Fremont

Abbey Arts
A Hub of Musical Activity for the Community
Sarah Moyer

Fremont Abbey Arts

After precariously parallel parking on the busy city street, I walked three
blocks to reach my destination. The old brick building stood out like a comforting
staple of the city, surrounded by coffee shops, restaurants, a vintage furniture shop,
and a bookstore. As I walked up the front stairs I noticed a man, whom I assumed
was just passing by, pressing his ear against the front door. Something inside
intrigued him. I opened the door and a wave of light and sound rushed over the both
of us. The Seattle Rock Orchestra and Social Club were practicing the familiar tunes
of Arcade Fire. Right away I felt at home. The frenzied energy coming from the
orchestra, conductor, singers, and soloist was palpable. Sweat dripped from the
soloists brow and the violinists looked like a blur of motion; the guitarist threw his
head back and forth and the singers belted with eyes closed. I walked into a moment
that Nachmanovitch (1991) would call entrainment, that is, a moment of collective
synchronicity- there is a quality of energy in the room that is very personal and
particular to those people, that room, and that moment (p. 101). From the man
listening outside the door, to the sound guy walking and moving with the rhythm in
his body- we were all together in this music event; all contributing to this moment of
musical bliss.

This is what Fremont Abbey Arts (AKA The Abbey) is about: connecting

people through music and art. The Abbey provides experiences that are open to all
people regardless of income, age, skill, ethnicity, or background. This attention to
community and inclusion began at the buildings inception in 1914. It was originally
built as St. Pauls Lutheran Church. After a period of being vacant, it opened as a

FREMONT ABBEY ARTS 3

temporary homeless shelter, and then was renovated in 2007 by the Church of The
Apostles with the help of the community. The Church of the Apostles invited the Arts
Center to use the space to curate community activities, and so they partnered to
complete the renovations in 2009. In essence, the Abby was inspired by, built by,
and sustained by members of the Seattle community. Fifty-eighty thousand dollars
in value was added to the project through volunteer work and donations. After
being a spiritual home for many, and an actual home for some, The Abbey has now
become a creative home for the artists, musicians, poets, music and art lovers,
curious, adventuresome, lonely, bored, inspired people of Seattle.

The renovations have certainly contributed to the feeling of home

experienced when walking through their doors. Downstairs houses a kitchen for
staff and volunteers to use to feed themselves as well as the performing artists and
musicians. A small room adjacent to the kitchen has a large conference-like table
that is used for eating, working, or conferencing. The larger space has a small stage
at the front end with tattered red carpet, wooden beams, and black curtains. A piano
sits in one corner of the room and vintage lamps and couches are scattered
throughout the space. Upstairs presents a slightly more formal atmosphere than the
living-room-feel of the basement. When larger audiences or classes are expected,
musicians, artists, and dancers use this large, open, sunlit space. There are ceiling to
floor windows with dark drapes for night performances and a baby grand piano sits
comfortably in a corner of the room.
Of the many classes, events, and organizations that utilize this space, the
focus for this paper will be on the performances and practice sessions of The Seattle

Fremont Abbey Arts

Ladies Choir, The Round, Open Arts Mic, and The Seattle Rock Orchestra and Social
Club. The Abbey is more than a building. It is made up of all the board members,
staff, volunteers, artists, musicians, teachers, students, and neighbors that
contribute to its mission. While there is a diversity of ages and ethnicities
represented at the Abbey, the majority of audience members and musicians are
aged twenty-two to thirty-five and Caucasian, which is an accurate representation of
the Fremont neighborhoods demographics.
What is the common thread between a musical community that includes such
diversity in ensemble types, performance methods, musical styles, and age of
participants? The Abbey is a culture within itself and also a representation of a
subculture of the Seattle community at large. In identifying the Community Music
tenets present in each group and performance, I will develop a cohesive picture of
the role and function of music in this community.

Music as Event- In Front of, to the Side of, and Behind the Scenes

Every aesthetic detail, from the tea light candles on the windowpanes to the

arrangement of chairs and vintage style furniture, was intentionally placed in order
to create a comfortable atmosphere for performers and audience members. Nathan
Marion, the creative director of the Abbey, described chair placement as an art form.
The tiniest details contribute to a persons overall experience of a performance.
Nathan compared this idea to eating at a restaurant with the best food in the city. He
argues that lack of ambiance or attention to detail can significantly detract from the
actual taste of the food. In the same sense, if a person enters a performance hall in

FREMONT ABBEY ARTS 5

which she does not feel comfortable or find to be aesthetically pleasing, her
experience of the music may be tainted.

Staff and volunteers work hard in order to prepare this welcoming space.

