A Wrap-Up of Our CLCS Fall Residency

And… that’s a wrap! Our fall 2018 residency is over, and I’m so pleased to say that it was extremely successful.

To be quite honest, I was initially anxious about how this residency would turn out. This is my third year taking part in a residency like this, thanks to the experiences that From the Top’s Center for Development of Arts Leaders (CDAL) had given me. Last year was the year Continuo was “founded” as Greater Boston Music Outreach, and the team of musicians I had worked with at the Conservatory Lab Charter School (CLCS) were all CDAL alumni. We all had experience with this same exact kind of residency from our time with From the Top and knew what to expect. This year, with all the co-founders either having graduated or having been too busy, it was up to me to not only recruit new members for Continuo, but also lead them in an experience that they had not yet had.

By the end of the residency, she was louder, standing straight, and, most importantly, playing with pride.

Turns out I had absolutely nothing to worry about. I worked with a team of four other musicians to coach five motivated and talented (and funny) students from CLCS in Dorchester, MA. Each of us worked with our students one-on-one on at least one solo piece and got together as a chamber ensemble every couple of weeks to rehearse all together. Our students—fifth and sixth graders—all had very unique personalities, with some jumping off the walls and some barely speaking. Yet, they all ended up getting along with each other and with us so well.

I cannot speak for everyone, but the growth that I witnessed was amazing. My student, in particular, was incredibly shy for the first couple of weeks. She spoke quietly, avoided asking questions, and played timidly. She reminded me a lot of someone I knew very well: my younger self! My goal for the residency, early on, became to raise her confidence. I would tell her, “Who cares if you mess up?” The impact was truly unbelievable. By the end of the residency, she was louder, standing straight, and, most importantly, playing with pride.

Now, multiply that by five and you may begin to understand what the residency was. Surely, we ran into some bumps here and there: a student had to quit halfway through the session, some would forget their music, a lot less time was spent on chamber ensemble music than originally planned… But, the end result was more than we ever could’ve wished for. We closed out the session with an amazing showcase of all the students’ work, even accompanying them on stage for some pieces!

It brings me so much joy that Continuo is really starting to expand this year, involving musicians who didn’t even know CDAL had existed in the past. When founding the organization, this is exactly what we had hoped for—to share the amazing experiences we had in the past. Hopefully, this is something we will be able to continue in the spring.