CMASH and Classical Revolution bringing concert music back to the people

CMASH and Classical Revolution bring the Bay Area inexpenseive new concert music in inimate venues

"Classical" music, or as I like to call it, "concert" music, is going through a transitional phase. Even though Beethoven and Mozart are household names, fewer and fewer people are familiar with their music, especially with younger generations. Ticket prices of getting to symphony and opera halls are comparable to seeing U2 and Lady Gaga; meaning EXPENSIVE. I don’t want to use the word inaccessible…but, well, I’ll just leave it at that.

While performing arts organizations like San Francisco Performances (Salons at the Rex) and the San Francisco Symphony  (Davies After Hours) do have outreach programs for younger ears, there are also Bay Area non-profit organizations that bring a scarcely found grassroots and community based attitude back to concert music. Classical Revolution and CMASH are two of these organizations that bring together musicians, composers, alternative venues and audience members. And by community-based, I do not mean amateur, but professional, world-class musicianship. The result is, I believe to be, something similar to the living room and salon performances of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries.

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a concert at the Red Poppy House in San Francisco located in the Mission District. The Poppy House has the ambiance of a large living room, with low lighting, modern art on the walls and a drink bar. The venue hosts mostly jazz, concert and world music. My housemate and I perched ourselves in the back of the room on what seemed to be a cushioned bay window seat. We settled back to enjoy a traditional set by Austrian born classical guitarist Luke Aaron Mayer followed by the Hausmann Quartet with soprano Ann Moss. The quartet played Haydn String Quartet Op. 50 No. 40 otherwise known as the "Dream" quartet as well as a composer Liam Wade’s “Haydn String Quartet” with movements hysterically called “Kung Fu and Redbones” and “The Blue Ribbon Polka.” Ann Moss, soprano and Artistic Director of CMASH then joined the Haussman Quartet, for the world premiere of "4 Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay" also by Wade.

New works are fun to hear live because of the surprises. The second movement of Wade’s piece was basically like listening to a string quartet play Metallica. It was awesome. What I also love about these smaller, alternative venues, is that audience members are allowed to hoot and holler if something gets really amped up. This is one of the many aspects of the modern world of “classical” music that I personally feel has gotten too stuffy. What’s with all the silence?

The evening was organized by Classical Revolution, an organization that is represented in over a dozen cities on three continents, pairing classical musicians with intimate and alternative performance venues like cafes and restaurants. Classical Revolution presents an average of 15-20 performance events each month in the Bay Area alone. They also stream concerts from their website. CMASH on the other hand is an organization that brings composers and musicians together to create and perform new works. The idea is that through residencies of at least several months, composers and musicians form personal and trusting relationships to create new music as a partnership. Together Classical Revolution and CMASH bring musicians together with composers and audiences together with alternative venues. It’s a perfect combination.

Composer, co-founder and Executive Director of CMASH, Liam Wade explained to me that traditionally composers create a piece and then find musicians to play it, in that order. CMASH was designed for composers to have a specific catalogue of musicians to write for, and in the process of composing, keep the musicians in the loop (often by Skype and g-chat as the Hausmann is in residency at SF State and Wade is a graduate student at UC Davis), often soliciting input from them on the way. Using that process, Wade says, musicians feel more personally connected to the piece and enjoy playing it more. “The composer is not God,” Wade said. “It’s nice for the musician to be included in the creative process and make a personal investment in a piece.”

CMASH hopes that this personal investment translates to the audience's experience, because really without us, they would just be rehearsing. This is why organizations like Classical Revolution are so badly needed. With a dwindling audience for concert music, rather than getting the people to the music, the music might as well be brought to them.

Free TV : Ustream

   For more info about non-profit organizations supporting concert music: CMASH, Classical  Revolution