By: Renee Bordner
NWE Music Studio Director

By: Renee Bordner
​NWE Music Studio Director

Happy October!

Hopefully this month brings your family some autumn fun and modified Halloween traditions!  We hope that your family has settled into a consistent routine.  The back to school season is one of setting new goals for many.  Our team is committed to helping your students succeed with their music even in this pandemic.  Please connect with your instructor to discuss these goals and methods to achieve the goals.  Your instructor and I can help with setting up a solid practice routine that meets the needs of your family.  Now is a great time to create a map of what your student would like to participate in for the rest of the school year! 

We are offering many opportunities this year, including a composing competition, our annual Winter Holiday Recitals, our annual scholarship competition, Piano Guild Auditions, Royal Conservatory Exams, and our Honors and Senior Recital.  We plan to schedule some informal assisted living facility and Sudbury Housing Authority Recitals and to resume attending youth open mic nights at two local venues.  We will continue to celebrate our students who achieve their Practice Club status as well.  All of these events and programs are optional and our team is committed to guiding our students to be successful at them.  Feel free to contact us at any time for more information.  We will also post more information in our monthly newsletters.

Wishing you and your family the best this Fall!

As part of the studio’s dedication to providing a variety of teaching methods and opportunities for students of all ages and interests, Note-worthy Experiences is offering a wide selection of group classes and workshops this coming Fall. These classes cover material that may not be available to students during their regular music lessons. The studio has hosted many successful group classes in the past, including a Jazz workshop and Musical History class, and we are thrilled to introduce these new courses and to offer even more options for our students.

Please see the Group Classes page on our website for more information about the following courses.

Musical Theater in America: An Interactive History 
Through this course, students will become familiar with some of history's most important musical theater productions. Each 90-minute class is divided into two 45-minute sessions. During the first half, we will discuss the shows' plots, music, composers, actors, and the socio-political circumstances surrounding their premiers (including, for example, the Great Depression and Vietnam War). During the second half, students will have the opportunity to perform, as soloists or in groups, selections from any of the musicals discussed the previous week. Music will be available for students playing any instrument. These performances will be treated like master classes, where both the instructor and other students in the class will give helpful feedback to improve the performers' artistry. Musicals from Showboat to Hamilton will be covered and everything in between!
 
Our Music: Early Childhood Class 
Our Music is caregiver-and-me style class that explores the many wonders of the voice and aims to foster a lifelong love for music for everyone! Through its eight weekly sessions, Our Music introduces babies and pre-schoolers to timeless classics and lesser-known folk songs from all around the world. Children will learn to listen to, sing with, and play music with instruments in every class, and build a musical vocabulary along the way. Our Music is committed to giving children the gift of music, and even gives participants a chance to be budding composers themselves; each group within a course will create and record a brand-new song that will be recorded at the last session and that will be shared with all to keep for years! 

Rock/Jam Ensemble 
The series is for students who have already attained an intermediate level of skill on their instrument and are looking to engage in group playing and live performance opportunities, in addition to further developing their technique, repertoire, and improvisational abilities. While working towards live performances at Note-Worthy events, students will also learn about the stylistic and cultural conventions of many styles of music that have influenced the rock idiom, and play a wide variety of music from the 20th century. Students will also participate in writing original music with the ensemble to perform live.
 
Advanced Music Theory I 
This course will guide students through topics such as intervals, chords & keys; scales and chords; introduction to chordal analysis; cadences and non-chord tones; introduction to secondary dominate and Neapolitan chord.
 
Exploring Pop Music
Have you ever thought that you could be the next Taylor Swift? Justin Bieber? Shawn Mendes? Using their imagination and creativity, they have created some of the most popular music in history. How did they do this? They practiced and followed their instincts. This class will look at some of the popular music from the last few years and discuss, compare, and analyze them. Students will have the opportunity to create their own song over the duration of class. Each enrolled student will select 3 popular songs that the course will revolve around. 
 
