Latest Posts From Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz
Violinist Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz is the founder of the Musicians of Ma’alwyck, a chamber ensemble in residence at the Schuyler Mansion (a New York State historic site) and at the Schenectady County Community College. She currently performs with the Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra and was a member of the first violin section of the Albany Symphony Orchestra from 1982 to 1997. She was also co-founder and director of the St. Cecilia Chamber Orchestra (1987-1998). She attended Boston University where she studied with Roger Shermont. In 2007, she received her Masters Degree in American History from the University at Albany, where she specialized in music in early America. www.musiciansofmaalwyck.org
January 20, 2011 -
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Dear Friends,
As many of you know, Nancy Winn, a long-time cellist with the Albany Symphony died on December 23 (Times Union obituary and guest book). As a tribute to her, I decided to make some changes to the program of the Musicians of Ma’alwyck on Feb. 5 at the Cohoes Music Hall, which will be given in her memory.
Nancy was a great supporter of our ensemble, and the mother of Merle Winn who fixed Fred and me up. Nancy and her late husband Hudson also had a profound love of nature (they established the Hudson & Nancy Winn Nature Preserve west of Albany). So I decided to modify our program to include her love of nature.
Instead of the Dvorak Terzetto, we are performing several of the Dvorak Cypresses for string quartet. We are also featuring the lovely setting by Gerald Finzi of poetry by Thomas Hardy titled “By Footpath and Stile.” Fred will be singing instead of Ethan Watermeier (Fred was the organist and vocal soloist at Nancy’s church for many years). We will save the Schoeck Notturno for another concert. Also on the program will be the moving setting of Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” by Samuel Barber and Petia will be performing two movements of solo Bach.
We hope to see you there!
July 21, 2010 -
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One of the many services classical musicians provide is to play for wedding ceremonies. During my nearly thirty years of life as a professional musician I have played hundreds (maybe thousands) of weddings. Many have been beautiful, moving events—even I have shed a tear at particularly poignant moment—some are run-of-the-mill weddings, with the bride and groom eager to get to the reception, and others are memorable, but for all the wrong reasons.
Talk to any musician in the wedding business and you will hear many funny stories. I think the two wedding experiences that stand out in my mind as being my “worst” come from two very different types of problems: the bride that has a relative/friend that is a great musician and wants to play with the professional ensemble; the bride that has a wedding planner from, well you know where, and coordinates the wedding into an unmanageable extravaganza.
Many years ago, when I was first getting into playing weddings, I was contacted by a sweet, young bride-to-be. She had very reasonable musical requests and wanted to make certain that the musicians were included in the reception (which is unusual and very kind), however she came with one small problem: a cousin of her fiancé, who was a “professional” violinist and wanted to play Vivaldi’s Spring and Summer with us. She assured me repeatedly that he was a fabulous player, one of the concertmasters of the Puerto Rico Symphony (which is a fine orchestra). I agreed for him to play with us; she insisted that it be in the middle of the ceremony, not in the prelude music, since this was a big honor for him to play for her. I told the bride that we would need to rehearse, and she promised that he would be there two hours before the ceremony to work with us. The day of the wedding came, we arrived two hours early as planned—no cousin violinist. We waited and waited, finally fifteen minutes before we needed to start playing, he arrived. The first issue: he did not really speak English; the second issue: he did not read music, but played by ear (turns out he played in a band in bars in Puerto Rico). He knew all the melodies from the Vivaldi, but none of the connecting material, therefore he jumped from one “famous” tune to another, leaving us wondering where in the world he was and unable to communicate with him. You can imagine the quality of our performance. I guess the redeeming aspect was that in spite of this unfortunate pairing of not quite-so-professional violinist and classical ensemble, the bride was thrilled and thought she had received a beautiful musical gift.
I think I will save the second experience for another blog entry as it is quite long, but I hope you will look forward to it and be entertained.
