[Dixielandjazz] We are not alone. . . "music is defined, in part, by where it's played."

[Steve barbone]

The parallel between the "classical" music scene posted below and the OKOM
scene as posted on the DJML over the past 5 years are striking. We are not
alone, in our appreciation of OKOM unless we choose to be alone.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone 

For Downtown Clubs, the Uptown Classical
MY TIMES - ANNE MIDGETTE - February 1, 2006

Classical music is defined, in part, by where it's played. If it's at Avery
Fisher Hall, it's probably classical; if it's at CBGB, it's probably not.
So-called classical musicians have been happily challenging this traditional
divide for years: hence the evolution of the downtown music scene, the
erstwhile stomping ground of major artists like Steve Reich or Meredith
Monk, who have yet to be fully acknowledged by classical music's old guard.

Now a younger generation continues to assail the bastion. Matt Haimovitz,
the cellist, has played at CBGB. Renée Fleming has sung jazz at Joe's Pub.
And sites like the downtown club Tonic and Galapagos Art Space in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, offer a catholic range of music, including the funky
string quartet Ethel (at Tonic) or a new-music series called Darmstadt (at
Galapagos). 

Which is how I found myself Sunday night in Galapagos, preparing to hear a
recorder quartet whose last New York City appearance was at a traditional
uptown location: Weill Recital Hall.

"It's not true that young people don't like classical music," said Richard
S. Weinert, president of Concert Artists Guild, which is presenting this
German-based quartet, QNG. "Young people don't like recital halls."

He has a point, and it's not just young people. Even 40-somethings today may
be more comfortable attending the decidedly down-market Amato Opera than the
glittering Metropolitan Opera at 10 times the price. The studied formality
of the concert hall is increasingly unfamiliar to today's audience, not to
mention ticket prices that can put off even diehard music lovers. The music
itself is probably not as much of a barrier as you might think.

In fact, the paradoxical corollary is that when it comes to classical music,
even an alternative audience seems to prefer classical standards to more
exotic fare. Earlier the same day, the Vertical Player Repertory, a tiny
opera company in a former sculpture studio on Court Street in Cobble Hill,
Brooklyn, had offered Puccini's "Tabarro." You might think that such a small
company (the space seats perhaps 50) would be a natural for the new and
experimental. But Judith Barnes, who founded the group in 1998, said her
audience still preferred standards to the unfamiliar: she can sell out
Puccini, but not a living composer.

In a continuing effort to bring its artists to new audiences, Concert
Artists Guild may be learning the same thing. Its first foray into Galapagos
through the auspices of Kitchen Sink Music, an organization founded by one
of Mr. Weinert's employees, brought the Parker String Quartet there in
November, two days before the group's debut at Weill. The Parker opened with
the first movement of Bartok's Fifth Quartet, followed by Beethoven and
Kurtag. The audience response, said Mr. Weinert (an admittedly biased
observer), was ecstatic. By contrast, on Sunday QNG offered an entire
program of music written since 2001 by composers few in the audience had
heard of, and the applause was polite but uninvolved.

There's no need to patronize the audience at Galapagos. Its politeness was a
considerable step up from what you might encounter at Weill, if only in that
no one seemed to need to cough in between pieces. But in a club setting,
people aren't under the same social constraints as in a recital hall. They
don't have to stay if the music doesn't grab them. The proverbial young
audience is pretty much like any other audience, though possibly more
discriminating: it will respond to vitality and flair. On Sunday QNG seemed
somewhat at sea, offering one long, intense and not-that-compelling piece
after another, and it was hard to imagine that the group would have
attracted much more enthusiasm in a traditional classical-music space.

Still, more classical presenters and groups should be exploring this kind of
space. For one thing, putting classical music into the context of other
kinds of music demonstrates how well it stands up to the comparison. For
another, classical music itself benefits from the intimacy and immediacy of
a smaller arena. The point is to get people excited about it (and if they're
not excited, to figure out why), and that point can be lost in a more formal
setting, where the protocol is so well established that everything, it
sometimes seems, is greeted with the same polite applause.

And there are plenty of rewards for venturing outside the box. Take Sunday's
"Tabarro," which repeats this weekend. Sure, it looks homemade, and sure,
it's hard to judge voices in a space so tiny that any volume makes your ears
ring. But it sure sounded like some serious singing.

Shannon De Vine, jumping in on a few hours' notice as Michele, was an
impressive baritone, and Noah Stewart, as Luigi, showed a ringing tenor to
match his striking good looks. I'd be happy to hear either again on a larger
stage. Though if classical music's future truly lies in alternative new
audiences ‹ as I believe, in part, it must ‹ perhaps I should wish for them
a big future on these smaller stages as well.