August at the Cello Museum
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What’s happening this month at the Cello Museum? Find out here.
Thank you for joining us at the Cello Museum. It’s August, and we’ve got a very busy month ahead as we finish our Founders Campaign, continue our summer Cello Guild courses, talk with recording artist and master teacher, Nancy Green, and more.
Final Days of our Founders Campaign
Thank you to all of our new Founders. All donations received during this 45-day campaign will be used to hire an assistant (our first paid position!), allowing our volunteer specialists to focus on research and writing projects. This will lead to new exhibitions, more articles, a podcast and educational materials for the Cello Museum as well as the Cello Guild.
Please become a Founder today! Our Founders Campaign ends on 7 August.
Pets in the Family
August is a great month for animal lovers. 8 August is International Cat Day and the 26th is International Dog Day. This month, we will feature some wonderful materials with cellists and animals. We’ll share photos and information from some of our Cello Museum family as well as cellist pet references curator Stacey Krim at the UNCG Cello Collection helped us find in their phenomenal archive.
Have some great photos to add? Contact us as soon as possible, so that we can try to include it.
New York Women Composers Spotlight: Sarah Hutchings
Sarah Hutchings
Every month, we celebrate women composers through our collaboration with the New York Women Composers (NYWC). In the second week of August 2022, we feature composer Sarah Hutchings and her work for unaccompanied cello, “Psicopata.yellow.”
Don’t miss the other articles in the series.
The Unladylike Instrument: The Cello’s Sexual and Gendered Metaphors
We will also have our second installment in a series about cello playing and gender by cellist and musicologist, Dr. Shulamit Sarid.
She tells us that
“while the cello itself is neither female nor male, its historical process of gendering attests to social imaginaries intimately connected with the acceptance of women cellists in society.”
Read the first article in this series here.
Meet One of the Great Cellists of Our Time: Nancy Green
Spoiler alert: We are thrilled to welcome her as one of our future Cello Guild Masters.
Postcards from Erica – Unaccompanied Cello Works by Black Composers Series
For August, Erica Lessie will send us another installment in her series of postcards featuring unaccompanied cello works by Black composers. Check out her previous postcards here.
Are you interested in having your piece featured in this or a future series? Please get in touch with us – we’d be happy to hear from you.
Ukrainian National Anthem Cello Project Update
Nuri and Ilay Kenes. Screenshot from YouTube video of “Hope,” composed by Ilay Kenes and dedicated to the children of Ukraine (© Ilay Kenes 2022). Performed by Ilay Kenes and Nuri Kenes.
Our update on our Ukrainian National Anthem Cello Project, scheduled for July, was delayed but will be featured in August. I spoke with Vlad Primakov this week, and he has a new project for the Cello Museum family to come together again to support Ukraine.
Our video continues to get views on Facebook and YouTube, and we were honored that the project was featured in the June print edition of The Strad as well as an online article. We’ve also had news of lovely videos from other groups and an original composition by the young cellist and composer, Ilay Kenes.
The video will continue to be available on the Cello Museum’s YouTube channel, so please share the information across your networks to help amplify this call for peace (and to listen to a truly lovely piece of music with a moving personal story). If you haven’t read it yet, we encourage you to read the story of Ukrainian cellist, Vlad Primakov, and donate to a charity supporting those affected as you are able. Thank you.
Sign up Now for Our Asynchronous Summer Cello Guild Classes
Our summer Cello Guild classes continue in August with asynchronous courses giving a deep dive into neck positions on the cello taught by cellist and curator, Erica Lessie. Live classes resume in the autumn.
Register for classes here or get in touch with any questions.
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