The Belmont High School auditorium will soon be reverberating with the sounds of Scottish-inspired folk melodies, as student musicians play with internationally acclaimed fiddler Hanneke Cassel and guitarist Keith Murphy.
During a two-day residency taking place Oct. 21-22, Cassel will lead fiddling workshops for approximately 300 students in grades four through 12.
The residency will culminate with the Belmont High School orchestra playing two of Cassel’s pieces, inspired by the musical traditions of the Isle of Skye and Cape Breton.
“Folk music is a really important part of our country,” said Cassel. “To provide opportunities to learn music that actually is part of these communities and carries on through the folk tradition is really important.”
Falling In Love
Cassel discovered a love for music during her childhood, growing up in a small Oregon town.
“My mom is a retired music teacher, so there’s a lot of music in the house, and I think I always wanted to play,” she said. “In high school, I realized I wanted to keep doing it professionally, and Boston proved to be the perfect place, and I’ve been here ever since.”
Cassel said one of her formative experiences as a musician was attending music camps.
“I went to a fiddle camp, and I met other kids playing fiddle, and I was really drawn in to keep playing the music because of the community aspect,” she said.
Beginning with Texas-style fiddling, Cassel later developed a love for Scottish music.
“[I] came to Berklee (College of Music), and then, of course, Boston is just a hotbed for all styles of music,” she added.
During her travels to perform, Cassel realized the importance of music in transcending language barriers and building friendships.
“It’s so fun, and in the Scottish scene, there’s all this dancing,” she said. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot — how you can end up meeting people and playing music with people that actually have really different beliefs than you.”
Folk Music to Young Musicians
Cassel said fiddling allows students to connect with peers and express themselves.
“As a kid, when you’re dealing with so many other things — like emotions and hormones and everything — having an artistic outlet that you can share with other kids is really important … and then, if you end up doing this professionally, that continues forever — going places and seeing people and jamming,” she said.
Cassel is excited to introduce students to new techniques.
“I love going into these situations and really working on rhythmic stuff and groove,” she said.
Margot Reavey, the orchestra director for Belmont High School, invited Cassel to teach her students after taking fiddling classes with her at Club Passim in Cambridge.
“It was just really fun,” said Reavey. “I really enjoyed learning to play in a different way.”
She said the students get a lot from meeting professional musicians.
“To have a pro in front of them who can relate to them and have them try out things and bring out more music from them — I think it’s just really exciting,” Reavey said.
In preparation for the Oct. 22 concert, the Belmont High School orchestra is listening to Cassel’s recordings and experimenting with playing by ear, in addition to following standard notation.
“It feels like we’re doing something different like it’s a jam session instead of playing a Beethoven movement or something like that,” said Reavey. “The same way you would take a science class to a science museum, it’s giving some real-world experience … a real-world opportunity to meet active musicians and give some more perspective … [that] it’s a career. It just kind of opens them up to new genres, too.”
Creating opportunities for artist residencies
Parents of Music Students (POMS) — a group of Belmont parents providing students with opportunities to participate in workshops and concerts with visiting musicians — is helping to fund Cassel’s visit.
Other musicians POMS has brought to Belmont Schools include Project Trio, a group fusing traditional chamber music with jazz, hip-hop, and world music influences, acclaimed brass quintet Boston Brass, award-winning saxophonist Gary Smulyan, jazz drummer Sherrie Maricle, and collegiate a capella group Tufts Beelzebubs.
According to the POMS website, the parent-run organization “helps Belmont music educators expand the musical horizons of K-12 students — in band, chorus, orchestra and general music — while helping them discover new skills, find new sources of inspiration, build friendships, and make life-long memories.”
The Belmont High School orchestra concert featuring Hanneke Cassel and Keith Murphy will be held Tuesday, Oct. 22, from 7 to 9 p.m. The event is free to the public, with a suggested donation of $5 for students and $10 for adults.