Shar Music® is honored to welcome Aaron Dworkin, our official Poetjournalist-in-Residence. We'll be regularly featuring his work, both on this blog, as well as on the Shar Music YouTube channel and our other social media accounts.
Working in tandem with Shar Music, Aaron has created a group of poems that relate to classical music, his own life and experience, and the universal process of making art.
Aaron was kind enough to come to Shar Music and be recorded in what we call “the Vault" – our recording studio, a concrete fortress of a room that was once used for testing lasers (this is true, our headquarters in Ann Arbor is a former laser-testing laboratory). Here is his first poem for Shar Music, entitled “String Theory”—
We spoke with Aaron about his writing process, and will be running our full interview with him later this month. This is what Aaron had to say about the composition of “String Theory,” followed by the text of the poem itself—
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Shar Music: Hi there, A.D. Thanks for talking with us. So I’m just interested, looking at this first poem, on what gets you started in writing a piece. Is it a phrase. An image?
Aaron Dworkin: For this work, I started with the memory of myself, at five years old, just starting to play the violin and thinking about how to convey the magic that you feel inside when you create a beautiful sound and see others respond. From there, I began to go on a journey through all of the Shar merchandise that has impacted me as a musician through various phases in my life…
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String Theory
A cherished moment
Inside a child’s eyes
The confidence invoked
Constructing that first sound
Articulating their soul
Through a string instrument.
An occasion originating a duty
Driving devoted partners
Spirited at Shar in customary ways
Enabling the setting to make achievable
Dreams otherwise improbable
For the eager player
In you and me.
Bows unleashing the potential of personality
Violins singing the harmonies of futures
Bathed in distinction
Violas empowering the sensibility
To connect with one another
Cellos comforting us
With stirring sonority.
Sheet music serving
As the bedrock upon which
Strings are the catalyst
Bringing contents together
Releasing to an audience of one or many
We are more than accessories
To the quality that emanates
From our constituency.
Whether a novice
Stretching horsehair across woven steel
For the initial time
Or subtlety of a seasoned pro
Playing seasons for those
Who feel Spring in Winter
Through the purpose
And passion of our team
Inspiring joy through string music
Dedicated we stand at the forefront
Advocates in an industry committed
To make the lives we lead
A little better through the artistry
Of our humanity.
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And here’s a teaser link: Aaron Dworkin’s next poem – which we will discuss with him on this blog – will be “rePLAY.”
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Aaron Dworkin is a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow and was President Obama’s first appointment to the National Council on the Arts; he is a current Professor of Arts Leadership and Fellowship at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance, as well as the founder of the Sphinx Organization, a non-profit dedicated to the development of young Black and Latino classical musicians.
He has recorded and collaborated with a diverse range of artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Damien Sneed, Anna Deveare Smith, Damian Woetzel, Lil Buck, and others. He is a best-selling author and the writer of the poetry collection They Said I Wasn’t Really Black.