Volunteers come hours before the show to haul chairs upstairs and arrange them,
prepare food for the musicians and artists, clean, light candles, collect tickets, cut
out Valentines day hearts to put on each seat (a specific event), fill water jugs, and
so on. They also remain afterwards to break down the stage, put chairs away, clean,
put up new posters, and eat or put away whatever food is remaining. The volunteers
that I met do not necessarily consider themselves musicians, but they love music
and are excited to be a part of the process. Within the context of community music,
these music lovers and helpers would in some ways be considered musicians, as
they participate in the musicking (Small, 1998). Small defines music as an event
rather than an abstraction of one composers thoughts

It is not just a matter of composers, or even performers, actively doing

something to, or for, passive listeners. Whatever it is we are doing, we are all

doing it togetherperformers, listeners... composer... dancers, ticket

collectors, piano movers, roadies, cleaners and all (p. 10).

Using this definition, Nathans art of chair placement, as well as the efforts and
talents of the volunteers, plays an integral role in the process of making music.
Within the social sphere of the event, each persons contributions are felt and valued
by other community members.
Although the majority of the music I observed was presentational in nature
rather than participatory (Torino, 2008), the music events themselves were a

Fremont Abbey Arts

participatory experience in which members of the community came together to
celebrate the shared music of their specific culture. In the same way that Karlsen,
Westerlund, Partti, and Solbu (2013) discovered that audiences develop cultural
identity through the music festivals in Sweden, so too does the Abbey facilitate in
developing cultural identity within its participants. As Small suggests,
communication flows not only from performer to audience, but from audience to
performer, audience members to each other, and performers to one another. These
interactions have developed into a musical culture that Ive interpreted as being laid
back, honest, edgy, inclusive, somewhat morose, and one that challenges the musical
mainstream status quos.

Music for All- Participatory Elements within Presentational Music
The Abbeys dedication to making the arts available to all people is apparent
in their website and in the way the staff program and run events. In order to ensure
a safe and welcoming environment, they advocate respect for everyone and
stipulate that hate language and any other kind of abuse are not permitted. They
encourage expression and creativity within the bounds of respect for all people. To
make paid events available to low income individuals or families, they offer
scholarships and free tickets. Abbey Arts Connect is a program that partners with
nonprofit organizations to help disadvantaged or low-income people attend events
for free. The Abbey also offers a number of music, art, and dance classes that
emphasize collaboration, multisensory learning, mind and body integration, and
cultural relevance. All of these classes have built -in scholarships available from the

FREMONT ABBEY ARTS 7

Abbey. One of the most popular ways of attending events for free is to volunteer.
Most events require at least four volunteers and each volunteer is able to see the
show for free, partake of the food it there is any, and get to be a part of community.
The Abbey also hosts a party for all the volunteers a couple times a year to thank
them for their help.
Two community ensembles that I observed have different levels of inclusion
based on whether participation in the group is audition-based or not. The Seattle
Ladies Choir is a volunteer community choir that is open to anyone interested in
singing contemporary music within a choral setting. Due to its popularity and non-
auditioned entry into the group, there is a substantial waitlist of women wanting to
join. The group meets in the basement of the Abbey once a week to practice and
socialize. When I entered their practice space I was greeted as if I was a member of
the choir. Everyone wore nametags, smiled, and chatted excitedly with one another.
The rehearsal progressed in a traditional manner: the music director handed out
new music, everyone listened to a recording of the music, and then the director
introduced the piece though scaffolding and repetition. Those who read music were
able to refer to notation and those who learn aurally were able to catch on with
repetition. There was some attention paid to note accuracy but the director did not
address issues of tone quality, intonation, or phrasing. The purpose of the music
facilitator is not to lead the ensemble to perfection, but rather to equip choir
members with enough tools to be able to sing the music that they love passionately
while enjoying the camaraderie of like-minded people.

Fremont Abbey Arts

On the other end of the performance spectrum is the Seattle Rock Orchestra
and Social Club (SROSC), which is a non-auditioned volunteer group that is
dedicated to producing exceptional quality performances. Like the Seattle Ladies
Choir, they perform contemporary music using traditional instrumentation. They
combined the precision of the classical tradition with the energy of rock n roll to
create something fresh and interesting. Their covers include orchestral
arrangements of songs from artists and bands like The Beatles, David Bowie,
Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin, and Beck. Guest vocalists croon over arpeggiated
violin lines and bassoon drones that somehow sound edgy within the sonic mix. It is
this combination that invites audience members and performers to get lost in the
groove. Audience members cannot resist the urge to participate through clapping,
singing along, and dancing in their seats. In classical music, often times silence
proceeds musical excellence. During a beautiful performance I feel as if a whisper
would break the sacred space created by the musicians. I am a spectator, not a
participator. With the music of SROSC, as with rock n roll in general, I feel I want to
enter into the space the musicians are offering.
Both ensembles include aspects of inclusive and active participation, though
played out differently in each group. Membership in The Seattle Ladies Choir is open
to anyone who wants to participate and the SROSC invites audience participation
with its high-energy performances. Higgins (2012) asserts that community
musicians should strive for excellence in both the processes and products of music
making relative to individual goals of participants (p. 5). The goals of the two
groups are different, and the directors facilitate their groups as such. Each

FREMONT ABBEY ARTS 9

ensembles rehearsal methods and performance practices elicit the kind of

participation for which the community strives.

