Thinking of Home: Sounds, Images, and Feelings
In partnership with the Midori and Friends Foundation
In partnership with the Midori and Friends foundation, launched in 1992 by world-renowned violinist Midori, Eureka Ensemble will teach students about music’s ability to communicate different cultural experiences through listening and discussion.
Virtual Workshops
Students will explore creating a sense of home through sound, the different ways one can portray their personal experience, how composers evoke characters and customs in compositions, and understanding home as a diverse space through different listening activities, breakout discussions, and projects incorporating different musical elements.
Featured music will include works by Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Heitor Villa-Lobos.
Workshop 1
Portraying Your Personal Experience
Students will think about how music reflects their own personal experiences and vice versa, and discover how composers do the same in the music they write. Eureka Ensemble musicians will play sections of Florence Price’s A minor String Quartet and Heitor Villa-Lobos’ “Brazilian” Quartet.
Workshop 2
Evoking Characters and Customs
When people think of the violin, viola, or cello, certain sounds come to mind...but some composers defy our expectations! Gabriela Lena Frank does this in her piece Leyendas, conjuring different images and characters inspired by Andean culture. Students will see Eureka musicians demonstrate live how the unusual sounds of Leyendas are produced on their instruments, and learn how different parts of the music work together to transport us to the Andean world.
Workshop 3
Traditional Sounds Expressed Through Composition
What is ‘traditional’ music? What are some reasons people think traditional music is important to study and perform? In this workshop, students will learn about how composers like Béla Bartók and Toru Takemitsu use sounds from their home countries’ musical traditions to create modern pieces that reached new audiences.
Workshop 4
Home as Diversity
What sounds and songs come to mind when you think of your home? Of America? Students will share their thoughts while learning about composers like Jesse Montgomery who combined different ideas they had about home into a single piece of music.
Workshop 5
Your Experience Through Sound
Have your students compose a piece. Considering different elements that make music, students will come together and decide how each element will play a part in a class composition. Eureka musicians will help bring the resulting piece to life.
Virtual Performances
Thinking of Home:
Sounds, Images, and Feelings
Eureka Ensemble presents chamber works that were influenced by sounds and songs of home, be it sounds of the composers’ childhood, culture, or country. We will explore pieces that feature sounds of South America, Eastern Asia, Eastern Europe, and the United States. Composers of these works include Florence Price, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Béla Bartók, among others.