Baltimore School for the Arts (BSA) announced one of its largest official partnerships to date with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO).
The partnership involves several initiatives that provide BSA students with hands-on mentorship and learning experiences with the BSO’s musicians and artists.
The BSO is led by musical director Jonathon Heyward, the only Black American conductor leading a major U.S. symphony orchestra, and the youngest and first Black conductor to lead the BSO’s musical direction in the orchestra’s history. Rosalind “Roz” Cauthen, BSA’s executive director, is the first Black woman to lead the school.
Cauthen spoke with Baltimore Fishbowl to discuss the two institutions’ expanding collaborative relationship.
“We’re expanding the purview a bit more to include both dance and music and perhaps a few of our other disciplines as well,” Cauthen said.
She added that the school has partnered with the BSO for a classical music program, and are working with composer James Lee for performances inspired by some BSA students’ work.
“We’re doing more side-by-side rehearsals where our students rehearse alongside BSO orchestra members, which is really exciting, a great experience for them to be able to go and play beside the professionals and try to keep up and hang with them,” Cauthen said.
Members of BSA’s dance department were also able to perform a modified version of its “The Nutcracker” production recently with the BSO for two student matinees.
“It was just so exciting to see our students perform in front of this live orchestra,” she said. “It just felt elevated in a way. It felt like a new challenge for the students to learn how to dance to live music, as opposed to the tracks that we use here at school for ‘The Nutcracker.'”
Cauthen said the performances were attended by thousands of elementary school students, and even some middle school students.
“That synergy of working with multiple programs is what’s making the partnership seem even more expansive this year,” she said.
Students did not have a lot of rehearsal time with the BSO. Cauthen said they mostly prepared at the school with pre-recorded tracks of music, and that students had only three rehearsals at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. She was impressed with how in sync the dancers were with the live instrumentation.
BSA students walked from their school to the Meyerhoff, where there were at least 10 yellow school buses lined up with young children waiting to watch the performance, Cauthen described.
“I see all of the cute little elementary school kids lined up in a row with their teachers and they’re like hundreds and hundreds of them waiting anxiously outside of the BSO…. There were private schools and parochial schools and public schools. I think the majority of them were Baltimore City Public Schools, and just the excitement on their faces… I could feel the excitement of the students just walking up to the Meyerhoff,” she said.
One of BSA’s faculty members was part of the production, as well. Maria Broom, a well-known storyteller in Baltimore, has been teaching at BSA for many years and performed in “The Nutcracker” as the storyteller. She would come out to engage the students in the audience, help them follow the storyline, and Cauthen said the kids loved interacting with her and the show.
“I love watching the show with children, because they’re so honest in their response, and so forthcoming with it…. They were like, ‘Ooo, look at her dress!’, ‘Look at her costume!’, ‘Oh, wow, look at how high he kicked his leg in the air!’ — they had running commentary,” Cauthen said. “But they were also just a really good audience. They were dialed in. They were paying attention and laughing.”
Broom also had words of wisdom for the BSA students before they went on stage. Cauthen relayed that Broom told them go out there and make the children happy. “Smile, enjoy the dance, be joyful. You are about to bring happiness and joy to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of children. So go out there and enjoy it. This is what this is about. And it was just it was really special,” Cauthen said.
Cauthen described BSO musical director Heyward as a “force to be reckoned with,” crediting him in large part with rekindling the partnership between the two institutions.
“It really happened because of Jonathan,” Cauthen said. “He was staying at the Revival hotel, and he was passing BSA every day, and he was like, ‘I noticed the sign. I saw the students. I was like, “What is this place?” I was noticing the energy around your building.’”
Cauthen said Heyward approached the BSO’s education staff and told them he wanted to go to BSA.
“He came over one day with the entire education staff and some other folks. We gave him a tour of the building. He met with students, he met with faculty members. He was so generous with his time. And this was his first week in town,” Cauthen said. “Right away, we sat down and talked, and he’s said, ‘We’re going to do this. We’re going to work together more. We’re going to be partners,’ and the rest of the team just jumped on board.”
She appreciates Heyward’s newness and energy. Cauthen described what he’s bringing to Baltimore — a youthful, diverse background and energy — as feeling unique. “It feels like the right time and place for us for this to be happening. Jonathan is a is a real force and I think the city is blessed to have him.”
James Lee III, the BSO’s composer-in-residence, is creating a piece for the orchestra inspired by the art of Quinn Bryant, a former BSA student.
Speaking about the orchestral piece, Cauthen said Lee’s process is a bit shrouded in mystery, but last year he expressed a desire for a source of inspiration to the BSO staff. He mentioned the possibility of visiting a school and talking to students, and the BSO’s education director suggested he visit BSA.
“We didn’t know whether he wanted visual arts or theater or what was going to inspire him. And as he’s walking around, we had our senior visual arts exhibition up. And Quinn Bryant is, as an 18-year-old, already a prolific phenomenal painter. This young lady has talent just oozing out of her fingertips,” Cauthen recalled. “James saw her work and he said, ‘That’s it. This is who I’m inspired by.’ So, his composition is based on that.… He’s also inviting some of the BSA orchestral students to come and be a part of that process. I’m not sure what that looks like for our orchestra students’ involvement, but there are promises of that, so I’m excited.”
BSA’s modified, shortened performance of “The Nutcracker” was performed with the BSO only for school groups last week. The school does perform the full version of the ballet with their spin on the tale from Dec. 8 through Dec. 16 at the Baltimore School for the Arts. Tickets for “The Nutcracker: A Magical Tale in Mount Vernon” are still available by clicking this link.
