Nick Revel at Marywood University String Project 4/4
Multi-GRAMMYTM Nominated violist Nick Revel will join the Marywood University String Project for a collaborative multi-visit project in the Spring of 2025 centered around musical notation and
creation. The main objective is to co-create a brand new piece of music in an original unique
musical notation system through guided group improvisation, and premiere said work with all
participating String Project ensembles at the concert on May 5th 2025. A recording of the concert
as well as musical “scores” of the fnished piece will be made available to students, faculty, and
parents.
The structure of this project will include three workshops/rehearsals/explorations per String
Project ensemble spread throughout the months of January-April 2025. In these workshops, Revel
will lead learning sessions about the world's various musical notation traditions, explore the
relationship between sound and visual representation, and guide the ensembles in a creative
process of group composition through improvisation. The piece, as well as the notation used to
“write” the piece, will grow, evolve, and solidify over the course of the three visits and will enable
skill-appropriate participation from all students within the String Project. Each session as well as
the concert will be audio/video documented.
Extra supplemental work may be given by Revel to the faculty and students to prepare for these
precious few in-person sessions. This work may include various transcription exercises, practicing
of certain passages within the evolving group composition, and extra reading/watching of
educational materials relevant to the project.
Ideally, the students will come away with a deeper understanding of the uses and limitations of the
language of Western music notation, a greater vision of what lies beyond the page of notes and
rhythms they so often look at while playing their instruments, and the tools to be able to start
writing their own pieces through improvisation.
