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06/08/2022 08:30 AM“I believe important lessons are being learned in these difficult times. That we’re all connected on one fragile planet is a truth that can no longer be ignored. Kindness is highly valued. Freedom is no longer taken for granted. People on all levels are uniting to help others in need. In my heart I believe the ripple effect of right actions will turn the tide in Ukraine, to lessen suffering and provide hope for renewed freedom. Alone, one is powerless to bring about lasting change. Together we can make the world a safer, healthier, happier place for all life forms to inhabit. It all starts with an idea, one note, then a chord, then a symphony, then a world chorus for peace.” — Ann West
With help from many of her talented friends, together with her dedicated students and their supportive families, Guilford cellist Ann West invites the public to attend a benefit concert, Cellists for Ukraine, at Guilford First Church of Christ Scientist, 49 Park Street, on Sunday, June 12 at 3 p.m.
Free will donations will be gratefully accepted at the door. Concert guests are also invited to browse and buy handcrafted items and baked goods from the concert’s Hummingbird Market, which will be open before and after the concert. One hundred percent of all donations from the concert and market sales will be delivered to support the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee (www.uuarc.org) and western Ukraine non-profit misto-dobra.com.ua/english, which assists women and children displaced by the war.
Ann has been a Guilford resident for several decades and teaches cello from her Guilford-based studio. In February, Ann, like so many across the world, became deeply troubled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but felt “powerless alone to help families under siege and innocents forced to flee as refugees,” she says.
Ann says she was inspired by the actions of one of her students, Owen Steffen, and his family, who rolled up their sleeves in the initial days following the invasion to offer Cookies for Ukraine. The Steffens made, packaged, and sold frozen cookie dough through online orders, coordinating with Guilford Parks & Recreation to offer Saturday pick-ups at the community center through April 9. The effort helped the Steffen family raise $5,000 for Ukrainian relief funds.
Ann brought the idea of organizing a benefit concert to her “cello family” and was immediately supported.
“I couldn’t do the June 12 benefit concert to aid Ukraine without my students and their supportive parents. They are my cello family,” says Ann. “In these unprecedented times, I admire my students’ resilience and dedication to excellence. Their noble character gives me hope for a better world.”
Ann says the audience is in store for a “poignant and uplifting performance featuring 10 cellists from grades 3 through 12, with superb accompaniment by Yale piano instructor Sara Kohane.”
Ann knows those in attendance will delight in the sounds of live cello music, just as every cello musician does.
“I think the cello is really unique, because it has a four-octave range, which really covers the soprano, alto, tenor, and bass of human voice,” says Ann. “It’s just such a gorgeous instrument. Being able to play an instrument that you can embrace, so it really becomes almost an extension of yourself, is something really spectacular.”
Ann’s four advanced master class students will be playing solos for the concert, while her beginning and intermediate students will be performing in ensembles.
“My older high school students are really, really advanced. I’ve taught several of them for eight or more years, and they’re playing repertoire that I have to really practice to be able to teach them! So I’m learning and growing along with them,” she says.
Ahead of the concert’s first note, a student’s parent, who hails from Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital city, will make the opening remarks, followed an arrangement of the Ukrainian anthem for cello quartet.
“I wanted there to be a personal connection, for the audience to realize that we’re all in this together and we can’t take our freedom for granted,” says Ann of the concert’s impactful opening.
Works by composers including Bach, Brahms, Dvorak, Massenet, Mendelssohn, Paganini, and Rachmaninov will also be featured during the concert. Ann and advanced student Luke Robbins, a Guilford High School (GHS) senior, will end the concert with “a gem rarely heard for two cellos,” she hints, a sonata composed by French 18th century composer Jean Barriere.
Ann thanks another of her students, GHS freshman Evelyn Bertolini, for designing the concert poster, and thanks the shoreline’s many businesses for generously agreeing to display it. Likewise, Ann’s grateful to friend and violinist/music arts management professional Ann Drinan for lending her expertise to help spread word of the concert.
“She’s really reached out through her circle of contacts to expand what I’ve been able to do,” says Ann of Drinan.