Collaboration: Music and Art and Poetry, Oh My

Nachmanovitch (1991) uses the law of requisite variety to define

collaboration: By crossing one identity with another we multiply the variety of the
total system (p. 95). This was Nathan Marions (creative director of the Abbey) goal
in creating a new type of performance experience called The Round. Nathan noticed
a desire within the music community for more interaction among fellow musicians
and artists. What started as a casual dinner get-together to share music has become
a burgeoning performance practice in the Seattle, Spokane, and Portland areas.
Three bands or musicians, one or two visual artists, and one or two poets share the
stage during the course of the event. Artists are inspired by the music, musicians are
inspired by the poetry, and poets change the timbre of their voices to match the
moods created by the artists and musicians. There is a sense of curiosity and
excitement at what the other performers will create, and a willingness to relinquish
individual power for the sake of collaboration.

Though much of the music is prepared and practiced before hand, there is an

improvisatory element to the performances. The Round often acts as a

presentational form of the term workshop. If provided the freedom by other
members on stage, performers experiment and create within the group
(Nachmanovich, 1991). When I performed in the Round during Christmas time, one
of the musicians planned to use a drum track that ended up failing to work. To fill

Fremont Abbey Arts

the rhythmic void the other musicians on the stage began to beat box
complimentary rhythms. Spontaneous harmonies and instrumental riffs are also
common occurrences on the stage of a Round performance. Some visual artists
choose to begin their paintings with no set ideas, instead being influenced entirely
by the music, place, words, and scents of the evening.

However, because there is no active facilitator set in place, each performance

of the Round has the potential to fall into traditional concert form. Some musicians
actively engage and invite other musicians and the audience members into
participation, while other musicians are more comfortable in their role as
performers. The Round is still a presentational art form in which performers play
and audience members listen and watch. The participatory elements depend
entirely on the performers and audience members of the evening. Were the Round a
true workshop, the audience members would be invited to bring their own
instruments to play along, invent, and collaborate with and along side the
performers.

At the core of the Abbeys mission is its dedication to inclusiveness and

diversity. This is why Nathan intentionally chooses unlikely musical combinations

when he books groups for the Round. He might pair a blues trio with a rock band
and a rapper. When artists who would normally not share the stage are united in
music making, the creative possibilities are endless. While these unique pairings
often lead to interesting and collaborative performances, sometimes the artists are
not as receptive to collaboration and the event feels like three separate
performances. Nathan also makes sure to have different artists each time so that all

FREMONT ABBEY ARTS 11

who are interested are able to participate in The Round at one point or another. He
recently initiated a Youth Round and a College Round so that younger musicians and
artists can have this outlet for performing and collaborating.

Music of Today: Performing Music that is Culturally, and Socially Relevant

Seattle has been at the forefront of many blossoming music scenes

throughout its history, including the Northwest Garage Rock era of the 60s, the
Tavern Rock era of the 70s, and Punk and Grunge music of the late 70s to 90s
(Becker, 2016). Influential musicians like Dave Matthews and Neko Case have
moved to Seattle for its diverse and lively music scenes and local musicians like Jimi
Hendrix and Kurt Cobain have placed Seattle on the musical map (Powers &
Welsbard, 2003) . The Abbey is a current music hub for Seattle singer-songwriters
who are just beginning their creative journeys as well as for those who are
established in the musical community. Popular folk and rock bands and musicians
like Damien Jurado, Noah Gundersen, Hey Marseilles, The Lonely Forest, and J
Tillman from the Fleet Foxes have performed at the Round. Newer musicians have
the opportunity to share their music at Open Arts Mic, which happens upstairs in
the Abbey every third Tuesday of the month.

When I walked into the dimly lit room at 7:25pm, I was worried that I had

mistaken the 7:30pm start time. There were about five people scattered throughout
the large space, some lying on the floor, some tinkering on their guitars, and one
woman playing softly on the grand piano in the corner. Cooper, the Open Arts Mic
facilitator, greeted me with a big sleepy smile and said that we would probably start

Fremont Abbey Arts

a little late. An hour later, with only about twenty people in the audience, Cooper sat
down at the piano and played a haunting, minimalistic song to start the show. An
hour later there were over one hundred people in the building.

