Creative Chats With Guests Tim Merton and Jennifer Morsches of the Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble (Building Local History Into Programming & Doing Outreach With Incarcerated Teens)
This is a recording from a series for the podcast at the Mosesian Center for the Arts called Creative Chats. This conversation was with Tim Merton and Jennifer Morsches, cellists and Artistic Directors of the Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble. The topic revolved around building local history into programming and doing outreach with incarcerated teens.
Released September 29th, 2025
(Click here to listen on streaming apps) (Full transcript below)
Find out more about Tim, Jennifer, and Sarasa at sarasamusic.org
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Transcript
Matt: 0:07
Hi there. Welcome to the Little Local Conversations Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Hanna. Every episode, I sit down for a conversation with someone in Watertown to discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown. This episode is a special live podcast event called Creative Chats that I do once a month over at the Mosesian Center for the Arts. And it's a way to gather creative people together to have a conversation on a topic of creativity. We have some great conversations on and off the recording. So if you'd like to come out, it's on the first Friday of every month, over at the Mazassian Center for the Art at 8:30 a.m. This episode is a conversation that was recorded at the September event with Tim Merton and Jennifer Morsches of the Sarasa Camber Music Ensemble. And we get into a good conversation about the two sides of their work from doing more traditional classical concerts and how they've worked in local history into their current programming. And then also the other side where they do outreach work, where they bring music and collaboration into facilities with incarcerated youth and the work that they do there with them. Both sides of that conversation were interesting, so I hope you enjoy this conversation. I give Aliana, the new executive director at the Mosesian Center of the Arts, a chance to give a brief intro, and then we get into the conversation with Tim and Jennifer. So, Aliana, you want to say some words first. Here we go. For the podcast.
Aliana: 1:22
And for the podcast, welcome to the Mosesian Center for the Arts. I know you've been here before. So thank you for returning. And thank you, Matt, for doing this event. We really, really love it. You'll see these little QR codes if you're feeling so generous. When you donate today, we're sharing donations with Matt. And that helps us continue to do this particular program, but also just keep creating programs and working with our local partners to bring the community together over and over again. I encourage you to check out our education department. We have classes for adults. We have classes for youth. Our youth fall registration is up. We also have our winter registration that's going up this month. We also have a lot of youth shows and lots of adult programming of all kinds where you get to actually experience art, make art, or just come and meet an artist or see a great show. So thank you for continuing to choose the Mosesian. And I'll hand this over to Matt.
Matt: 2:25
Thank you. And thanks for having us. For those of you who are listening at home, you should come see this space. It's a great space. There's always some exhibition going on. They have different shows. So definitely check out their website for all that, or just come stop by. It's a lovely place. And for those of you here today, thank you for making it out. So I'm here today to kick off the second season of Creative Chats, which is just a conversation on the topic of creativity in the arts and kind of bringing these topics out to the forefront, bring people together to help talk about these things in our community. So today's guests, this is the first time I've had actually two guests on the stage before. And I have Tim Merton and Jennifer Morsches of the Sarasa Music Ensemble. Do you guys just want to introduce yourself briefly and then we'll get a little bit into how you got into this project that you're doing?
Tim: 3:14
Yeah. Well, first of all, I should say we are local, definitely, Sarasa Ensemble. We're eight minutes from here by car. So it couldn't be closer. Sarasa has been around for 26 years now. It's our 26th season, I think. Or 27th season. I could go into the origins of it.
Matt: 3:34
Yeah, let's start yeah, let's start there. How did this come about for you?
Tim: 3:38
Well, I played in Sing Sing Prison in Austining, New York with a pianist once.
Matt: 3:44
I guess we should say you are both cellists as well, right?
Tim: 3:47
Yes. We're both cellists, sorry. But this happened to be with a pianist, and a friend asked if we would come and play for the inmates there. And it was such an amazing experience. They were so appreciative and so polite and so interested. It was just an amazing experience. So I kind of put that in my back of my head, because I had been thinking about starting a chamber music group. And I thought, if I do that, definitely there's going to be an element of outreach in that and hopefully in the prison system. So that's kind of how it started. And slowly we got our concert series going, and now it's been so many years.
Matt: 4:30
Yeah. And so you do concerts, you do typical concerts and you do these kind of outreach programs as well, so it's a combination, right?