Drinan’s husband, Lithuanian native Algis Kripas, will be donating his professional video photography skills to record the concert. Ann also thanks Eric Dillner, CEO of Shoreline Arts Alliance, and Peter Hawes, chair of Guilford Performing Arts Festival, for helping to promote the concert through their digital platforms and membership newsletters. Ann also thanks First Selectman Matt Hoey and his staff for helping gain approval for her late application to display an event sign on the Guilford Green.
“It truly takes a village,” says Ann. “Thankfully, shoreline villages are united for Ukraine.”
Others helping to make up that village are two very talented friends, Martha Haeseler and Éva Polizzi, who are combining to help deliver the Hummingbird Market at the concert. The market will offer homemade baked goods, freshly cut garden bouquets, and donated works of art and crafts items to raise more funds for Ukraine.
Haeseler, an art therapist and “virtuoso of event planning,” will oversee the market and is well-suited to the role as she recently stepped down as market manager at Dudley Farm in North Guilford, Ann says.
“Truly a renaissance woman with a generous heart, her artistic touch and beautiful bouquets will enhance our offerings,” says Ann. “We’ll be harvesting roses from her exuberant gardens!”
Polizzi, an accomplished Hungarian fiber artist, made the suggestion to Ann that the concert event could have “musicians and visual artists unite in support of Ukraine,” says Ann.
Polizzi has reached out to faculty at the Guilford Art Center to donate a small work of art and/or handcrafted item to populate the market’s offerings.
Ann also notes Polizzi has provided a quote which states, “as someone who grew up in a Soviet ruled satellite country, upon learning of Ann’s efforts, my instant response was to help her raise even more funds, as there’s no end in sight of this war. And even if by some miracle it were over tomorrow, rebuilding will take generations.”
Ann says she is awed by the skillful support that so many have provided to help to make this event a success.
“I’m learning that working together, joining forces, is the way that we can be effective to make some kind of lasting change,” says Ann.
The Ripple Effect
In addition to founding and fostering her private studio, which, pre-COVID, averaged 18 to 25 students per year, Ann was founding director of Tabor Community Arts Center (1995-2000) and co-founded Shoreline School for Strings (2003). She describes her ongoing preschool Music & Movement Program, Teddy Bear Rhythms, as one that “has fostered musical fluency and been a rite of passage for scores of children.”
Ann’s life as a cellist was launched at a young age. She graduated magna cum laude from Oberlin College & Conservatory and counts among her principal teachers Mischa Schneider of the Budapest Quartet, Paul Katz of the Cleveland Quartet, and George Neikrug in Boston. She is a certified experienced Suzuki cello instructor.
“My mother used to call the cello a noble instrument,” says Ann. “I think students who study music, whether it’s singing or instrumental, the process really builds noble character. It teaches so many good life lessons, which are also learned in sports—[lessons] of dedication and practice and focus and collaboration. It also makes them better students.”
Speaking of her students’ hard work to prepare for the upcoming concert, Ann says she hopes their efforts to learn and perform music that’s dedicated to benefit Ukraine will also inspire them to “take their music to a higher level.” Ann is also trying to model for her students the concept of using their talent to help others.
“In one of our master classes this past year, I gave a talk on 20th century cellists, and I was struck that so many of these world-class cellists use their music for world peace...Yo-Yo Ma is doing that now,” she says. “So my hope, and my real message, is to encourage people to do what they love and turn it into service, whether it’s for Ukraine or so many other worthy causes. That’s the ripple effect.”
Ann has asked each of her students to pen a “message of hope” to their musical peers in Ukraine. Their messages will be published as part of their bios in the June 12 program.
Ann also hopes many community members will feel prompted to come out to support the benefit concert on June 12, and also will continue to keep in mind the tremendous challenges facing the Ukrainian people.
“Now that we are entering the third phase of what may be a protracted war in Ukraine, as we near the end of the school year and look forward to summer vacations and camps, it may be tempting to stop watching the news, and tuck the plight of Ukrainians in a drawer out of sight,” Ann cautions. “We have the freedom to relax, recreate, and travel. Families under siege in Ukraine cannot escape from protracted daily attacks and suffering. They need our continued moral support and financial aid to survive.”