Chamber Ensemble Sessions 
This Chamber Music series is for our wind and string students and especially great for students that don't have an instrumental program in school, are home schooled, or need a more motivating group experience. Students will receive music in September based on who has signed up and what instrumentation is available.  The goal is for the groups to perform at our upcoming events. 

Rachel Stroia is the Office Manager at Note-worthy Experiences Music Studio. In addition to working at Note-worthy, she is also a student at Suffolk University and enjoys reading and cooking. 

It’s been a busy spring for me, not only because of my season of gigs here in Boston (and an upcoming trip to Asia), but also because I have been teaching some very special jazz classes at Note-worthy Experiences here in Sudbury.  Each two-hour class was about a jazz legend who has been a major influence on not only my style, but the sound of just about every other jazz musician alive today. The topics for these classes were, in order: Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane.

While these three musicians are all from before my time (Miles Davis passed away one year before I was born), they all share a common thread beyond that of being famous jazz instrumentalists.  They are some of Black music’s greatest innovators. They never stopped developing their styles and they would always find a way to keep their sound fresh. And, they would frequently collaborate with other major artists of the 20th century – some of whom might have seemed like unusual choices at the time.

For example, you may think of Duke Ellington as a Swing Era big band leader and pianist (the peak of Swing was in the 1930s), but he also came out with solo piano albums and small group releases as well.  Take his 1962 album Money Jungle, which is a trio LP (piano, bass, drums) and feels much closer to his bassist Charles Mingus’ free-jazz experiments than any previous album by Ellington would.  That same decade, Duke Ellington would carry his experimentalism to a new level with his Sacred Concerts, which are very classically influenced, but also made the bold move of taking modern jazz to the church.

Miles Davis was active as a bandleader for six decades (from bebop in the 1940s to his brief 1991 hip-hop experiment), and his music was the hardest to fit into one short masterclass.  Davis frequently made forays into jazz-rock fusion in the second half of his career, provoking many arguments about how to even define the term “jazz.”

Then there is John Coltrane, who played with Davis frequently in the early days.  Coltrane’s life was sadly cut short at 40, so he never got to hear Miles Davis’ fusion period – however, he managed to fit a large discography into his 10-year recording career.  He was a major developer of the free-jazz style that was popular in the 1960s, when political activism and communal living were a major part of many people’s lifestyles.

It was very hard creating a list of tunes to play on the speakers for each of these classes.  There is so much material to choose from for each artist. And a lot of these jazz compositions (especially Coltrane’s) are so long that there’s no way that I would have time to play the entirety of each recording in class!  But the frequent collaboration-based and adaptable nature of jazz music means that it is important to study each musician’s career from beginning to end.

At each class, I also did an improvised jazz jam session with the Note-worthy students who had come to attend.  Most of Duke Ellington’s tunes were written within a standard 32-bar form or 12-bar blues form, but Miles Davis introduced a jazz tune with only two chords, and John Coltrane wrote some tunes in three keys at once.  It’s always important as a jazz musician to be able to play flexibly through different tempos and chord changes.

In short, this was a wonderful experience and I hope to do more of these classes in the future!

Matt Savage is a piano instructor at Note-worthy Experiences Music Studio. Matt is also an Adjunct Instructor at at Bunker Hill Community College and teaches at the Community Music Center of Boston and at Applied Behavioral Learning Services (an organization near Boston for children and adults with autism and other developmental disabilities). Matt gives masterclasses and workshops domestically and internationally (in English and Spanish) as well as private piano lessons. For more information about Matt, please visit Matt's teacher page. 

The information below contains links to websites owned and operated by third parties. These links are provided for your information and convenience only and are not an endorsement by Note-worthy Experiences of the content of such linked websites or third parties.

https://www.spencerbrookstrings.com/pages/music-festival Concord, MA, has offered string students a fantastic week of making music in an atmosphere of fun and friendship. Participants – from 2nd through 12th grade – play in small chamber music groups and also in big orchestras. 

