Mission

To create a cohesive urban community through music education and performance that transforms the lives of children, families, and musicians. At the center of this mission are the teaching, mentoring, program design, and performance activities of the Providence String Quartet.

History

Sebastian Ruth founded Community MusicWorks in 1997 with the conviction that music and musicians have an important role to play in creating and transforming communities. With start-up funding from the Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown University, Sebastian created the opportunity for a professional string quartet to teach, perform, live, and become fully integrated into an urban Providence neighborhood.

Today Community MusicWorks is a thriving community organization. Built around the permanent residency of the Providence String Quartet, we offer exciting programs that engage and inspire Providence youth and their families. Each member of the Providence String Quartet teaches instrument lessons, mentors students, performs locally, and organizes community building events for entire families.

We receive strong support from the communities in which we are based, and we are excited to find that our students' enthusiasm for learning about music continually reinvigorates the many professional musicians and other performing artists who visit us each season. Among our annual visitors are members of our Artistic Advisory Council, a group dedicated to advancing and promoting our artistic and organizational goals.

The numbers demonstrate the success of our organization. The fact that 90% of our students choose to re-enroll for our programs last year is an important indicator of the long-term relationships we are forming. We continually maintain a waiting list and special efforts are made throughout the year to include the families of children on the waiting list in educational events. In addition, hundreds of children experience the Providence String Quartet through a series of annual school presentations and free local performances in libraries and community centers.

1997-1998

Budget: $15,000 (public service fellowship grant)
15 students enrolled

Sebastian Ruth graduates from Brown University and begins providing free violin lessons at the West End Community Center

Members of the Nahanni String Quartet (including Sebastian Ruth and Minna Choi) perform around Providence to generate interest in the idea of Community MusicWorks, initially named the South Providence Community Music Program

1998-1999

Budget: $12,000

20 students enrolled

Minna Choi, also a Brown University graduate, joins Sebastian Ruth in teaching violin lessons
First Performance Party, held at the West Broadway Neighborhood Association office
Several Musical Workshops held at Providence City Arts on Broad Street

Sebastian Ruth continues to research and plan for the development of a professional string quartet residency

1999-2000

Budget: $42,000

25 students enrolled

Heath Marlow (cello) and Colleen Jennings (violin) commute from Boston to teach lessons one day a week and perform occasionally with Sebastian Ruth and Minna Choi as an informal string quartet

2000-2001

Budget: $65,000

36 students enrolled

501c3 status acquired and Board of Directors formed

String quartet residency created, musicians paid on an hourly basis

Community MusicWorks co-sponsors an arts education symposium led by Maxine Greene

Ben Rous replaces Colleen Jennings, commuting once a week from Boston
Community MusicWorks featured in The Christian Science Monitor

2001-2002

Budget: $110,000

51 students enrolled

Salaried positions for a string quartet are created
Jesse Holstein (violin) and Sara Stalnaker (cello) move to Providence, replacing Heath Marlow and Ben Rous

Westminster Street storefront office acquired

Phase II teen group added to programming

2002-2003

Budget: $187,000

60 students enrolled

Resident string quartet is now known as the Providence String Quartet

Community MusicWorks receives first grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

VISTA volunteer improves organization's infrastructure

Advisory Council created

2003-2004

Budget: $243,000

65 students enrolled

Rehearsal studio added to storefront office

Anne Simmons hired as Administrative Assistant

Heath Marlow returns as Development Consultant

Community MusicWorks presents Education, Art, and Freedom, a two-day symposium featuring Theodore Sizer and Deborah Meier
Community MusicWorks featured in The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine

2004-2005

Budget: $284,000

65 students enrolled, waiting list reaches 100

Development Consultant position increased to fulltime Director of Development

Administrative Assistant position is increased to Program & Administrative Coordinator

Jessie Montgomery replaces Minna Choi in the Providence String Quartet

Community MusicWorks is the cover story in Chamber Music Magazine

2005-2006

Budget: $327,000

65 students enrolled, 90% retention rate

Community MusicWorks selected as one of fifty premier after-school arts programs in nation in by the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities

Phase II students begin rehearsing chamber music twice a month on Friday evenings

Community MusicWorks receives a Champion in Action award from Citizens Bank and NBC 10

Chamber Music America awards Community MusicWorks a three-year grant for Providence String Quartet residency activities

2006-2007 Tenth Season

Budget: $484,000

100 students enrolled, increase due to addition of Fellowship Program
Chloe Kline (viola) and Laura Thomas-Merino (cello) participate in pilot year of Fellowship Program

Minna Choi returns as Fellowship Program Coordinator, also teaching violin
Liz Cox replaces Anne Simmons as Program & Administrative Coordinator
The Surdna Foundation awards Community MusicWorks a three-year grant for programming for teens
Community MusicWorks lauded as a “revolutionary organization” in The New Yorker in an essay by Alex Ross on the state of music education in America

2007-2008
Budget: $591,000
115 students enrolled
Rachel Panitch and Arlyn Valencia join Chloe and Laura in the Fellowship Program
Community MusicWorks rents out the third floor above the storefront office for added meeting space and instrument storage
Community MusicWorks presents Imagining Art + Social Change with the Providence Youth Arts Collaborative
The Community MusicWorks Players is formed and each concert program throughout the season features a work by a local composer
Community MusicWorks receives a planning grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to develop strategies for sharing our model
Community MusicWorks featured in RI Monthly
Drs. Dennie Palmer Wolf, Shirley Brice Heath, and Eileen Landay work together to develop a program evaluation which is successfully piloted during the spring semester