Emma Rothman

 

Hi, I’m Emma!

I grew up singing and dancing in a folky family where I was taught early on that the two most important things in life are music and family.  I have carried this sentiment with me, through my ethnomusicology and performance studies at Hampshire College, research internships in Chicago, and international tours with Northern Harmony, a Vermont-based traditional polyphonic choir. I learn this over and over again: the function of music is community. It is my current passion to create performances and performative spaces where this idea can be explored and embodied.

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Emma Rothman and Adam Blaustein Rejtö are emerging musicians and artists from the North East. Together, Adam and Emma collaborate to make improvised music and visual art, and most recently collaborated on a site-specific performance piece in the woods of Hadley, Massachusetts.  

 

The Singing Square 

 

We, Adam and Emma have come to Habitable Spaces to build an outdoor community gathering space. The Singing Square is inspired by the American Shape-Note singing tradition, which happens in a square formation and is fully participatory, not presentational. We are inviting the Kingsbury community to help build this square, create the murals surrounding it, and set the intentions and foundations of the space. In addition to building/painting parties, we will be holding various skill-sharing workshops in the space as it materializes.  Workshops will be given on the Shape-Note singing tradition, as well as other song circles, guitar lessons, painting and visual art workshops, and who knows what else!!

 

This project is about building space that shapes community, and community that shapes space.  We hope that this space will inspire folks to meet and sing regularly, be it shape-note, other music, or other types of gatherings!