Great music has been written by deaf people, including Ludwig van Beethoven. Great music is also being written for deaf people.
Cuatro Puntos, an innovative Hartford-based classical music ensemble, is helping West Hartford’s American School for the Deaf celebrate its 200th anniversary with a series of concerts intended for deaf and hearing audiences. The first concert will be at the school on Tuesday, with two other performances held at area churches March 2 and 3.
“The whole point of this,” says Danielle Holdridge, one of the guest performers in the concert, “is to bring together whole groups who don’t know each other, who don’t know each other’s culture. This is a professional string quartet working as educators, in conjunction with deaf students. The music is incredible. There’s nothing quite like it.”
Holdridge is a classical music fan who has found herself serving as a liaison between the American School for the Deaf and the world-traveling local chamber group Cuatro Puntos for the “Celebrating Deaf Musical Culture from Beethoven to the Present,” concerts to be held in Hartford, West Hartford and Glastonbury.
Holdridge, a hearing person who has been studying American Sign Language, will do live ASL translations and storytelling segments at the shows. She says she got involved when “I just went to a Cuatro Puntos concert last year, a performance about trains and World War II, and got to talking to different members of the ensemble. I admire their work. They’re always looking for ways to think outside of the box.”
Holdridge and guest percussionist David Feng have been working with dozens of American School for the Deaf students aged 12 to 15 to create a body-percussion routine that will be performed at two of the three concerts, on Tuesday and March 2. Holdridge and Feng will present an “exploration and simulation of how deaf people can experience sound and music.”
“Deaf people experience music,” Holdridge says. “They can feel vibrations. They can sense rhythms. Some of them can hear to varying degrees. There are many ways that people of all hearing abilities can appreciate and express themselves through music.”
“Celebrating Deaf Musical Culture from Beethoven to the Present” features two new works commissioned expressly for this project. “Squish!” by Cuatro Puntos composer-in-residence Sadie Harrison, is based on “a well-known deaf story, ‘Deaf King Kong,'” Holdridge explains. In the story, both the legendary ape and the woman he loves are deaf. The ending, hinted at in the piece’s title, “is quite comedic, as well as tragic,” Holdridge says. “As the song becomes more intense, the signing becomes more intense as well.”
The premiere of David Macbride’s composition “Silent Hands,” Holdridge says, “takes a more lyrical approach. There’s a singing part, a signing part and music from the quartet, with a drum so you can feel it better.”
Other selections include Feng performing “Prim,” a solo piece for snare drum composed by Askell Masson. For the March 3 concert, at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Glastonbury, Cuatro Puntos will play Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 7. The German composer gradually lost his hearing starting in his 20s and was completely deaf by his mid-40s, yet continued to compose.
Cuatro Puntos is known for its concerts year-round at churches in Hartford and Glastonbury, but the ensemble also tours internationally. Its mission statement: “Cuatro Puntos is a collective of chamber musicians dedicated to global cooperation and peace through the writing, performance, and teaching of music worldwide.” The group has 10 regular members. Performing in the “Celebrating Deaf Musical Culture” concerts are violinist Aaron Packard and Annie Trepanier, violists Kevin Bishop and Steve Larson, cellist Allan Ballinger. Besides Holdridge and Feng, special guest performers at the concerts include baritone vocalist Ryan Burns and clarinetist Curt Blood.
The American School for the Deaf in West Hartford was founded 200 years ago as the first permanent school for the deaf in the United States. The school’s bicentennial is being celebrated with a number of events, including national conferences, bicycle tours and performances. A gallery exhibit, “Language, Culture, Communities: 200 Years of Impact by the American School for the Deaf” will be on view at the Connecticut Historical Society April 28 through Oct. 21.
CELEBRATING DEAF MUSICAL CULTURE FROM BEETHOVEN TO THE PRESENT has three performances: 7 p.m. Feb. 28 at the American School for the Deaf’s Ward Gymnasium, 139 N. Main St., West Hartford; 7:30 p.m. March 2 at Christ Church Cathedral, 45 Church St., Hartford; and 7:30 p.m. March 3 at St. Mark Lutheran Church, 75 Griswold St., Glastonbury. The Feb. 28 concert is free; tickets are $10 at the other two shows. cuatropuntos.org.