Tim: 4:37
Yeah. Well, what happened was I tried, after the Sing Sing experience and after we'd started the group, I thought, well, we'll try within the adult incarceration system here in Massachusetts. But I just, it was like a stone wall at that time and didn't work at all. But then I found someone who was, said, why don't you talk to the people at the youth detention, the teenage detention facilities? And they were like, yeah, we would love it if you came to play for the kids. And that turned into an amazing relationship, which still goes on. I've known a lot of these facilities and programs for years now, and it's still going very well. And we added a residency program to it as well. So we can talk about that a little bit later.
Matt: 5:24
Yeah, we'll definitely dig into that because that's an interesting topic, obviously. So but yeah. And then, Jennifer, how's your involvement in the ensemble? How did that come about?
Jennifer: 5:33
Well, well, I am married to Tim. So that happens. So we're both cellists. I started helping him out with programming, and then little by little I started doing the programming full-time. Well, with Tim, we always discuss our programming. And we kept looking for repertoire that included two cellos, but we've almost exhausted it, but not really. I should say that we, Sarasa, plays both on period instruments and modern instruments. We typically play on instruments of the period, and the programs are always different personnel, different artists, different singers, depending on what the repertoire is and what the century is. But we do perform from the 17th to the 21st centuries. We have commissioned people to write pieces for our group. Our instruments are mostly, we play on gut strings, we play with period bows, harpsichord, forte piano, organ, and wooden flutes and original instruments as we can, which is a big thing here in the Boston area.
Matt: 6:35
Right.
Jennifer: 6:36
And then each program we bring to the incarcerated teens. It's called Music Unlocked. And then Tim can tell you about the residencies, which are a little more in-depth.
Matt: 6:46
Yeah. So you kind of have these two sides, it seems like, right?
Jennifer: 6:49
Yeah, it's a dual mission.
Matt: 6:50
Yeah.
Jennifer: 6:50
Yeah.
Matt: 6:51
Which is interesting. Yeah. So let's why don't we dig into start off with the kind of the classical music and the historical aspect of it? Because you have a concert coming up in Watertown that is kind of historical based. Do you want to talk about that a little bit and then I'll dive into our conversation about how you kind of tie in history with the music?
Jennifer: 7:09
Yeah, so our concert series typically are in Cambridge, at the Friends Meeting House, and at Fallen Church in Lexington. However, the Friends Meeting House this year, there's a clash in the scheduling. So our September and November concerts will be at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Watertown. Just down the road.
Matt: 7:31
There's only so many roads to go down in Watertown. So everything's just down the road.
Jennifer: 7:35
Yeah, so you can get there by bus, anything. And it looks like a really wonderful venue. So we knew, of course, about this huge Mass 250 celebration of the semi-quincentennial anniversary of when the shots ring out in Concord and Lexington. And we realized, well, maybe we should make the most of that and program something around 1775. And so this is what happens. You get a kernel of an idea and then you start looking for repertoire and how to include it and make it have something to do with this area. So unbeknownst to me, I read about William Billings, who was a really fame, the most famous composer, American bred and born here in Boston. He was the first published composer, and I came across his music. Being an instrumentalist, I wouldn't have known his music unless I sang, because he's very famous in the chorus world. And so that's where I found a lot of his repertoire. And then I found his first book of, it's called The New England Psalm Singer. And on the frontispiece, there's an engraving, and it's by Paul Revere. And so I was like, wow, this is really cool. So I started putting little things together. And I thought, well, let's look at Boston, but let's also show what was going across the pond in London, Paris, and Vienna at a similar time. So the program looks at music societies that started springing up at that time in the 1750s, 60s, 70s, and became very, very viable ways of having community. Listen to music, hear musicians play, hear new compositions played, see who the latest talent was. So it all sort of came together, and of course, I wanted to include some more familiar composers such as very young Mozart and Haydn, and then a lot of Italian composers who lived in London. And then there's the whole connection, of course, with the British crown and the colonies here. But it's not like a fight between musical idioms. But it's interesting that Billings, he wrote his own music and he didn't look at the European model at all. And it's really wonderful, wonderful stuff. So we'll be playing that. Our program is with soprano, violin, two cellos, and forte piano, but we can still get across the kind of music that was happening in these different places at that time.