Sonatina http://www.sonatina.com/summersonatina.html / 1-5 weeks Bennington,VT ages 7 - 16 for piano Some of our students and / or instructors have attended some of these programs.  Contact Renee at rbordner@note-worthyexperiences.com if you wish to connect with an alumni of these programs.

Berklee https://www.berklee.edu/summer/programs (Berklee College of Music & Boston Conservatory) Many day and overnight camps for students of all ages.

New England Conservatory Jazz Lab / 1 week Boston, MA jazzlab@necmusic.edu 617-585-1335 ages 14-18 / ensemble, jams, songwriting/composition, listening, entrepreneurship, audition prep

New England Conservatory Festival Youth Orchestra / 3 weeks Boston, MA fyo@necmusic.edu ages 13-18 / intermediate to advanced-level strings, brass, winds, percussion (Not offered summer 2018)

Apple Hill Center / five 10-day sessions Nelson, NH music@applehill.org 603-847-3371 focus: chamber music workshops ages 12-79 / strings, wind, piano

Aspen Music Festival / 8 weeks (half session available) Aspen, CO asaint@aspenmusic.org 970-205-5054 ages 12-18 / all instruments

Boston University Tanglewood Institute / varies with the program from 2–8 week Lenox, MA tanglewd@bu.edu 617-353-3386 ages 14-18 / all instruments

Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp / four 2-week sessions Twin Lake, MI 231-894-1966 focus: 5,300 students & 175 performances each summer in an outdoor woodsy environment grades 5-12 / all instruments

Cadenza / 5 weeks Oneonta, NY info@nysmf.org 607-267-4024 focus: many programs available including chamber music, flute institute, private instruction, jazz ages 11-15 / instrumental, guitar, piano, voice, percussion, jazz

California Summer Music / 3 weeks San Francisco, CA csm@csmusic.org 415-753-8920 focus: solo, chamber music, composition age range: 13-26 / composition, strings, piano
Camp Encore Coda / 3–6 weeks Sweden, ME jamie@encore-coda.com 207-647-3947 focus: chamber, private lessons, jazz, rock & roll, large ensembles ages 10-18 / strings, wind, brass, piano

Castleman Quartet Program / 7 weeks Fredonia, NY ccastleman22@gmail.com 585-274-1592 no age specifics given, very selective (more advanced students)—only about 40 students in entire program / violin, viola, cello

Chamber Music Institute at Holy Cross / 6 days Worcester, MA aresker@holycross.edu (508) 793-2296 For high school and college aged violinists, violists, cellists and pianists

Chautauqua Music Festival / 7 weeks Chautauqua, NY music@ciweb.org ages 17-25 / instrumental, piano, voice

Credo Oberlin Chamber Music / 3 weeks Oberlin, OH see below
Credo Prelude: Elmhurst College / 2 weeks Elmhurst, IL office@credo-music.org 440-774-3658 age 11-18 / strings, piano, chamber music

Cremona International Music Academy and Competition / 2 weeks Cremona, Italy 646-206-4024 info@internationalmusicacademics.com focus: chamber, private lessons, practice, performance, competition ages 12-18 / strings, piano

Decoda Skidmore Chamber Music Institute / 2 weeks Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY focus: chamber music ages 15+ / instrumentalists

Eastern Music Festival / 5 weeks Greensboro, NC Info@easternmusicfestival.org 877-833-6753 focus: orchestra, chamber music, private lessons ages 14-22 / orchestral instruments, piano

The Fredericksburg Brass Institute (FredBrass) / 1 week Northampton, MA ages 14-18 / brass players

Greenwood Music Camp junior & senior / 2 weeks (junior), 5 weeks (senior) Berkshires, MA debby@greenwoodmusiccamp.org 413-320-5908 ages 10-13 (junior), 13-18 (senior) / all instruments
Heifetz / 6 weeks Staunton, VA office@heifetzinstitute.org 540-907-4446 ages 13-27 / violin, viola, cello