In the meantime, I am down here outside of Cooperstown, NY playing in the Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra. All four productions (Tosca, Tolomeo, Tenderland, and Marriage of Figaro) are first-rate and I encourage you to come see any or all of them. If you do come, please look for me in the pit!
May 25, 2010 -
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The Rewards of Artistic Collaboration
Though I am a violinist, when I was young (which is starting to seem like a very long time ago!), I thought I would be a ballet dancer. I was very serious about this pursuit, taking class five or six days a week, going to dance camp in the summers in Saratoga Springs (where we would dance many hours a day with strict, old-school Russian teachers) and dancing in annual Nutcrackers and other performances. As I turned sixteen, I realized that a dancing career, for a lot of reasons, was not for me, and that I enjoyed playing my violin and being a musician as much as I did dancing. But, my love for dance has remained; I still find it fascinating to watch and exhilarating to do!
One of my great joys as I have become established with Musicians of Ma’alwyck is to have the artistic freedom to pursue collaborations with other artistic mediums beyond classical instrumental music. Of course, last year’s production of The Poor Soldier is the most visible product of that joy, but throughout the ensemble’s existence I have tried to work in themes that tie in other forms of music or art or history. I have found these projects to be very satisfying both for the musicians and for the audience. I guess it was inevitable that I would eventually pursue a dance and music collaboration.
My husband and I participated in a local Dancing with the Stars event last year, our first introduction to ballroom dancing. Not only did we do pretty well in the competition (we came in second), but we also took to ballroom dancing with a passion. As we have continued taking lessons, I have gotten to know all of the directors of the dance studio pretty well, and I admire their hard work and also their incredible skills as dancers and choreographers. During the winter I started thinking how perfect it would be to combine original choreography with live Musicians of Ma’alwyck music for a performance and out of that Tango Magnifico was born.
The show combines classic 30s and 40s tango music (Piazzolla, Gardel, Rodriguez, Viadolla) with exciting choreography by Boris Spitchka and seeing it is like taking a step into a milonga in Buenos Aires. I am so pleased with how this collaboration has turned out. I cannot wait for my next project!
FYI: Musicians of Ma’alwyck and professional dancers from the Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Latham on Saturday, June 5th at the Polish Community Center in Albany, 7-11pm. Reservations necessary at 518/377-3623.
May 21, 2010 -
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As I refuse yet another offer to attend a dinner and decline yet another party, I realize that for my non-musician friends and colleagues my life as a free-lance musician is a complete mystery. Of course weekends are generally a musician’s busiest time, after all, we provide the entertainment or culture—however you view it—for the community, but even I was rather shocked when I thought back over my schedule since the beginning of April and realized that here I am performing as much as any full time symphony musician in a variety of different musical situations. And, my situation is no different than that of any of the full-time musicians in the Capital Region who piece together their musical professions with a combination of performing, teaching and free-lancing.
April 11th: Easter at Trinity Lutheran Church in Amsterdam with Mozart Flute and Harp concerto and much more. April 17th: Mozart Requiem and Bernstein Chichester Psalms with Albany Pro Musica. April 18th: Excerpts of Bach Christmas Oratorio and works of Berlioz, Rutter and Schultz with the Jubilate Singers. April 25th: my own concert with Musicians of Ma’alwyck and works of Hummel, Abel and more. May 2nd: premiered Tom Savoy’s new chancel opera The Agon of St. Joseph. May 8th: Bach b-minor mass with Burnt Hills Oratorio. May 16th: My Musicians of Ma’alwyck concert with works by Schumann, Spohr and Ascioti. During this time I also taught students, listened to juries and recitals, and played numerous receptions, parties, rehearsals, and practiced. Anyone who thinks the Capital Region does not have a lot of music, is not getting around!!
We are truly fortunate to have such an incredible array of musical offerings both drawn from local forces and from further afield. Cultural life here is stimulating and exciting and continues to grow and modify. I feel lucky to be here and be a part of it.
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