Tim: 10:06
So it's a variety of sort of short pieces. It's with different combinations. There's even a couple with just two cellos.
Jennifer: 10:15
Yeah. That was an era when the cello started becoming quite well known as an instrument of a solo instrument. You know, it started gaining interest.
Matt: 10:24
Gotcha.
Jennifer: 10:25
Yeah.
Matt: 10:25
And for you personally, how do you, does this enrich the music for you, knowing the story of the history of it, and how's that influence how you portray it to the audience as well?
Jennifer: 10:36
Yes, absolutely. I mean, it is funny because I'm we program a year in advance almost, or we try to. And so we put things together, but then when I start doing more in-depth research, I'm always amazed at these connections between the composers or the works or the places. In fact, our season is called Connection, and it's based on, again, the frontispiece of this Billings first publication. So it's always amazing how distant places there are connections because people travel. And our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, went to those places in London and Paris and Vienna and heard those musicians play and perform there. And the other thing that happened at this time was music publishing became very important. So they brought the music back here. So that's how we have this culture. But what's interesting about Billings is he's a very independent character, and he brought something truly American to our culture. And it's because of him. And I wouldn't have known that had I not thought about doing this program.
Matt: 11:42
Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting how when you get those little ideas, how they can take it down different roads.
Jennifer: 11:46
It really is. It's like a rabbit hole.
Matt: 11:48
Yeah. And then maybe in terms of speaking to other creators and artists, what about the experience of tying this in with Mass 250? Did you learn anything from that about how to, you know, join in with these more mass efforts and what has that been like?
Tim: 12:02
Well, there's the constitutional question, which sort of ties into this and ties into what's going on today in our current administration with, I'll say that Sarasa is quite involved with social justice and even our little logo, what does it say?
Jennifer: 12:21
Live music, social impact, is our motto.
Tim: 12:25
So yeah, we, Jennifer sort of came across some of these amazing quotes, from that era.
Jennifer: 12:32
Should I read a few?
Matt: 12:33
Yeah, go ahead.
Jennifer 12:34
It's just really interesting. I don't know how many of you have heard of Phyllis Wheatley. Yes. So yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jennifer: 12:42
So she was born in West Africa, was bought as a slave, was put on the ship was called the the Wheatley, right? No, no Phyllis. The Phyllis was the ship that brought her over here to Boston. And she was purchased by a man named Wheatley. So she took on the name Phyllis Wheatley. She became the first female African poet or published poet. And she met Ben Franklin in London. But this is a fantastic quote from her. “In every human breast, God has implanted a principle which we call love of freedom. It is impatient of oppression and pants for deliverance.” And then another quote by the Marquis de Lafayette, who came from France to help George Washington with fighting the Brits, he wrote or said, “When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection is for the people and for each portion of the people the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensable of duties.”
Matt: 13:46
I can see that being sung maybe by someone too.
Jennifer: 13:50
Yeah, yeah. And so he brought back these ideas of equality, of freedom of speech, of liberty back to France. And that in turn he was very proactive in the French Revolution. And then from Benjamin Franklin, “without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.” And then another of his quotes that I just think is amazing, he says, “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” So that's sort of like a wonderful way of bringing our music, which is classical, to these incarcerated teens and involving them. Not that they have to play classical music, but they definitely get something from it. And then we learn from their music. They perform for us their raps or their poetry. So.
Matt: 14:47
Yeah. So this might be a good segway then into the outreach program that you guys do. So you explained a little bit before about how the idea got in your head by visiting Sing Sing and performing. But then how did you come back to that? And then how did you kind of build a whole program around it, you know?
Tim: 15:04
Yeah. Well, at first after the adult prison system did not work out very well here in Massachusetts, they were pretty reactionary in those days. I have to say they're much better now. And we have been to a few adult prisons, and it's been great. So we were playing in all kinds of places in the beginning. We would play in hospitals. I remember Perkins School for the Blind, elderly, sort of assisted living places. And then, as I said before, we just finally came into our own at the youth detention centers. It started out with us just doing like one-hour presentations of the music that we were doing in our concerts, which was quite different from anything they experienced. Not always, but a lot of them, it was the first time they'd heard any opera or classical, you know, a cello. What's that? And we were all going to a lot of those whenever we played our programs. And then I had the idea that it would be more interesting if and valuable to do residency. So we started doing this residency where we would go three times a week with the same program, one program of two hours each. So we really got to know the kids and we really got to work with them. And that was really interesting. And now we do at least four of those every summer. And that residency group is a special group of two singers, cello, and a keyboard player. And we do all kinds of music with them from musical theater to yeah, an example of that would be, well, songs like anything you can do, I can do better, which is a, you know, that one?
