Community MusicWorks Opens New Music School Location in Providence’s West End

Members of the MusicWorks Collective perform for local and state officials during an unveiling of the new space on Sept. 5. (Photo by Rebecca Atwood/Atomic Clock)

Community MusicWorks, the nonprofit organization that connects students in underserved neighborhoods with lessons and performance opportunities alongside professional musicians, is celebrating the opening of a new, 24,000-square-foot music school on Westminster Street in Providence.

Earlier this month, the organization unveiled the Community MusicWorks Center on the site of a former gas station near Dexter Training Ground. The $15 million project is the result of more than a decade of planning going back to 2010.

“Envisioning this new center was something that started 14 years ago,” says Sebastian Ruth, CMW’s founder and artistic director.

Ruth founded CMW in 1997 to bring professional musicians and young people together in an urban setting. The organization maintains a professional ensemble of fourteen musicians in residence and offers free lessons and performance opportunities to around 150 students each year. Students are chosen for the program by lottery and come from the West End, South Providence, Elmwood and Olneyville.

“Classical music is often thought of as belonging to affluent spaces, and young people in these neighborhoods might have thought they needed to travel outside these neighborhoods for classical music,” Ruth says.

Up until now, the organization — which started in the West End Community Center — has run its programs out of community centers and schools, in addition to a headquarters in a storefront on Westminster Street. In 2010, Ruth says, they began to envision a state-of-the-art music center where the program could have a permanent home. They held multiple community charrettes where participating families and neighbors could voice their thoughts.

In 2017, CMW purchased the plot of land on the corner of Westminster and Dexter streets. Formerly home to a gas station, the land was owned by the West Broadway Neighborhood Association, who completed remediation before CMW purchased the site. As part of their planning for the new center, the organization invited neighbors to share stories about the property’s history and commissioned musician Shaw Pong Liu to compose an original piece in a storytelling project known as “Traces.”

“We did this whole project to honor the land before building,” Ruth says.

Following the groundbreaking in 2022, work proceeded quickly. CMW engaged 3SIX0, an architecture firm with offices in Providence and New York, to design a building that would not only offer world-class acoustics, but also incorporate sustainable materials and ensure those materials were free of toxic substances. The Healthy Materials Lab, a design research lab at the Parsons School of Design, reviewed the building materials, and the project uses mineral-based paint that’s safe for students. The design firm also made use of cross-laminated timber, making it only the second project in Rhode Island constructed primarily from the environmentally friendly building material.

“It eliminates the need for a lot of concrete and steel, which are big carbon emitters in their manufacture,” Ruth explains.

In addition to wood, the building’s design makes liberal use of glass, with oversized windows between the rehearsal spaces and looking out onto the street. Ruth says that’s to create easy access for students observing professional rehearsals and community members looking in, eliminating barriers between the different groups.

The sheet music library at the Community MusicWorks Center. (Photo by Lauren Clem)

“We’re trying to infuse the energy of the professional musicians in with what the students experience every day, and vice versa. We don’t think of them as separate,” he says.

The building includes a 120-capacity performance hall with world-class acoustics, which Ruth says they hope to eventually make available to the larger community. Like its construction, the building’s soundproofing makes use of environmentally friendly materials, using Tectum — a natural fiber — to insulate the individual rooms. Video screens stream performances to a cafe area, where parents can wait with younger siblings or have a bite to eat during rehearsals.

On the lower level, students have access to practice pods, a locker room, instrument storage space and a sound lab, while the upper levels contain teaching rooms and a student lounge. Outside, a water retention parklet captures rainwater and provides outdoor seating. There is also a library for sheet music and a room where students can learn instrument assembly and repair.

“It’s really meant to be a community center around music,” Ruth says.

On Saturday, Sept. 28, CMW will welcome the community into the space for a grand opening block party. The event will feature food trucks and building tours and last from 2 to 7 p.m. At 3 p.m., CMW musicians will kick off a parade from the old location to the new one, where students will premiere “Fabric,” a new piece composed by Wang Lu for the occasion. The evening will conclude with salsa dancing on Dexter Street.

To learn more about CMW and its programs, visit communitymusicworks.org.

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