven come alive again.\u201d No doubt the fact that she got to perform with TSO violist Eric Nowlin contributed to that high.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s always great to play with people who are better than you;\u00a0 one learns so much,\u201d says Choi.<\/p>\n

Liz Koester is returning to the Chamber Choir Group to get another week of \u201cworking closely with a small group of singers who were all dedicated to making music together as well as we could.\u201d \u00a0The experience resulted in learning that was much more accelerated than her activities during the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatthias Maute focused the rehearsals on shaping and colouring the music and added considerably to our understanding of the music with the comments he popped in about history, theory, etc. \u00a0Although I have been singing in a choir for many years, I feel as though I am still at the beginning of my choral exploration, and I am still very excited to go anywhere it leads!\u201d<\/p>\n

Doug Freake, a fellow pianist with me in last year\u2019s Master Class with James Anagnoson \u00a0who is preparing the first movement of Beethoven\u2019s Tempest Sonata for his performance this year, is returning for several reasons.\u00a0 \u201cBy the end of the week I felt more comfortable about performing in front of others and with the piano in general\u201d, he explains, \u201cpartly due to Anagnoson\u2019s balance of supportive comments with judicious critique and also because the outstanding comradeship of last year\u2019s group allowed us to open ourselves and display the warts and all of our playing.\u201d\u00a0 I especially share Doug\u2019s last point:\u00a0 the generosity of spirit of the 13 other pianists, all of whom were significantly more advanced and experienced than I am, created a safe haven that made it possible, though not easy, to perform.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Sharing this intensive, concentrated experience with a small group of individuals, even though it is only for a week, creates a bond.\u00a0 When I\u2019ve crossed paths with some of my classmates since last summer, at other classes or musical events, I\u2019ve felt a swell of genuine delight and eagerness to know how their playing is progressing.\u00a0\u00a0 We ranged in age, marital status, sexual orientation, career categories, country of origin, religion, and ethnicity, but having this shared desire to master playing the piano made us more alike than different.<\/p>\n

Many of last year\u2019s instructors are also returning, including the TSO\u2019s Shane Kim, Sarah Jeffrey and Eric Nowlin as well as choir master Matthias Maute and others. Kim especially enjoyed teaching adults last year.\u00a0 \u201cMost of my past teaching experience has been with younger children and high school students.\u00a0 The musical conversations take on a different tone, and I can relate to them on a more even level.\u00a0\u00a0 The main thing I came away with was everyone\u2019s love for music.\u00a0 I realised that in some ways I envy amateur musicians because they play music purely for the joy of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is another aspect of the Academy that my fellow participants did not mention, which is that it creates a deadline, one of the most powerful motivators known to humankind.\u00a0 By July 31, I have to get my group of Scriabin Preludes ready to perform, which I admit creates pressure, but also requires me to work at aspects of my playing that I might otherwise delay, such as memorization.\u00a0 Music is a joy, but it requires as much discipline and tolerance for error for amateurs as it does for professionals.\u00a0 Meeting the standards of my fellow pianists and offering David Jalbert something good enough to work with are serious responsibilities in my mind.\u00a0 It\u2019s great to be with other people who take music just as seriously.<\/p>\n

Applications to the TSMFCA are rolling, and there is still over a month to apply.\u00a0www.torontosummermusic.com\/community-academy<\/a><\/p>\n

[Correction, June 24: A\u00a0previous version of this article\u00a0misspelt\u00a0Eric Nowlin’s name.]<\/span><\/p>\n

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Musical Toronto’s Robin Roger prepares to join 40 advanced amateur musicians to hone her skills at the Toronto Summer Music Community Academy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":37421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5723,4967,59],"tags":[5201,5554,3357],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/06\/IMG_0984.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-9Jw","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37418"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37418"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37443,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37418\/revisions\/37443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37418"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=37418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}