Speaker 01: 17:02
Tomato tomatoes.
Tim: 17:07
And oftentimes we'll put them into two groups, and one will do the tomato, and one will do the tomato. So they kind of like doing that. So that's the musical theater part. And then there's we all start usually the two-hour thing with playing our each a little bit. So I'll play the cello, the singers will sing solo stuff and duets together, and pianist will do something of his own. And he writes a lot of music himself.
Speaker: 17:35
Who's he?
Jennifer: 17:36
Daniel Padgett. The keyboard player. Yeah.
Tim: 17:40
He's incredibly versatile.
Jennifer: 17:42
And he can play any genre of music, actually.
Tim: 17:45
Yeah. He can put down a great beat for the rap stuff. He can play just accompany opera songs, opera arias. He's amazing. So then the other kinds of music, well, yeah, we work with them with their rap music. Sometimes I encourage them to bring prose. They all seem to write a lot of prose, a lot of lyrics, and they also all of them rap. So really the vocal side is the important part of the residency program.
Jennifer: 18:16
Can I just say something real quick? Just recently we did some residencies, or Tim did, and I visited, and one of the youths he did a rap in Creole. It was absolutely fantastic. And so, and we've had a a Brazilian do it in Portuguese before, so it's always very universal. Whatever language they use, we encourage them to use their language, and it's really great, actually. I think he recorded that guy.
Tim: 18:42
Yeah. I should say that almost all of the kids are either Hispanic or black in these programs.
Jennifer: 18:50
And we and we work with both guys and girls, but they're not they're not co-ed.
Matt: 18:54
Yeah. So take me through like when you go in, what is that interaction like? Are they receptive at first? Do you have to warm them up? How do you warm them up? How did you learn to build this relationship and make this interaction productive? You know, I'm sure it wasn't easy the first time you did it, and you're probably better at it now than you were years ago, right?
Tim: 19:11
Definitely better at it, but it's also, it's not easy when you walk in there. Mostly we're white and they're, you know, so we're coming at such different worlds. But for me, that's always been what's intriguing about doing this outreach work and trying to get our music across to people who aren't familiar with it. And Sarasa has, we've been to India. Once we were in India for three weeks, and that was another amazing experience of putting our music to them. It was mostly Baroque music. So that's always been a big interest of mine. And so when we first walk in, it is it's a little tricky, and we try to involve them as quickly as possible, right. And we go around and we learn their names just and we try to learn their names. Some of the names are crazy. But it's an important part. And slowly they become more comfortable with us and they realize that we're not there to discipline or judge. Or judge or anything, you know. They realize that we're just there to do music with them, and they really appreciate that. In fact, I have a few. We were recently this summer at the Kennedy School in Middleton. It's part of the RFK senior. I guess it's a nonprofit. Yeah. Well, I'll read a couple of the kids' things.
Matt: 20:38
Are these comments or these lyrics or what are these?
Tim: 20:41
Oh no, these are comments, feedback from the kids, but there’s also feedback from the staff because we found more and more of the staff come to see what's going on. So sometimes there'll be like 10 or 15 kids, but there'll be like six or seven staff in there as well. Not because they have to be, just because they want to see what's going on. Oh, here's a good one. “I enjoyed the experience hearing them come into our unit. We all got together as a team and made music out of sounds. It was fun to do so.” I mean, their comments are simple, but. “Appreciate you all for taking the time to perform for us. I enjoyed all three days, and shoutout to my guy Tim.”
Matt: 21:31
You're his guy, nice. Yeah. So the demeanor of these kids are changing over this time. Like, you know, crossed arms, like suspicious looks when you first walk in, and by the end, they're you're their guy.
Tim: 21:46
Most of the time. But then once in a while there'll be a situation where there's a guy who kind of is sort of the alpha in the group, and if he sort of has an attitude, it can turn everyone's attitude. So it's once in a while it becomes really difficult to get across to them and to get them to participate.
