Getting in Tune with Belmont’s Music Community

 Arts & Culture, July-Aug 2018, Newsletter
Jul 172018
 

Opportunities Abound for Making and Enjoying Music with Neighbors

By Sara McCabe

After moving from Germany to Belmont, music helped me find friends and a new home. Especially the music programs in the public school and Powers Music School created an environment that made me forget that I live in a new country. – Fiona Knoor

Chenery Middle School student Fiona Knoor is one of hundreds of Belmont residents, young and old, taking advantage of our town’s vibrant music community. Fiona plays flute, piccolo, and piano and participates in multiple ensembles at Chenery and Powers Music School.

But you don’t have to be a dedicated musician to make friends while making music. Got a couple of spare hours a week? That’s all you need. Want to enjoy music with your whole family? There are year-round programs and concerts for you.

Whether you sing or play an instrument yourself, hope to do so someday, or just enjoy live performances, Belmont has community music opportunities for all ages and all ability levels. And with the Payson Park Music Festival in its 28th year this summer and the first annual Belmont Porchfest coming up in September, now is the time to jump on board.

Here is a brief roundup of current offerings, many of which are free, low-cost, or offer financial assistance. The list is by no means comprehensive, so we hope you will go online to delve further into all the possibilities that interest you. We hope to hear you soon!

 

All are welcome at Belmont Open Sings concerts. (Powers Music School photo)

Concerts

In addition to frequent concerts at the library, local churches, schools, Powers Music School, and the Beech Street Center, Belmont has several annual concert programs:

The Payson Park concerts have always been a safe and fun place where our whole family can meet up with friends. The music is the common denominator for the full cross-section of the town, with neighbors coming from Belmont Manor and group homes. We wouldn’t otherwise have much reason to all be in the same place. – David Alper

One of my fellow Porchfest organizers is a former neighbor whose home has always been a hub of music. Our first New Year’s Eve in Belmont took place at her house, and along with a dish to share, all the neighbors brought instruments. Any event—birthday, holiday, Friday night stopover—is sure to break into music. – Mary Bradley

Choruses

New voices are always encouraged at these local groups:

Singing is a wonderful way to share our happiness, and we are grateful for Beech Street Center to offer us this unique opportunity to get together. – Huifang Chen

Belmont Public Library

Genres vary from fiddle to opera for the Friends of the Belmont Library “Music on Saturday Series.” The library also has music programs for kids:

So many things in Belmont seem to be high stakes or have a high bar to entry, but the Parent/Teacher Band feels welcoming for parents of all ability levels. As an extra bonus, I love the fact that now when I go to a school musical or the Memorial Day parade, I actually recognize many of the students in the band!
– Clare Crawford

Music-making begins early with infants and toddlers at Powers Music School (pictured) and the Belmont Public Library. (Kulbako Photo)

Belmont Public Schools

Musicologist Sandra Rosenblum, a cofounder of Powers Music School, recalls that in the past, citizens had to advocate actively for music education in the Belmont Public Schools (BPS). Now Belmont is regularly ranked among the “Best Communities in America for Music Education” by the American Music Conference and the National Association of Music Merchants. And BPS programs aren’t just for kids. Music directors John McLellan (who just retired after 35 years) and Arto Asadoorian have introduced a host of creative intergenerational programs, including:

I vividly remember telling my wife soon after we married that if a music teaching position ever became available in Belmont, that would be the ‘dream job.’ So a year later when an interim position opened up at Belmont High School, we moved back to Massachussets from New York, and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I have had the great fortune to teach in excellent schools and communities in other towns and states, but they can’t compare to teaching music in Belmont. The level of support we feel from our district administration and from the community is just incredible.
– Arto Asadoorian

The Stein Chamber Music Festival honors the late Joe and Lise Stein, who frequently played chamber music with their three daughters and other families in the 1970s at their house on Goden Street. Performing at the 1976 festival is then-college freshman Sarah Freiberg Ellison, right, now chair of strings at Powers Music School (and daughter of school cofounder Mildred Freiberg). (Ann Omohundro photo)

Powers Music School

The music school has brought harmony to Belmont for more than five decades, with ensembles and rock bands as well as community programs. New executive director Gavin Farrell says he is excited to be expanding the school’s community engagement through biannual Workshop Weeks, Belmont Scholars (a dedicated scholarship program for BPS students), and the new Belmont Learning Choir at the Beech Street Center. Here are just a few of their many other offerings:

Making music is as meaningful and fun now as it was when I was a teenager. It stirs the soul. It keeps the fingers loose. It connects me to the school and community, which is extra wonderful when my daughter and I play together. – William Messenger

If you don’t see an opportunity here that’s right for you, why not start something yourself? The Belmont Cultural Council helped many of the above programs get started. For more information on applying for funds and a list of past recipients, go to www.mass-culture.org/belmont.

 

Community Music an Integral Part of Belmont History

By Sara McCabe. All images courtesy of the Belmont Historical Society.

A quarter was the price of admission at one of the first concerts by the Belmont Musical Association in 1862.

Music has played an essential role in Belmont life dating back almost to the original founding of the town. Thanks to the Belmont Historical Society archives, we have accounts of festive parties with collective music-making at the original “Bellmont” estate of Mr. and Mrs. John Perkins Cushing. In October 1861, the Belmont Community Music Association formed and began hosting concerts at local churches only a few months later.

Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow attended one of the “musicales” at the estate for which the town of Belmont was named.

Several other groups were active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well, such as the Belmont Musical Club and the Belmont Orchestral Club. There is little documentation of music groups from World War I through the Korean War. In the mid-1960s, however, five music teachers came together as the Belmont Music Committee, later named the Powers Music School in honor of founding director Ellen Powers. If anyone is aware of other community music organizations active in the early 1900s, we would love to hear from you. Please send a letter to the editor at bcfprogramdirector@gmail.com that we can share with our readers.

 

Historic Highlights

  • 1859 Incorporation of the town of Belmont
  • 1861 Founding of the Belmont Community Music Association
  • 1954 Founding of the Belmont Community Chorus
  • 1964 First piano festival (now named Mildred Freiberg Piano Festival), which inspired formation of the Belmont Music Committee, later the Powers Music School.
  • 1969 Beginning of private lessons by the Powers Music School
  • 1973 Arlington-Belmont Chorale formed with the merger of the Chorale of the Philharmonic Society of Arlington and the Belmont Chorus
  • 1974 Inaugural Stein Chamber Music Festival
  • 1975 Arlington-Belmont Chamber Chorus founded
  • 1990 Payson Park Festival founded
  • 2000 First Judith K. Record concert
  • c. 2010 Chenery Middle School Parent/Teacher Band and Chorus formed
  • 2012 Belmont Community Chorus founded
  • 2018 Inaugural Belmont Porchfest

In the late 19th century, members of the Belmont Musical Club were notified of meetings by postcard. This note indicates that a fee of 10 cents was required for membership.

 

Sara McCabe is editor of the BCF Newsletter.

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