Indiana University Summer Piano Academy / 3 weeks Bloomington, IN karmtayl@indiana.edu 812-336-4465 focus: piano

Indiana University Summer String Academy / 4 weeks Bloomington, IN musicsp@indiana.edu 812-855-6025 focus: chamber, private lessons, practice grades 7-12 (piano), ages 12-18 (strings) / strings, piano
International Institute for Young Musicians / one 3-week session; two 2-week sessions Lawrence, KS info@iiym.com 949-584-5709 focus: Student takes 2 classes 3 times a week; private lessons twice a week; 3 hours practice per day; recitals and community performances. ages 12-23 / piano

International Summer Music Academy “ Music in Regensburg” / 2 weeks Regensburg, Germany aiokheles@comcast.net focus: chamber, private lessons, practice, performance ages 12-18 / strings, piano

Interlochen / various programs, various lengths Interlochen, MI admission@interlochen.org 800-681-5912 or 231-276-7472 focus: many programs—band, brass, choir, music composition, orchestra, percussion, strings, voice, woodwinds grades 3-12 / strings, voice, brass/percussion, composition, piano

Killington Music Festival / 5 weeks Rutland, VT kmfest@sover.net 802-773-4003 focus: chamber music, private lesson, practice ages 14-23 / violin, viola, cello, piano
Kinhaven Junior & Senior / 2 weeks (junior), 6 weeks (senior) Weston, VT kinhavenmusic@aol.com 610-868-9200 focus: orchestra, chamber music, private lesson, practice grades 4-7 (junior), ages 13-18 (senior) / orchestral instruments, piano

Luzerne Music Camp junior & senior sessions 4 weeks (2 week option available for junior) (6-8 week sessions available) New York, NY info@luzernemusic.org 518-696-2771 ages 10-14 (junior), 15-18 (senior) / strings, piano, winds, brass, percussion

Meadowmount / 7 weeks Westport, NY admissions@meadowmount.com 518-962-2400 violin, viola, cello, piano
Music at Menlo: Young Performers Program (day/boarding options) / 3 weeks Atherton, CA edward@musicatmenlo.org 650-330-2030 focus: chamber ages 9-18 / intermediate, pre-conservatory, and early-conservatory-level pianists, violinists, violists, cellists

Music on the Hill (day) / 3.5 weeks Belmont, MA moth@powersmusic.org 617-484-4696 focus: chamber music ages 9-14 / all instruments

Musica Mundi / 2 weeks Waterloo, Belgium info@musicamundi.org 32-0-2-652-0101 focus: chamber ages 10-18 / chamber music

Narnia Festival / 2 weeks Narni, Italy NarniaArtsAcademy@gmail.com +39 0744 403132 instrumentalists, singers, dancers, composition, performance, conducting, language www.narniafestival.it

New England Music Camp / 7 weeks (half session available) Sidney, ME info@nemusiccamp.com 914-498-6143 focus: strings, winds brass, percussion, piano, guitar, voice, musical theatre
Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute / 2 weeks Oberlin, OH summer@oberlin.edu 440-775-8044 focus: baroque chamber music, use of baroque instruments, 1 college music credit available grades 9-12 / voice, strings, piano, winds

The Perlman Music Program / 7 weeks Shelter Island Heights, NY info@perlmanmusicprogram.org 212-721-8769 focus: chamber, private lessons, masterclasses, practice, 38 exceptionally gifted students are accepted each summer ages 12-18 / strings

Point Counterpoint "Prelude," / 1 week Sessions #1–3 / 3, 3, and 2 weeks Young Artists Program / 5 weeks Leicester, VT pointcp@gmail.com 267-886-5359 (Oct-Apr) 802-247-8467 (May-Sept) focus: chamber music, private lessons, practice, music theory ages 8-13 (prelude), ages 11-17 (sessions #1, 3), grades 9-12 (session #2, young artists program) / violin, viola, cello, piano

