Williamstown Orchestra Focused on Community, Performance
 The Community Intergenerational Action Orchestra brings adults and students together. |
When she was a kindergartener at Williamstown Elementary School, her mother lobbied to have the budding violinist be allowed to participate in school orchestra, previously an activity reserved for pupils in fourth, fifth and sixth grades.
"I was playing with all these sixth graders, and I was in kindergarten," she recalls. "I got to learn from them because I was so young. ... Now, there are kids in the orchestra from kindergarten all the way up to sixth grade. I'm happy about that."
And she was happy last year when her violin teacher pitched the idea of an intergenerational orchestra that could combine the talents of elementary school students through adults.
"I really enjoyed it because we're all mostly at the same level," Darfshi said of the Community Intergenerational Action Orchestra, or CIAO.
"Most of the younger kids are very good at what they do, and most of the adults have been playing for so long. They're experienced with their instruments, and it's great to play with people who have been playing all their lives.
"I get to learn from all these people who have been playing for so long. I've been playing for 10 years, but that's not a lot compared to these people who have kids of their own who have been playing since they were in school."
James Bergin has been Darafshi's teacher since she was in kindergarten. He said he got the idea for CIAO while preparing a student recital in the spring of 2013. He realized that between himself and local cello teacher Perri Morris, "I've got enough kids to make an orchestra."
So with just two rehearsals under its belt, CIAO's predecessor two or three pieces as a group at that end-of-the-year recital, Bergin said.
That initial success inspired Bergin to branch out last year and experiment with an intergenerational orchestra.
"I've got kids as young as fourth grade to adults up to 60," he said. "I've got students taking lessons in elementary, middle and high school. I have adult amateurs — some are beginners playing for two years, and some have been playing a lot longer."
All of the players are taking lessons — many with Bergin. And the school-age children also participate in their school orchestras, to which CIAO is a complement, he said.
"So it's a mix of people, and I think that's really key," Bergin said. "The kids like playing with the adults. It's like a level playing field. ... It's kind of like they're playing baseball with adults, only the physical advantage you'd have with a sport doesn't really apply here."
The other key to CIAO, Bergin said, is that unlike orchestras that practice for months on end getting ready for one big concert, CIAO is all about performance.
Once a month, the group moves its weekly practices from the music room at St. John's Episcopal Church to Sweet Brook Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.
"It's essentially a performance, but I rehearse them," Bergin said. "Sometimes we play through stuff. Other times, I'll rehearse them. Other times, I'll turn to the residents and say, 'OK, I'm trying to get them to play loud and soft,' and I'll have [the residents] do stuff like I'll have them say, 'Bark! Bark!' really loud, and then I'll have them get real soft. I'll ignore the orchestra and conduct the residents."
Darafshi said that even before CIAO, Bergin would take his students to Sweet Brook to get them used to performing in front of an audience.
"I used to hate going to practices, but it really makes it fun when you have these older people there watching you and criticizing," she said. "I really like how we keep playing music for all these people and get better but also get to perform.
"Performing for random people gets me more ready for auditions, which is great."
Williamstown resident Molly Polk said she is glad her sixth-grade son gets to learn from CIAO's more experienced musicians and experience the "Action" part of the orchestra's name.
"They make good music and work hard, but it's the idea that they'll share with other people — whether it's at Sweet Brook or at a fund-raiser," Polk said. "They're dedicated to music making and sharing that with other people to make their lives better."
In addition to the monthly open rehearsals at Sweet Brook, CIAO last year performed three benefits last year — for Higher Ground, a music school in Haiti that was destroyed by 2010's earthquake and former employees of North Adams Regional Hospital (the last as part of a larger event held at Williamstown's Community Bible Church).
Bergin is open to any ideas from groups looking for an orchestra to play at a fund-raiser. His goal is to get CIAO out in the community as much as possible.
"With sports, it's all about games," Bergin said. "No kid wants to practice, really. They put up with the practices, but they want to play the games. With orchestra, often it's a lot of practice and one concert at the end of the year.
"I'm into: Let's get out and play concerts regularly. At least once a month we're out performing, and more than that is what I'm looking for."
Performing what? Anything that Bergin can find — from classical pieces, to standards ("Ain't She Sweet" for the Sweet Brook crowd) to new pieces created by a pair of Bergin's New York City-based composer friends, Gary Philo and Amy Reich.
"Some of the contemporary stuff, I like to play," Darafshi said. "Some of the pieces I don't enjoy as much. I'm not used to it, but I like broadening my knowledge of music.
Registration for CIAO is $80 per semester, which includes 13 rehearsals. The group practices on Wednesday evenings. To find out about auditioning for the orchestra or engaging it for a benefit, write ciaowilliamstown@gmail.com or search for CIAO Williamstown on Facebook.
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