From the first scene of Teaching the Next Generation, a delightful documentary produced and edited by guitarist Uros Baric about the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Pre-College division, you're reminded of what a guitar orchestra offers visually that a string orchestra can't.
Unlike a fingerboard, an audience member can clearly see a guitar’s fretboard, as well as the dexterous movements of both of the player’s hands. This effect is all the more refreshing when the players are of elementary, middle, and high school age and from diverse backgrounds.
The twenty-four enrollees in SFCM’s acclaimed Pre-College Guitar Program were filmed at the Barbro Osher Recital Hall last May. The program’s chair and conductor, Scott Cmiel, shared that the documentary has already garnered nearly 5,000 views since its release a month ago.
Baric transported Cmiel to Muir Woods National Monument to film most of the conductor’s commentary, which is interspersed throughout the hour-long film. In the documentary, the genial Cmiel speaks of his faculty’s “commitment to helping students reach their highest possible levels” and recounts a testimony from a member of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, saying “It was entering guitar competitions and playing solo concerts which made him a virtuoso, but it was playing with other people that made him a musician.”
This theme is reiterated by eight members of SFCM’s guitar faculty who were also interviewed for the film, among them Collegiate Guitar Chair David Tanenbaum and teacher Meng Su, who also mentors Pre-College student Emilia Diaz Delgado, now 16.
Baric, on the urging of Cmiel, has interspersed the interviews with mostly full-length student performances of nine diverse compositions, beginning with Delgado’s faultless offering of the Prelude from Bach’s Suite BWV 1012.
Other students, with a fascinating variety of approaches to their instruments, move through works by Joaquín Turina, Astor Piazzolla (arranged by former faculty member and visiting artist Sérgio Assad), Duke Ellington, Ali Farka Touré, and Thierry Tisserand. Visiting virtuoso Manuel Barrueco is paired in a master class with student Kiran Lee, where he says, “I like for the playing to be honest . . . instead of pretending or putting on airs.”
Matthew Cmiel, Scott’s son, speaks in the documentary about his activity in the Early Childhood Program, which introduces chamber music to guitarists aged four through nine through games, improvisation, and “teaching them to communicate with each other through music.”
Additional perspectives are provided by SFCM President David Stull and Associate Dean Justin Sun. Stull testifies to his pride in how many graduates of the Pre-College program have sought higher education at top-notch institutions, and Sun asserts that “music will always stay with them,” even if they go into other fields.
Teaching the Next Generation succeeds as both a musically satisfying concert film and a showcase of a rare and vital resource for young musicians. It is also an homage to the instructors and administrators devoted to this mission.
The documentary can be accessed on YouTube. According to Scott Cmiel, videos of the individual student and orchestra performances will be made available soon.