Jennifer: 22:07
Didn't last summer, not this one, but the previous, you had to just leave because nothing was happening. They just weren’t responding at all.
Tim: 22:13
Well, yeah, the last third time we kind of cut it short. But mostly it's amazing. And, you know, at the end of the experience, they come up and say, you know, high five, thank you so much, and all that stuff. So it's really good.
Matt: 22:29
And did you want to, you want to play some examples of some of how you interact with some of the kids?
Tim: 22:33
Yeah, I will do that. Here's just one more from the kids, a guy called Rondo. I think I asked, what did you enjoy and what could we do differently? He wrote, “Nothing differently, everything was good, all of you are good at the things that y'all do. I loved you. We loved you. I like the music, the singing, everything we enjoyed the time that we had with you. Keep going. Kids will love everything that you guys do. We love you all. Keep going, never stop. Thank you all for coming.”
Jennifer: 23:04
I just to mention because when we're playing or when they're doing their rap or we're doing something, sometimes we do pop songs. They're also really moving as well. They're, you know, they're boogieing as well in their chairs or getting up and it's just so good for their energy to do something where they express themselves, you know. That's the main thing that we get. Often the weeks during the year when we're doing our concerts and we bring excerpts of our program, that's the best day of the whole week, I have to say, for most of the musicians.
Tim: 23:37
So yeah, so the staff people to have some feedback, and I'll just read one of those for you. “I would describe it as fun for the residents. It gives them more ideas and insight into the world of music. The residents enjoy Sarasa as it is something different that they may have not seen before. The residents like being able to interact with Sarasa and participate. I think that Sarasa is great at what they do and extremely friendly with staff and residents. Great job.” Yeah.
Matt: 24:09
Yeah. Why don’t we hear a couple of examples because I think it'd be fun for people to hear some of the music you guys make together, you know.
Tim: 24:15
Yeah, and some of their music. I'll try and if we can.
Jennifer: 24:20
So often at the end of the week of these residencies, we get them to perform and Tim records them. So this is he's gonna play from our website some of the songs that are up there.
Tim: 24:31
Yeah. Well, here's one that one of the kids did about Sarasa, el rap, which was very sweet.
-Music-
Tim: 26:03
So yeah, you can hear our keyboard player just that's all just him improvising. You can also hear, yeah, there was a little chorus in the background of the two women singers. You could hear them kind of doing a little backup. And so we put together things like that, which is a lot of fun. There's a, should I just do a.
Matt: 26:23
Yeah, you can do another one.
Speaker: 26:24
Do they perform on a stage when you're doing it?
Tim: 26:29
No, we're in a room that's kind of like this.
Jennifer: 26:33
It's their cafeteria often. Or their game room as well. It's just everything kind of community room.
Tim: 26:39
And we also bring some hand drums. You could hear those in there as well. There's one. Oh, there was one freestyle. I don't know if you know about rap. They're amazing, these kids, when they, it's sort of an amazing process, but they have to get going with a rap with freestyle, and they pass it back and forth, and they just, it just comes into their head and it comes right out. It's in the moment, it's not written down. And here's one I think I said, hey, why don't you guys just do something about food? And so I'll just play a little bit of it, but it's pretty funny, really.
-Music-
Tim: 28:11
Okay, you got the idea. It goes on for a while, but it's one of my favorites. I just should play a little bit of one of the girls, maybe, so you can see that we do that as well. They love to sing songs, you know, together. A lot of songs together.
Jennifer: 28:30
Yeah. They prefer to do things together, the girls. It's interesting.
Tim: 28:37
Well, this is a song by Bruno Mars, just the way you are.
Matt: 28:42
And sorry, here I cut out the music because I don't want to get into any trouble for playing copyrighted material and uploading that onto different streaming services. So, like they said, it's a group of girls singing the Bruno Mars song together.
Tim: 28:54
Okay, you get the idea.
Jennifer: 28:56
So sweet.
Tim: 28:57
Yeah, they are very sweet.
Jennifer: 28:59
They are.
Matt: 29:00
Yeah, so that's great. So you guys play a little of your music to warm them up, and then you get them singing along, doing their raps, doing their songs and such. So yeah.