Rivers Summer Youth Programs / 1 week Weston, MA d.tierney@rivers.org 339-686-2293 Summer Music at Rivers junior & senior sessions (day) / 2 week sessions focus: chamber music, jazz, improvisation, ear training jazz instruments ages 8-18 (Youth Orchestras), grades 2-6 (junior), grades 7-12 (senior) / all instruments

Rocky Ridge Music Center / 4 weeks Estes Park, CO rrmc@rockyridge.org 970-586-4031 focus: 2 private lessons per week, orchestra, chamber, master classes, practice ages 15-24 / all instruments

Sewanee Summer Music Center / 4 weeks Sewanee, TN ssmf@sewanee.edu 931-598-1225 focus: orchestra, chamber music, private lessons, practice ages 15-23 / all instruments

Sing this Summer / 1 week Amherst, MA singthissummer@gmail.com ages 7-18 / voice, choir, musical theatre, also have strings program

Walden School Music Camp / 5 weeks Dublin, NH students@waldenschool.org 415-648-4710 ages 9-18 / composers, strings, guitar, voice

Yellow Barn Young Artists Program / 2.5 weeks Putney, VT daniel@yellowbarn.org 802-387-6637 ages 13-20 / strings, winds, piano, composition

Youth and Muse / 1–3 weeks Boston, MA yohei@youthandmuse.com 617-939-4495 Focus: Every student will have an opportunity to play a concerto with orchestra, and selected students will appear in a concerto concert as soloist. Ages 12-18 / strings, winds, piano

Note-worthy Experiences instructor Yuki Hori will be conducting a series of 3 Voice Masterclasses for teens. The workshops will be held on Sunday February 11th and March 4, 2018, from 3-5 pm at 75 Witherell Drive Sudbury. The cost is $35 per class. [UPDATE: The class will NOT be held on Superbowl Sunday, February 4.]

Overview: Classes will be in masterclass style, where students will prepare a piece in any style and perform in class and learn the elements of vocal techniques. This class will provide an opportunity for students to work on their vocal and performance challenges and gain a better understanding of their vocal function.

Pre-requisite: The class is designed for anyone taking voice lessons at Note-worthy or interested in pursuing a singing career. To participate in the class students will need to know their musical alphabets and have basic musical reading skills and knowledge. 

Please contact Renee at rbordner@note-worthyexperiences.com for more information or to register.

Note-worthy Experiences instructor Matt Savage will be conducting a series of 3 Jazz Workshops for tween and teenage students.  The workshops will be held on Sunday January 21st and February 11th from 6-8 pm at 75 Witherell Drive Sudbury. Students must register with Renee by January 1st.  Light refreshments will be served.  The cost is $35 per class.  The attire is casual. [UPDATE: the workshop will NOT be held on Superbowl Sunday, February 4.]

Class Descriptions:

Duke Ellington - This class will focus on the life and music of pianist and big band leader Duke Ellington, one of the most influential composers in jazz history.  Special attention will be given to the commercial popularity of swing music in the 1930s, as well as the increasingly classical music-influenced and ambitious nature of his later pieces.  The humor of many of Ellington's compositions will also be mentioned.

Miles Davis - This presentation will be about trumpeter and jazz innovator Miles Davis, who helped clear the way for new jazz styles in each of the six decades of his musical career.  From bebop to fusion to electronic music, the class will focus on the albums that shook up the jazz world.  The intense celebrity lifestyle and artistically important moments of Miles' career will also be examined.

John Coltrane - In his short life, Coltrane transformed the tenor and soprano saxophones into something entirely new - and some tunes from "The Sound of Music" and "Mary Poppins" were never the same again.  From his composition of a piece in three keys at once to the simple chanting of "A Love Supreme," the development of avant-garde jazz will be explored, along with the softer side of his sound (which audiences often missed).