It’s an extraordinary musical composition, from its serene opening – the sonorous, rhythmic plucking of a double bass, like a resting heartbeat – to its restrained, string-driven center to its tranquil, flowing dénouement. Ten brief movements, the whole piece lasting a little less than an hour – to be listened to, surely, but also to be taken in like a deep, cleansing breath.
This is StringFlo, composer Ellen Fishman’s gentle soundtrack, not so much designed to accompany yoga or Pilates as to become integral to it.
Fishman now lives in Brooklyn but remains well-known in the Chestnut Hill area as an Apple Distinguished Educator and former Director of the Arts and New Media at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. She wrote music during her time at SCH, often at 5 in the morning before class, but now she is a full-time composer.
And there’s another SCH connection: Beth Dzwil, who taught a beginner string program at the academy while Fishman was on staff. Dzwil is also violist and director of Fairmount String Quartet, the ensemble in residence at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Fairmount Strings has performed StringFlo, including a yoga class at St. Martin’s, and recorded the composition.
Fishman’s inspiration stemmed from her experience listening to the music in a Pilates class she was taking at Summit Presbyterian Church in Mt. Airy.
“I found that if I put myself right next to the speaker and timed my breaths to that music, then I was much happier,” she recalls. “And so there was this one class where it just seemed like everything hit and the right time. I don’t know why every class can’t be like that, but in this one class, everybody in the class responded in the same way – like, man, that was so good this time. And that just got the gears going.”
Composer Ellen Fishman
What emerged, after a nine-month gestation period of musical composition, was a centering, motivating piece for strings – in this case a quartet, but with the addition of double bass to provide those deep, vibrating tones that are not just heard, but felt. The entire piece is designed to follow what Fishman describes as the “bell curve” of a yoga class.
“In the beginning of your class, you’re coming from your day, and you need to be welcomed in and given a little coaxing to start your practice,” she says. “And it can evolve very slowly. At the end, you’re getting ready to let go of this wonderful feeling, and you’re setting your intentions. And again, you just want to feel the music. You don’t necessarily want to follow it, but you want to feel it. And with the addition of the double bass, it just supports the harmonic material so well.”
StringFlo was and is a collaborative effort.
Fishman had worked with Beth Dzwil and Fairmount Strings on a previous piece, “Lark Dances,” commissioned by Jeanne Ruddy Dance. During the depths of the pandemic, Fishman reworked the piece for string quartet. Fairmount, an all-female ensemble, subsequently premiered the work in 2022 and later recorded it.
One day after that, Fishman approached Dzwil and her quartet colleagues with what she described as a “crazy idea.”
“You might not think it’s a good idea,” she recalls, “but I just want to tell you about it. And then I told them about this idea of writing for strings for a yoga class, and they loved it. We thought we might be able to create this large type of happening where we could offer it free and invite young string players to play with us. We had really big hopes of having it as a community outreach program, but that didn’t happen. But what did happen was these classes and getting it recorded, and it was a terrific experience.”
The Fairmount Strings needed no persuading, Dzwil adds, in part because Fairmount String Quartet doesn’t always conform with the textbook definition of classical.
“We’re a group that likes to do things out of the box, the unexpected,” she explains. “We have a history of doing works that are not commonly performed. We try to focus on woman composers, both in the classical and contemporary realms. We do pop music. We perform all kinds of genres.”
But is StringFlo a performance? Yes and no.
On the one hand, yes, the musicians play a score. On the other hand, they become one, if you will, with the entire yoga experience.
“When you’re doing yoga in a class situation, there’s a vibe not only between you and the teacher, but between all the participants in the class, and especially with StringFlo,” Dzwil says. “You have a feeling of a community, of a spiritual connection – and of course the musicians feel it, too. We have an intimate connection when we play together, an unspoken energy. So, when that energy that is in the musicians connects with the energy that is in the yoga class, it’s just this huge mass of oneness. When you’re playing a line that is swelling and the entire class of 50 people’s arms rise up, it’s just a beautiful moment of connection between all of us.”
That’s just the kind of connection Ellen Fishman had hoped for, but before the first class, it was anyone’s guess how the concept would go over. The debut StringFlo yoga class was held in 2023 in the parish hall at St. Martin’s, which was available because of the church’s relationship with Fairmount String Quartet. “We thought, let’s see what happens,” she says, looking back. “And we sold out. We could barely fit everyone in there. That was in part because Tara Culp was the instructor, and she had a following. But then there was also the following of the string quartet, and we had some of my colleagues from SCH. And we had a really wonderful session.”
Fishman finds the continued success of StringFlo especially gratifying.
I’m still kind of amazed because it happened within the course of nine months,” Fishman says. “We talked about it, I wrote it, we recorded it, we had the performance, and all of these wonderful things have happened as a result of it. It was a great assurance in my new life as a full-time composer.”
For more information on how to schedule a StringFlo session or to license the music for class use, visit Fishman’s website.
