CASSANDRA CLEGHORN "Merge"

Cassandra Cleghorn is a Senior Lecturer at Williams College where she has taught English and American Studies since 1990. She received her BA in Greek from University of California, Santa Cruz and her PhD in American Studies from Yale University. Her poems have appeared in journals including The Paris Review, Yale Review, Prairie Schooner and Southwest Review.

The Merge project has brought together the two most important parts of Cassandra's artistic life: poetry and music. Cassandra has been writing poetry since she was six, 40 years ago. Her musical experiences predate that--doubtless back to her time in the womb--since she was born into a family of passionate musicians, both professional and amateur. Mom, a pianist; dad, a violist in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; step-father, a conductor and violist; step-mother, a violinist; and siblings who were also musicians of one sort or another.
Although her family members were classical musicians, all kinds of music shaped her--from opera to folk music and jazz. Her fondest memories include being woken up in the morning by her Dad playing Mahler records at top volume and, at the end of the night, sitting with him after his symphony gig to listen to the latest Roberta Flack or Papa John Creach album. Flack's 1969 debut First Take (which includes Eugene McDaniels' "Compared to What") is one of her desert island albums.

Cassandra began playing the violin at age seven, and played seriously until she got to college. She travelled to Europe with the American Youth Symphony Orchestra when she was 16. When she got to college and discovered Greek literature and immersed herself in poetry, her love of reading and writing edged out her time on the violin and she put her instrument aside. . . for 20 years! Fast forward: marriage, grad school, four kids, full-time college teaching job, etc. When she finally picked up the violin again six years ago, she wanted to use a new approach, learning primarily by ear, and focusing on jazz improvisation and Irish-influenced fiddle music. She has embraced the role of student again, being lucky enough to study improvisation with cellist Eugene Friesen, and violinists Todd Reynolds and Charlie Burnham. One of the high points of her week is a jam session of New England/French Canadian/Irish music every Saturday morning in North Adams, Massachusetts.

Music is also present in Cassandra's poems in a deeper sense. The musical ideas expressed by her fellow ensemble members, Erik, Rene and Allison inspire images, language and forms of her poetry. Sometimes she will take a melody presented by one of them and use the rhythms and phrasing of that tune to shape the poems: as a lyricist might, but using spoken word to deliver them, rather than song. Sometimes Erik will take a poem of Cassandra's and follow the intonation and pacing of her delivery to discover its inherent melody and translate that to the flute or saxophone.

However the ensemble proceeds--from page to stage, from spoken voice to instrument, or vice versa--the key element for all four of them is LISTENING. This is the thing that Cassandra values above all learning from her parents and teachers--and what she in turn is handing down to her four musical children--Oliver (age 14 singer), Ripley (age 12, pianist/flutist/composer), Eve (age 12, trombonist/violinist/composer) and Jasper (age 8, pianist/drummer).






The happiest moments in her house are when several people are making music simultaneously, sometimes even on purpose and in harmony. She likes her teacher's motto, "Play loud and play often." Something similar can be said of poetry, "Write with passion and never stop (except to revise)." Put these together and who knows what will happen?