Jennifer: 29:07
It takes some encouragement to get them to sing or recite to us. But then when they do, then they all want to do it. Or during the year when we're doing the presentations. I don't know if you do this in the residencies. We get them to conduct our music so they can feel the pulse and the tempo. And then that really gets interesting because we tell them, look, you're the conductor, you have all the control, and then they really like to go fast or slow, loud, soft, and they really get into it. But that was interesting. The girls like to do that together, and the guys they like to be individuals.
Matt: 29:42
Interesting.
Jennifer: 29:43
Very interesting.
Tim: 29:44
Usually at some point during the three visits, I ask them what they, what their dreams are, because you know, I mean, most of these guys are, you know, they've been in street gangs, they just, their lives have been, are pretty awful, really. And so I ask them, you know, what are your dreams? What do you love to do? What would you want to do with your life? And I just go around to each one, and they're amazing how they tell us what, it's inspiring. You know, it kind of leads them. I hope that it helps them realize that there's alternatives to, to what they've come from and what they're gonna go out back to.
Matt: 30:31
Yeah, I think this will be a good time to open up some questions. So you have a question you want to.
Speaker 12: 30:37
I just wondered what kind of dreams the kids have, what they want to do, what they think they can do.
Tim: 30:43
Yeah. Well, they, it's really huge variety. I mean, some of the kids say, I'd like to work with kids. They'd like to work in DYS, Department of Youth Services, you know, they and others, you know, some of them wants to be a mechanic, or one of them wants to be, a once in a while there'll be one, yeah, I'm gonna be. Well, it's pretty clear because one of them is really good at the rap stuff, and it's and I just say, well, you're gonna be a rap singer, right?
Jennifer: 31:12
One guy the other day said, I want to be a priest.
Speaker: 31:16
Really?
Jennifer: 31:16
Yeah. How old are they? Fifteen to nineteen. Before going to the adult prison, unfortunately. A lot of them say I want to be rich.
Tim: 31:28
Or producer, you know, or one of them said I want my own business.
Jennifer: 31:32
Yeah, my own business. That's a big one.
Tim: 31:35
All kinds of things really.
Jennifer: 31:36
These facilities, I have to say, the one, they are so good about involving them and helping them dream dreams as well, I think, for the most part, right? The one, we were in Worcester, we were just in Worcester the other week. And everywhere you see it's, you know, about how good they are and what they can do, what they can hope to be. So it's encouraging, I think. It's changed a lot over the years, hasn't it?
Tim: 32:01
Yeah, yeah. I have noticed something which is pretty interesting, that the facilities, the programs that work the best are ones that are run by women. And the ones that work the worst are the ones where there's sort of military-style guys who are, you know, like that.
Speaker: 32:22
I'm wondering if the environment they're in physically makes a difference, if it feels like a prison or if it feels more welcoming and creative environment.
Tim: 32:32
Well, that's a good question. Yeah, we didn't talk about that. A lot of the facilities are new and they are definitely lockups, and they have their own room that they are, where they are locked in at night.
Jennifer: 32:47
And it's very bare in those rooms. Oh nothing. Nothing. And they all wear the same clothes.
Tim: 32:54
Yeah. But they also, for some of them, I'm sure it's way better than the way they live on the outside. You know, they have meals. They have classes. There's a lot of good stuff that's happening.
Jennifer: 33:09
It's safer.
Speaker: 33:11
I was also wondering, is the intention of the place rehabilitation or punishment?
Tim: 33:18
It's definitely rehabilitation, but of course they're in there because they've done something bad. And some of them, it's so obvious that they shouldn't be there. They're in the wrong place. But, the emphasis is also so much on accepting each other and working together, and that's what I think our residencies help with. I mean, that's what one of the comments was, you know, we did it together.
Jennifer: 33:47
And also, one of the comments, when we were performing the other day, Tim and I played a duo, and one of the guys said, Hey, you guys were talking to one another, you were conversing or you were having a conversation. And he got it immediately. They are very street smart, but they know authenticity from the get-go. And so they really sense things, and their reactions to music are what are really interesting and very special. So there's hope, but you, yeah.
Speaker: 34:16
So the kids that are part of this, are they just anybody who wants to go in, you can accept them, or do they have to do something to qualify, the kids that come to your programs?
Tim: 34:29
They are placed in some of these programs, yeah. They're placed. There are some programs that are more long-term. There's even some programs that are while they're waiting to be arraigned. You know, short term, but.
