The value of students' participation in the Young Composers
experience include increasing and enhancing a range of personal
characteristics such as self-esteem, confidence, leadership, teamwork,
patience, tolerance, diligence and determination. Further there are
congnitive benefits such as increased skill at pattern recognition (how
things are similar, different and related), and a refined awareness of
form and structure (how things are arranged, connected and grouped). But
perhaps the most important value that Young Composers offers is a
positive, creative opportunity to learn one of life's most important
lessons--that when students learn that they can create music, they learn
that they can create their own lives. Tina Davidson has documented stories from these schools in an article called "Listening Journal"
For more information about Young Composers,
e-mail Tina Davidson or
call Fleisher Art Memorial at (215) 922-3456.
Sculpture as Sound
Sculpture as Sound is a free-tuition, interdisciplinary art class given as part of Fleisher's Saturday program. Taught by Tina Davidson and sculpture teacher James Victor, children and adults create sculptures that are also musical instruments. Using a variety of materials, including wood, metal, copper tubing, and recycled as well as found objects, students construct sculptures that also make sounds. This class is offered twice a year.
For more information about Sculpture as Sound,
e-mail Tina Davidson or
call Fleisher Art Memorial at (215) 922-3456.
Creativity Workshops
Music as Witness. One of the goals of my work as composer is to make
new music more integrated with daily life. After all, new music is the
music of our lives. Just as Beethoven wrote about his thoughts and
feelings out of his time and society, so do composers of this day and age.
One way to think about new music is to see it as a documentation process of
our lives, our society, our struggles and our joys. As a composer of music
in our times, I am deeply conscious of music as witnesses.
The Whole Fruit. There is a power that comes with creating any arts
form, one which we experience in literature, poetry and art as children,
but rarely in music. While we have all written poetry and painted
pictures, only a few of us have written music. Over time, musical
experience has become a passive art form -- some of us perform, but most of
us just listen, and while these are creative in their own ways, they are
not the whole fruit. This lack of the direct experience of the actual
creation of music has estranged us all. No longer is music something which
speaks of our current lives, only of the past; no longer do we all take up
the pencil and compose our own tunes; we have even forgotten how to
whistle.
Singing as Being: finding one's own voice. In ancient days, singing
was equated to the truth. In Greek plays, the chorus (or the conscience of
the play) sang or chanted their lines. The prophetess Cassandra was also
allowed to sing her lines, for she was a speaker of truth. For the poet
Rilke, singing was the closest one could come to being full alive -- Gesang
is Dasein -- singing is essence, so that the pure act of being consciously
alive was sufficient enough.
Making Music One's Own The Creativity
Workshop has been developed for adults to support them in finding their own
voice and creating their own music. Geared for non-musicians who have had
little to no previous musical training, the workshop allows one to
experience music in a personal creative fashion. Working first on
performing simple sound improvisations they learn to associate music in
contexts other than classical notation. By the end of the workshop period
enough musical language has been explored to write and perform a new work
for each other.
The Workshop is targeted for a variety of audiences in
many settings. Although it has been presented at musical events, it has
also been given at other venues such as the Delaware Women's Conference and
Essential Experience's "Spirituality Workshop." Ideal for the opening
session of training retreats for professional organizations, it can be used
as a tool for team building, cooperative effort and risk-taking. The
workshop is also excellent for staff and boards of musical organizations,
to support them in becoming more familiar and comfortable with new
music.
For more information about the Creativity Workshop, please
e-mail Tina
Davidson
