WHERE EVERY VOICE IS HEARD
Washington, D.C., Community Partners Project Celebrates
the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop's 30th Anniversary

By Margaret Broughall

On October 5, Jeffery Watson conducted the premiere of his new work, "Where Every Voice is Heard." The piece was commissioned through the Washington D.C. Chapter's Community Partners Program, to mark the 30th anniversary of the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. The piece was performed by The Capitol Hill Youth Chorus, members of the Capitol Hill Chorale, Hill Winds, Kathy Detwiler (piano), Doug Poplin (cello), Katherine Darius (soprano), Susan Fleming (mezzo-soprano), and Linda Priebe (mezzo-soprano).

The following story appeared in the September 2002 edition of The Voice of the Hill (www.VoiceOfTheHill.com), a monthly newspaper published in Washington, D.C.'s Capitol Hill neighborhood. It is reprinted with permission.

(Voice of the Hill, September 2002) On a Saturday evening, in the darkened nave of D.C.'s Lutheran Church of the Reformation, a virtual curtain rose for a premiere. That premiere celebrated an art community that has fulfilled a mission for 30 years - the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop.

Created as part of a D.C. Chapter Community Partners project, "Where Every Voice Is Heard," by Jeffery Watson, commemorates the history and celebrates the spirit of the Arts Workshop - a history and spirit vital to the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

"The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop is home to an entire generation of budding artists and fans, and stands as a symbol of the spirit of Capitol Hill itself - uniting both new and longtime residents in artistic experiences that nurture community, build friendships, and feed the soul," says Watson, who is also the Art Workshops' director.

Building Community Through the Arts

The nonprofit Capitol Hill Arts Workshop is an "incubator" of sorts, dedicated to promoting individual creativity and building community through the arts. The workshop enriches the lives of thousands of children and adults annually, with performance and exhibition opportunities and classes in all of the artistic disciplines - from music, theater, and dance to the literary and visual arts.

The workshop embraces a wide variety of artistic forms, placing equal value on community and artistic discipline. This distinction makes it unique among organizations in the greater Washington area.

"Diverse programming is the source of our creative identity and key to the longevity of the organization," says Watson. "It enables the Arts Workshop to continue to grow, meeting the changing artistic needs of the community and making this a vibrant and exciting place to be."

Watson composed "Where Every Voice Is Heard" to reflect the Arts Workshop's commitment to forging and strengthening bonds among people through the arts. The style touches on the innocence of childhood and the idealistic, but attainable, dreams of adulthood.

"It is intended to be understandable and approachable, because that is what the Arts Workshop has been throughout its history," says Watson.

While this may be at odds with some impressions of "modern" music, Watson hopes people will "find a melody or two to hum on their way" out of the concert.

Four Movements
The composition is in four movements. The first, "We Are Our Stars," is a porch-waltz. Picture people on a front porch together - talking, reminiscing, and being good neighbors. Overlay that image with the possibilities of finding and building community through art, and you've got it. That feeling captures the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop at its best.

Next comes "Play." The inspiration for this movement came from playing with words and music - just for fun. Imagine the happy chaos of children singing just for the joy of it - tossing a ball in the air to watch it fly or dancing in circles until they spin out of control and go crashing down. When was the last time you blew bubbles? All of that liberating, intoxicating fun is a big part of the creative process at the Arts Workshop. In this movement, listeners hear bits and pieces of people playing as those pieces come together to form a coherent whole. Making art can be a messy process, but great beauty can emerge if you give it a chance.

The third movement, "Threads of Life," addresses the moments of personal revelation that come as a reward to those who stay connected to and through art - whether as actor or audience, creator or collector, magician or muse. Imagine a painter understanding for the first time how yellow changes to pink at the edge of the petal of a peace rose. Watch a dozen painters develop a dozen different paintings while gazing at the same still-life arrangement. Remember the first time you got goose bumps listening to a piece of music? Why does this happen? What is the secret? How do we share this joy of discovery?

For the fourth movement, "Home," Watson chose a traditional chorale format, echoing the deep spiritual connection found by many at the Arts Workshop. A simple, four-part harmony for a cappella voices expresses the hope for "a place where every voice is heard."

Watson scored "Where Every Voice Is Heard" for voices and instruments, showcasing the collective talents of Arts Workshop's members. It featured faculty soloists, and its choruses included members of the Capitol Hill Chorale and Capitol Hill Youth Chorus, along with other interested community singers. Hill Winds, the Arts Workshop's woodwind ensemble, and members of the workshop's instrumental music faculty joined the voices of local children and adults.

Capitol Hill Chorale singer and new Arts Workshop faculty member Laura Mitchell wrote the text for the first two movements, in which instrumental and vocal passages are woven together - just as various artistic disciplines are woven together at the Arts Workshop.

A Perfect Match
No one else could have written this composition but Jeffery Watson. As director of the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, he has unique access to the heart and soul of the organization. During his three years at the helm, the Arts Workshop has flourished and grown, now operating with a $750,000 budget.

"Finding time for the creative process is a challenge, mostly because there are not enough hours in the day," he says. "I sometimes envy the students here because they get space to create. Making that time is crucial - and it's a gift when it happens."

Watson's doctoral work in piano performance focused on 20th-century American music, and he has spent much of his career working with composers and performing new works. Before coming to the D.C. area in 1990, he was assistant professor of piano at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. He has been the pianist with the Contemporary Music Forum for the past four years, performing regularly at the Corcoran Gallery. In November of last year, he was soloist with the Honduran National Symphony Orchestra.

The Forum's Community Partners Program enables individual composers to work with community groups to create new works designed around their specific communities. "Rarely are the composer-in-residence and the community partner one and the same, and it's tricky for a person to wear both hats," says D.C. Chapter Director Jonathan Matis. "But Jeffery Watson was well-placed to write a piece that made the best use of the resources in the community. It's a privilege to sponsor the project."

For more information on the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, visit www.chaw.org.