Jennifer: 34:46
Like two days, they're there for two days. But they happen to be in their unit and we visit that day, so they're there. Yeah. It changes a lot.
Speaker: 34:53
But they don't have to go through.
Jennifer: 34:55
No, there's nothing. They're just part of the unit, and we've organized it ahead of time, so they come if they're, you know, not ill or something like that. Yeah.
Tim: 35:05
Some of them are there for just three months or two months, some are there for three years or more.
Jennifer: 35:11
Yeah, they say hi Tim when they see you.
Tim: 35:15
I say, no, not again. But I often say at the end, I say, well, I, it was really great being here, and I hope I don't ever see you again.
Speaker: 35:28
Thanks so much for sharing your experience. I'm just wondering, is this a full-time thing for both of you, and how do you manage funding all of your programs?
Matt: 35:37
The eternal creative question.
Tim: 35:40
Yeah. For us, it's not full-time, Sarasa. You know, but there are these two parts of it. So it's pretty busy.
Jennifer: 35:48
It is busy.
Tim: 35:49
Funding, we get our funding from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, we have some funding. We also have funding from some of the towns like Lexington.
Jennifer: 36:01
Worcester gave us, Middleton. We had a National Endowment for the Arts, 24-25, and we were supposed to have it this year, but of course it got rescinded by the Trump administration. We got some funding from the Boston Foundation this year, so that will fill in those shoes. And then our patrons help us by donating.
Tim: 36:21
Yeah, people who come to our concerts. Usually at one point in the concert we tell them about how, because we'll be doing a presentation during the week, so we tell them how it went and what we did.
Jennifer: 36:33
And yeah, they like to hear about it.
Tim: 36:35
Also, there's some private foundations that help us. So we get some good support.
Jennifer: 36:42
You had a question. Oh, yeah.
Speaker: 36:44
I'm gonna go back to your original 250 work, and I don't remember the name of the composer that you were referencing.
Jennifer: 36:52
Billings. William Billings.
Speaker: 36:54
Yes. So when you figured out that they were kind of uniquely American. How would you describe what he was doing that was uniquely American, that was different than what was happening over in the UK?
Jennifer: 37:11
Yes, good question. He taught himself music. Okay, he, at the age of 14, he lost his father, and he had to find a trade so he could support his family. He became a tanner. But his real love was music, so he taught himself to sing, and he started writing these, what's called fuging style. And that the kind of music that was coming over on the ships from England or France or wherever, their singing was a bit more staid and solemn. And he started adding this sort of like spirit of hope and going for it and getting everyone to sing together. And he, in fact, started the New England Singing School through his work. And by being published, he was just, became very well known in Boston. He was born and bred in Boston. And I think it was, he was a congregationalist and he was very much supported by Samuel Adams. So I guess his music became very famous in the area. There were 17,000 people living in Boston in the 1760s. So I guess by word of mouth, people started singing. I think he was sort of a funny-looking character. One eye was gone, one leg was shorter than the other, one hand was withered. They called him a gargoyle. I think he was sort of an eccentric character. But on our concert, if you want to come, or it will be on our website later, we're doing two, a canon and an anthem by him. And it's just very, I don't know, it's uplifting music. It's sort of how you hear, you can hear Aaron Copeland coming from his music or Charles Ives. It's something, it's just a very different way. It's simpler, let's say. It's not so complex like you might find in Beethoven or even Mozart is so simple, but he does these amazing filigree things that make it very Mozartian. Or Haydn has these jokes and wonderful ways of changing harmony. Billings, I think, is straightforward, but it's got this fervor to it. And some of his, his Chester song became the patriotic anthem of the Revolutionary War before the Star Spangled, or way before the Star Spang, before uh Yankee Doodle.
Speaker: 39:28
What was that song?
Jennifer: 39:30
Chester. I can't sing it right here, but sorry. But you can find it. It's just I think it's maybe more all a one voice singing together and not too many complex harmonies. And the rhythms are straightforward, not too many triplets, so it's more duple. I am the Rose of Sharon, which we're playing, is just, actually that's quite complex. But it's, it's a you sing and then it's repeated. So it's easy for the congregation to follow and sing with.
Speaker 11: 40:00
Were they generally religious or in churches?