The slow-paced, casual, subdued atmosphere complimented the heartfelt,

melancholy, hopeful, rainy-day melodies sung by the musicians. They sang about
love, heartbreak, injustice, personal ideals, and many other subjects evoking feelings
of angst and nostalgia. Just as Seattles musical history is diverse, so too is the music
that comes out of the Abbey. It was difficult for me to sort the music from Open Arts
Mic into musical genres because there seemed to be elements of folk, jazz, blues,
rock, grunge, and country in many of the songs.

The Open Arts Mic music community is unlike any other at the Abbey. Before

the event began, rather than chatting with each other, everyone was writing, looking
at their phones, or even sleeping in some cases. The vulnerability and intimacy
involved in playing original songs for a group of people causes musicians to want to
guard themselves socially. This mutual understanding existed within the
community, and was cultivated in the hushed silences.

The lack of friendly chatter did not take away from the feeling of camaraderie

and respect among musicians. People of all abilities feel comfortable performing
because Open Arts Mic is known as a place to experiment, share, and practice
performing in front of people. It is a culture that embraces diversity and encourages
risk-taking. The newest songwriters receive thunderous applause after their sets
because everyone knows how difficult it is to share music in front of an audience.
Higgins (2012) writes that community music embraces and respects a diverse

FREMONT ABBEY ARTS 13

world of musical styles and contexts (p. 52). From beginners to seasoned
songwriters, rockers to rappers, and timid to confident performers, all are welcome
and encouraged to grow in their musicianship at Open Arts Mic.

Conclusion

The aim of Community Music is to nurture life-long music learning through

facilitating relevant, accessible, active, and collaborative music experiences.

Fremont Abbey Arts works toward fulfilling these goals through providing
participatory classes and performance opportunities. There are community music
principles at work in the performance events even though they are presentational in
nature. Examples of crossover art, such as the Seattle Ladies Choir and Seattle Rock
Orchestra and Social Club, produce music that is traditional yet new and relevant.
The onstage multi-art collaboration of the Round encourages local musicians,
artists, and poets to get together and create. Open Arts Mic provides safe and
nurturing performance opportunities to budding musicians.

Every volunteer and musician I spoke to considered the Abbey to be a place

to connect to like-minded people. One volunteer had just moved from New York and
was trying to find a music community for his psychedelic punk band. A member of
the Seattle Ladies Choir said that she enjoys singing but is mostly in the group for
social reasons. The performance events include intermissions where people
purchase drinks and mingle with one another. Staff and volunteers prepare food for
the performers for nearly all of the events. Music is used as a tool for getting people
together

Fremont Abbey Arts

The Abbey is created and sustained by members of the Seattle community at

large. The Abbey represents communities within communities within communities.

Each event and ensemble has its own rules and structure that exists under the
umbrella of the Abbeys mission statement. Some ensembles have directors that act
as teachers rather than facilitators, and some events have very little leadership at
all. Board members from the Seattle community democratically make overarching
decisions about the Abbey.

Defining the entire system as Community Music is a stretch though accurate

in lieu of the apparent principals at work. Clear-cut illustrations of Community

Music are often found in the way in which specific cultural groups are actively
participating in music making, as led by a facilitator. Questions concerning what is
the cultural group, how its members are participants, and who facilitates are
difficult to answer when so many are involved in the music making process. The
simplest way of knowing whether the Abbey is in fact an example of Community
Music is to look at the mission of the organization: to curate welcoming arts &
cultural experiences where people of all ages and incomes can explore and grow.
Within that brief mission statement it is apparent that the Abbey is socially oriented,
culturally relevant, inclusive, and utilizes experiential learning all tenets of
Community Music.

FREMONT ABBEY ARTS 15

References

Becker, K. (2016) Office of music and film. Seattle music: Then and now. City of
Seattle.
Higgins, L. (2012) Community music in theory and practice. Oxford University Press.
Karlsen, S., Westerlund, H., Partti, H & Solbu, E. (2013) Community music today.
Community music in the Nordic countries, pp 41-56. Rowman and Littlefield
Publishers Inc.
Nachmanovitch, S. (1991) Free play: Improvisation in life and art. Playing together,
pp 94-101. Nachmanovitch.
Powers, A. & Welsbard, E. (2003) Office of Film and Music. Seattle map: An insiders
guide to Seattles music history. City of Seattle.
Small, C. (1998) Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening. Wesleyan
University Press.
Turino, T. (2008) Music as social life: The politics of participation. University of
Chicago Press.