Musikiwest harnesses the collaborative power of chamber music to engender empathic awareness, promote conflict resolution and build peaceable communities.
Artistic Director, Michelle Djokic
“As a chamber musician for much of my professional career, I have experienced the process of discovering and understanding great works of music through the hearts of my colleagues and our audiences.
To share great music is always rewarding, but it is the careful process of preparing for our concerts that I think best reflects the positive collaboration and conflict resolution that are universal and essential to any community. As a mother, my desire to share this process with adolescents in their most vulnerable years has inspired me to create Musikiwest, originally named Music Kitchen West. For me, the kitchen represents a sanctuary for nourishment, comfort and free-flowing exchange of ideas. I cannot imagine a more apt metaphor for a chamber music rehearsal among my trusted colleagues, as we ruminate over musical interpretation, collectively digesting what the composers may have intended.
Through our scripted open rehearsals, Musikiwest addresses many difficult issues that exist in our children’s lives, such as bullying, shaming, exclusion and conflict. In our program, young students are invited to identify sources of discord among the musicians, and ultimately to suggest solutions leading to a more harmonious outcome. They will easily recognize the potential impact, both positive and negative, of a simple gesture, look or nuance, something easily overlooked in today’s environment. Musikiwest harnesses the universal language of music to communicate the most essential elements of building peaceable communities.
My hope is to impart to them the beauty of this music, as well as the thoughtful journey that my colleagues and I navigate as we present a well-balanced program of our favorite compositions.”
Our programs feature an ensemble of internationally renowned professional musicians rehearsing a piece of chamber music in a scripted format. As they play passages and intermittently stop to talk, a health professional plays the role of ‘moderator’, highlighting to the audience in real time each player’s comments, gestures, expressions and body language, and the reactions these may elicit in the other players.
Scripted dialogue will illustrate different aspects of interpersonal interaction and group dynamics, such as intimidation, shaming, resentment, divisiveness and other ingredients of discord which ultimately undermine their relations and their music. The moderator will maintain an interactive dialogue with the audience, and together with the audience, suggest alternative scenarios of speech and behavior that restore harmony among the ensemble.
We present our programs in a small classroom setting at select middle schools and high schools.
Students will be seated around the musicians, close enough to discern their facial expressions and subtle gestures. The week of school presentations will culminate in a full-length professional concert performance open to the community.
We hope that participation in our program will empower these young audience members to build their awareness, empathy and skills for conflict resolution, to expose them to a performance of classical chamber music by world-class musicians, and to encourage them to invite their family and friends to join them in enjoying this rare community concert.