Music samples in this story are played and recorded by Matt Rupert from a theme and variations called Aubada composed by Suad Bushnaq.
Inside a music center called “Little Mission Studio” on a semi-industrial block of Hampshire Street, proprietors Claire Plumb and Matt Rupert are exploring big themes. Their upcoming concert series, UnRest, takes direct aim at the narratives of fear and protectionism emanating from the nation’s capitol.
It’s musical response, which starts on Saturday March 18, is to feature works of those most derided by the the Trump Administration.
“We feel that music, and teaching music and performing music, [have] inherently community building and community gathering aspects,” Rupert said. “So it’s important for us to be involved in our community in that way.”
The series is meant to highlight the works of refugees, women, people of color, LGBTQ people, immigrants and other groups who have been maligned by the new president.
“Without contributions from these people, it would be a very much less rich art form,” Rupert points out.
He’ll be playing, among other things, a piece by Syrian refugee Suad Bushnaq in the concert.
“Perhaps if this particular composer did not escape Syria, this work would not exist,” he said.
Other pieces in the concert include a selection of Balkan Miniatures, traditional Armenian and Syrian melodies, as well as music by Chopin, who was unable to return to his native Poland because of conflict with Russia.
The studio’s owners started thinking about what they could put together to respond to the political situation around the time of the first travel ban order was issued, Rupert said.
Violin and viola instructor Mia Nardi-Huffman started a Music for Resistance group, to overwhelming enthusiasm from the Little Mission Studio community. They began reaching out to fellow musicians to come up with a concert series meant to shine a spotlight on social causes and donate to organizations engaging with those causes.
“I definitely think musicians and artists have a responsibility to react to what’s happening around them and participate,” Rupert said.
Responding to a travel ban by highlighting the musical achievements of immigrants strikes a clear note of resistance, but the series is also about building empathy.
“I think that’s a really important part of art in general, of creating art,” Plumb said. “So other people can relate to an experience someone else is having and basically tell them that they are with them, that they’re not alone. That they’re not the only one that is struggling or that they are being seen.”
That means both giving composers, musicians, and performers exposure, in the sense that their work is being literally seen and heard. But it also expresses solidarity in a more intimate way.
“I think that’s one of the more important things that we’re trying to do with the concert series, is showing people that we see them,” Plumb explains, “And that a lot of the things that are happening are not things that are okay.”
The UnRest series begins Saturday, March 18th at 8 p.m. In lieu of a ticket price, a suggested donation is set at $15. Proceeds will benefit the ACLU.