Jennifer: 40:03
They are religious, they are religious songs, but they also imbibe something about freedom, I think. I mean, everyone was religious in those days, I think, much more so than now. We're more secular now. But social and religious settings, singing was a common thing that they could do back then. There weren't any radios or record players or. And he also introduced the cello into the church for playing at a church service, I read. So it's funny when you start looking into someone, what you can find.
Matt: 40:37
So yeah, here, great to wrap it up, why don't you tell us about what you're doing in Watertown coming up and then say goodbye to the listeners.
Jennifer: 40:44
On the 13th of September at 7 p.m., we're playing at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Watertown. And on the 14th of September, we're playing the same program at Fallen Church in Lexington. And it's a program for soprano, violin, two cellos, and forte piano. So chamber music. And we're performing works by Billings, William Billings, a lot of Italian players who moved to England. Another part of this music from the late 18th century, in England especially, they, or continental composers from Europe, the mainland Europe, they found Scottish traditional tunes to be really great ways of writing music. So there's some Scottish tunes by Haydn that he harmonized. Barsanti, who's an Italian violinist who moved to England and moved to Scotland, some traditional tunes, and then there's a Mozart violin sonata that he wrote when he was seven years old.
Tim: 41:41
And there's a variations on God Save the King, which is also My Country Tis, written by Johann Christian Bach.
Jennifer: 41:50
So that's Johann Sebastian's youngest son who became known as the English Bach. And I put that in there because it morphed into our hymn, My Country Tis of Thee, which was the national anthem of America from 1831. 1931, it became Star-Spangled Banner.
Matt: 42:08
Great. And you'll be back in November too for a different one.
Jennifer: 42:12
Oh, yes, that's right. We're doing a different program in Watertown, Church of the Good Shepherd, also on a Saturday, the 15th, I think it is, called Sweet Sleep. And it's about different ways of conveying sleep in music. It won't be all making you fall asleep. But, let's see, there's some Johann Bernard Bach. So that's Johann Sebastian's uncle or cousin.
Matt: 42:35
Do you just have a Bach family tree poster on your wall to keep it all straight?
Jennifer: 42:38
Oh my gosh. And then in May, we're doing that, all the Bach family. So yeah, different composers. There's some 20th century music on that program. So it's all very, it's interesting stuff. So yeah.
Matt: 42:50
Cool. Well, check that out, people. And thank you for sharing your story here and giving us a little insight into what you do.
Jennifer: 42:56
And thank you for the opportunity. Yeah. Thank you.
Tim: 43:00
Thanks, Matt.
Matt: 43:01
So that's it for my conversation with Tim and Jennifer. You can find out more about them at sarasamusic.org. I'll also have that link in the show notes. If you'd like to come out to the next Creative Chats event, it is coming up, if you listen to this when this comes out, on Friday, October 3rd, and again it's at the Mosesian Center for the Arts, gonna be at 8 30 a.m. And the guest is gonna be Megan Ramette of the Watertown Zine Fest. So we'll talk about zines, the culture of it, and some of the unique topics of creativity that come up with that medium. Again, link in the show notes for that, or over at LittleLocal Conversations.com, where you can also find all the other Creative Chats episodes, normal one-on-one interview episodes I do with people in Watertown. You can sign up for my weekly newsletter to know when new episodes are out and events are coming up. And if you'd like to help support the podcast, there's also a support local conversation button in the menu. Alright, and to wrap up here, I want to give a few shout outs. First one goes to podcast sponsor Arsenal Financial. They're a financial planning business here in Watertown that's owned by Doug Orifice, who's a very committed community member. And his business helps busy families, people close to retirement, and small businesses. So if you need help with any of those, you can reach out to Doug and his team at arsenalfinancial.com. I also want to give a thank you to the Watertown Cultural Council who've given me a grant this year to help support the podcast. So I want to give them the appropriate credit, which is, this program is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. You can find out more about them at WatertownCulturalCouncil.org and MassCulturalCouncil.org. And a couple more shout-outs to promotional partners. First one goes to the Watertown Business Coalition. They're a nonprofit organization here in Watertown that's bringing businesses and people together to help strengthen the community. You can find out more about them at WatertownBusinessCoalition.com. And lastly, promotional partner Watertown News, which is an online newspaper focused purely on Watertown, run by Charlie Breitrose here in the city. Great resource, check that out at WatertownMANews.com. So that's it. Until next time, take care.
