Give a young student the chance to study with a globally recognized expert, and possibilities are unlocked. In a new collaboration with Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music — one of the most eminent music conservatories in the world and the launching ground of many of classical music’s most prominent artists — luminaries from its faculty bring their teaching and artistry to 92Y’s School of Music. We go behind the scenes with School of Music Director Yana Stotland, and talk with the Curtis Institute’s Chair of Musical Studies Jonathan Coopersmith, who leads a new music appreciation course at 92U this month.
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Nurturing the performers of tomorrow
“Music education has been at the forefront of 92Y from our earliest days,” says Yana Stotland. “Our new initiative begins a relationship with an organization deeply rooted in growing the great classical musicians of tomorrow. Curtis at 92Y expands upon the excellence of the School of Music and amplifies its offerings.” The multi-faceted collaboration includes classes for children and adults, educational activities in coordination with CALL, 92Y’s Center for Arts Learning & Leadership, and — beginning this summer — a mentorship program for select students in our highly regarded Recanati-Kaplan Program for Excellence in the Arts. The 6-week program will enable our most promising and dedicated young students to study with current Curtis faculty and alum in an intensive online coaching program, including master classes. “Giving our patrons – and particularly our young artists – access to instructors of exceptional caliber elevates everything we are already committed to at the School of Music,” says Stotland, “reinforcing our faculty and curriculum with conservatory-level expertise and reaching new audiences along the way.”
Fueling a lifelong love of music
Stotland’s focus on educating and nurturing the professional musicians of tomorrow is coupled with a passion for fueling a general love of practicing and appreciating music for all ages and skill levels of children and adults. “The Curtis at 92Y initiative brings talent that will allow us to create a strong foundation for a life in the performing arts for many, and a lifelong joyful relationship with music for many others.”
Concerts and master classes
The collaboration includes two annual concerts in Kaufmann Concert Hall by ensembles of Curtis faculty and alumni. “Curtis on Tour” orchestral ensembles regularly grace the stage of Carnegie Hall. Now, Curtis at 92Y provides a new regular home for all chamber music concerts. The first of the concerts, on Friday, February 18, features faculty members and world-class artists violinist Ida Kavafian and cellist Peter Wiley alongside three emerging artists in a performance of one of the most beloved chamber works of all time, Schubert’s Quintet in C Major. The day following the concert, Kavafian and Wiley lead a master class – free and open to the public – for a young violinist and cellist in the School of Music’s Recanati-Kaplan program.
Jonathan Coopersmith at 92U
Complementing the concert in the weeks before it is the first in a series of world-class adult education classes with Curtis faculty. Beginning Wednesday, January 19, Jonathan Coopersmith, Chair of Musical Studies at Curtis, leads a multi-part online course, Schubert’s Quintet in C Major: A Masterpiece Examined. We spoke with him about the course he has developed around this musical masterwork, which will launch the Curtis at 92Y collaboration:
Schubert’s C-Major Quintet is widely considered one of the greatest chamber music works ever written. Please talk a bit about its compositional genius and the qualities that make it so beloved.
At the time this work was written, string quintets commonly added a second viola to the string quartet – a precedent set by Mozart and Beethoven – but Schubert decided to add a second cello instead. Music can express emotions that words can’t, and now, with two violins, a viola, and two cellos, Schubert has a much wider expressive range of sonorities and colors to explore. He exploits this to the fullest by using various pairings and combinations of the five instruments throughout the work. The melodies are beautiful, even spiritual, with great variety in mood and emotion, and the work is perfectly balanced in terms of structure.
In general, I think Schubert is a genius is because he composed so many of his works without ever hearing them. Composers get invaluable feedback from hearing their works performed, and yet, as was often the case, Schubert simply heard the music in his head, wrote it down, and then started on another piece. With regard to the C-Major Quintet, he completed it just weeks before his death in 1828 but the premiere didn’t take place until 1850. Somehow, throughout his life, he was still able to push the boundaries of melody, harmony and form from one composition to the next.
This powerful music endures from century to century because Schubert expresses emotions we can all relate to – universal emotions that make us human.
So much of what we experience with music is emotional. How do you approach a musical work in your course so that participants emerge able to listen and experience it more deeply?
In his 1908 book Abstraction and Empathy, the art historian Wilhelm Worringer suggests two distinct modes of engagement, which I extend to music: complete emotional immersion (empathy) and emotional detachment (abstraction). Emotional immersion means listening and feeling in the moment, completely absorbed emotionally, without analyzing or thinking too deeply. Emotional detachment, on the other hand, is a conscious focus on form, structure, or even the recognition and appreciation of skill, originality, and creativity. Music causes increased physical and emotional arousal in those who allow themselves to become emotionally engrossed, but abstraction is also a valid and appropriate way of appreciating music. I try to focus on both in my classes.
One doesn’t need a technical knowledge of music theory to listen and feel emotion, or to appreciate the life and originality of Schubert or the skill of the performers. Just knowing the story of Schubert’s life and the circumstances surrounding the composition of the Quintet can make us feel closer to it so we engage with it more deeply as we listen. Knowledge and background primes our minds to stay focused and gives context to the music we hear.
In what ways can everyday music lovers expect to be enriched by this class?
The best reason to take a music appreciation class is that understanding and “speaking the language of music” is vital to feeling and expressing a full range of emotions. Speech and music evolved in humans around the same time. The tonal range and emotional ups and downs of our speech gradually became uncoupled from words and developed as its own language, the precursor of music. (Darwin actually proposed that music – i.e. notes and rhythms – came first, and speech came later.) Some things might best be expressed using words, which evolved to convey information, while other things such as emotions might best – or only – be conveyed through music.
Most people speak the language of today’s popular music – it’s familiar and easy to understand. The language of classical music, by comparison, requires an investment of time for the novice listener, but it’s worth it. Choosing music with the potential for greater meaning and depth – even if challenging at first – is an important first step toward deeper communication and well-being.
Jonathan Coopersmith’s five-part online course, Schubert’s Quintet in C Major: A Masterpiece Examined, begins Wednesday, January 19, at 7 PM ET.
Ida Kavafian, Peter Wiley and musicians from the Curtis Institute perform Schubert’s Quintet in C Major in Kaufmann Concert Hall on Friday, February 18, at 7:30 PM ET. The concert is also available for streaming.