Sebastian Ruth, founder of Community MusicWorks: “ I wasn’t so eager to say, ‘Here’s how we’re going to solve this problem.’ “ Erin X. Smithers photography
Last summer’s tumultuous protests provoked an atypical response from Community MusicWorks founder Sebastian Ruth. When your organization has already made a two-decade effort to enhance justice, inclusion and equality in your neighborhoods, the urgency for social action that swept the country resonates differently.
“My impulse was to persist in the long-term work we’ve been doing,” Ruth says, “rather than issue a statement that articulated new plans. I wasn’t so eager to say, ‘Here’s how we’re going to solve this problem.’ It was a deepening, as opposed to something brand new.”
Ruth certainly doesn’t feel like Community MusicWorks, which he founded in 1997, has solved society’s problems. But unlike most classical music organizations, Ruth didn’t feel the need to make a virtue-signaling offering of solidarity or contrition.
“In the beginning weeks of protests there was a ton of heat and urgency,” the Providence resident says. “It was a wake-up call that felt so needed. Because the temperature was so high, it forced companies big and small to make a statement and make a plan. In that way it was incredibly productive.
“At the other edge was that series of statements and plans that were just motivated by not being seen on the wrong side of history.”
Community MusicWorks won’t likely find itself on the wrong side of history. Ruth founded the organization—an unexpectedly successful outgrowth of a one-year project he conceived as a Brown University student—to provide instruments and training to Providence children. His approach was simple—teach where the students live.
Using storefront spaces, and after-hours school buildings, CMW forged strong relationships in Providence’s South Side, West End, Elmwood and Olneyville neighborhoods. The organization now has more than a dozen full-time resident musicians, and reaches hundreds of students, many who stay in the program for years.
For his work, Ruth was awarded a MacArthur Foundation grant in 2010, among many other honors. CMW serves as a model for similar organizations across the country, organizations that focus on public service through musical instruction.
Although last summer’s social action didn’t require CMW to radically alter its own focus, it still was cause for introspection.
“It required us to pause, and reconsider every aspect,” Ruth says. “The fact that people are taking a hard look at repertoire, and representation, is great. There’s no downside. At CMW those are not new ideas. It’s not that we’re exemplars, but the national atmosphere helps to spur that conversation.
“In this moment the central repertoire of classical music will expand,” he says. “People will pay attention to people and styles that were on the periphery. If this changes people’s ears, that’s great.”
Using a return to live performances—whenever that occurs—figures into that change as well.
“How do concerts serve the community?” he asks. “Think about concerts as a source of healing and grieving. Where should they happen? Maybe in every neighborhood in the city.”
The CMW resident musicians perform frequently as part of the mission, including an annual Bach marathon and regular Sonata series programs. “In the last year we haven’t done any of them in real life,” he says, “but we’ve done a lot on YouTube, live premieres. People are really looking forward to these performances, in a venue of their own.
“We have shifted our teaching online, mostly to surprising success,” he says. “Not all of the students made the transition, but 80 percent did. In some cases we helped with technology, where that was a barrier.”
CMW’s physical presence could change soon, with plans to construct its first-ever building in Providence’s West End. “We’re hoping to break ground in the fall,” Ruth says, “it’s been in the pipeline for a few years.”
Creating a permanent space required some re-assessment.
“It’s not a step we took automatically,” Ruth says. “There is something fundamental in our nomadic model. We’ve been able to show up and teach and perform, wherever. Even though some spaces were not ideal, there was something important in that.
“But we realized several years ago there is a potency missing, if someone doesn’t see the full breadth of the organization. If all they see is showing up in a darkened school building after hours.
“We really need a home base, where we can see a kind of collision of activities in one place. Particularly for young people of color, to see growing leadership in the organization.”
The fall will also bring a new fellowship program for former students. CMW’s longer-term goals could eventually be defined by those who actually grew up in CMW programs, and return to take leadership positions.
“In five or ten years we could be significantly staffed by alums,” he says, “and members of the community. There’s a kind of full circle there.”
Keith Powers covers music and the arts for Gannett New England, Leonore Overture and Opera News. Artists Alone is a series about musicians and the impact of the pandemic. Follow @PowersKeith; email to keithmichaelpowers@gmail.com.