Spindrift Music Company
38 Dexter Road, Lexington, MA 02420
Press Release June 6, 2012
Contact: Pamela Marshall pmarshall [ at ] spindrift.com
Play Book, New Music Book and CD for Piano Students
On Sunday June 17, Spindrift Music Company and Carroll Ann Bottino's Pacem Music Studio will be celebrating the release of Play Book, a new collection of piano music for students by Lexington composer Pamela J. Marshall. The package includes both a music book and a CD recorded by the composer.
The Play Book music resulted from several improvisation and composing workshops with Carroll Ann's students in 2007. The students, elementary through high school, worked with melody, harmony, and rhythm -- by listening, discussing, and improvising at the keyboard, solo and duet and even a quintet -- five playing together. Thirteen of them also composed their own pieces. The students have performed their pieces at Pacem workshops and concerts, and one student played Marshall's piece for the National Piano Playing Competition.
In addition to leading the workshops, Pamela composed a new piece of music for each of the twenty three students. She asked each one what kind of piece they would like: a dance, a song, fast, slow, happy, mournful, angry, rhythmic, pretty, high-pitched. Two of the older students asked Pamela to write music to go with their poems, which are included in Play Book. Pamela recalled, "I had only one disappointed response, where the student's idea of a galloping horse was different from mine."
About writing for the students, Pamela recalled her goals: "I wanted their first commissioned piece to give them the idea that new music can be personal and a part of their lives, and that composers are living, breathing people, rather than only old and dead. The workshops also were designed to inspire them to create their own music, improvised or written, and that along with the discipline of their lessons, music is lots of fun!"
The Play Book release party will be online too. On Twitter, use the hashtag #playbookmusic to see commentary about Play Book. You can also read and post comments on Pamela Marshall's Elusive Music blog. Perhaps someone will post a recording of themselves performing one of the Play Book pieces!
For the new Play Book publication, the book cover is more elegant than Spindrift's usual text-only covers. Pamela said, "I wanted the book cover to match the CD cover art, which is a wonderfully colorful, somewhat abstract painting by my friend and collaborator Sirarpi Heghinian Walzer, with figures that look like they are seated at music keyboards."
Play Book is available for sale at Spectrum Music in Lexington center.
You can preview the music tracks and order online in the Spindrift Bandcamp store. You can buy a downloaded PDF book, mp3 music tracks, or the printed book and CD.
Excerpts from the Release Party invite in June 2012
What's this all about?
Play Book is a new collection of piano pieces for beginning to advanced students by Pamela J. Marshall and Pacem piano students. Back in 2007, I did a composing and improvising workshop with the piano students of Carroll Ann Bottino. I wrote a special piece for each student, and several students wrote pieces too. I've collected them in a book, which I've just published, and I made a recording too, on the lovely piano at Middlesex Community College.
Now we're gathering to celebrate and I hope you can join us!
What will happen?
We'll eat some sweets, play some music from Play Book, improvise around the piano.
We'll be online too, tweeting with hashtag #playbookmusic, and commenting on Pam's Elusive Music blog. Get the music ahead of time and post your own performance of a Play Book piece!
Call Pamela for information and to RSVP- 781-862-0884
Call Carroll Ann for directions - 781-862-3337
You can purchase a downloadable or hardcopy version of Play Book at the Spindrift Bandcamp store.
Printed books and CDs are for sale at Spectrum Music in Lexington, MA.
Students whose music or poem is featured in Play Book
Ravi Raghavan Alex Tang Maria Goebel
Tristan Rix Stephanie McLaughlin James Robert White
Victoria Tang Shachi Phene Amudha Pazhanisamy
Art featured on the CD and book cover
The beautiful cover art is by Lexington artist Sirarpi Heghinian Walzer. Thank you, Sirarpi!
