San Diego Unseen: An Urban Portrait
Demarre McGill (left) is one-half of the due behind Art of Élan.
While traditional classical performances often consist of dreadfully long programs of played-to-death works by crusty old dead guys, Art of Élan’s concerts last one hour and highlight composers who’re still kicking. Audience members show up in jeans and sneakers; the programming includes works by greats like Steve Reich, as well as pieces that haven’t even been published.
Demarre McGill and Kathryn Hatmaker, the two classically trained musicians behind the group, liken their concerts to a carefully thought-out mixtape. They won’t feature any piece just because it’s new, different or important—they want to capture a certain mood, to tickle the audience’s imagination.
“When you make a mix CD for anybody, you’re really careful about the order. How is the person going to react to this as a whole? To this particular piece?” says McGill, 36, who also serves as the principal flutist at the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. “We do the same thing with our program.”
Art of Élan has an especially bold fifth season. Titled “Steppin’ Out,” the four concerts—beginning with a program called Mexicali on Tuesday, Oct. 11, and ending with Americana on Tuesday, May 8—will each pay homage to a different cultural group in San Diego and include local performers. The concerts will be held at the San Diego Museum of Art, the organization’s partner, offering a more intimate venue than a concert hall; the audience will be welcomed to happy hour at The Prado afterward.
“We’ve tricked a lot of people into liking contemporary music now who didn’t think they would, just because of the way we’ve presented it,” says Hatmaker, 33, a violinist with the San Diego Symphony.
Mexicali will feature traditional Mexican folk pieces and contemporary works by composers Arturo Márquez and Javier Alvarez, offering what McGill calls a “spicy” mix of old and new. The next concert, on Tuesday, Nov. 29, will be a performance of A Fiddler’s Tale, a funk- and soul-infused update by master jazz musician Wynton Marsalis of Igor Stravinsky’s 1918 work The Soldier’s Tale; it tells the Faustian story of a violinist who sells out to a devilish record-company executive.
For hipsters, perhaps the most enticing concert will be Americana, which features the premier of a new piece composed by Jonathan Holland. Commissioned by Art of Élan, the piece—now in the first stages of being written—will pair chamber-music performers with local folkies The Tree Ring.
“I’m kind of open right now to what the piece could be,” Holland says. “I’ve done a lot of pieces for flute and strings in different combinations, so that’s kind of a sound that’s familiar to me. Using it with a folk ensemble is something that really could lead to some interesting, new sounds that I haven’t explored before.”
The aim, as always, is to blur the lines of classical and cool.
“We really are trying to get people to listen to classical music as music, and not ‘classical music,’” Hatmaker says. “Who doesn’t love music?”
More music events
N-classical: Everybody loves Mozart, but the dude died more than 200 years ago, and even he’d probably be bored with his music by now. If you’re looking for new classical music, head to the Carlsbad Music Festival, which goes down at various venues from Friday, Sept. 23, through Sunday, Sept. 25. This year’s installment features innovative groups like My Brightest Diamond, a chamber-pop band headed by Detroit singer-songwriter Shara Worden, and Burkina Electric, an African electronic music group that pairs composer Lukas Ligeti with musicians from Burkina Faso. The fest’s popular ensemble-in-residence, Calder Quartet, will also perform. $5-$60. carlsbadmusicfestival.org
Sitar hero: Ravi Shankar needs no introduction—one of the world’s greatest sitar players, he’s been instrumental in bringing the majestic Indian string instrument to western audiences. Over the decades, he’s composed original concertos, collaborated with the likes of Philip Glass and George Harrison, and even performed at Woodstock in 1969. Now 91, he’ll prove he still shreds at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido on Oct. 9. $25-$60. artcenter.org
Music, virtually: The internet connects people like never before, and UCSD faculty bassist Mark Dresser will take that point to its logical conclusion in the latest installment of his Telematic project at Conrad Prebys Music Center at 7 p.m. on Nov. 2. He’ll team up with flutist Nicole Mitchell, trombonist Michael Dessen and pianist Joshua White to perform via live internet feed with an ensemble from New York University that includes veteran jazz saxophonist Oliver Lake and Ikue Mori, a laptop sound artist who used to play in the influential no-wave band DNA. There’ll also be visuals from Sarah Jane Lapp, John Crawford and Victoria Petrovich. $15.50. musicweb.ucsd.edu
Scandalous sounds: The audience rioted when Igor Stravinsky premiered The Rite of Spring in Paris in 1913. The response will no doubt be considerably tamer when The La Jolla Symphony & Chorus surveys the famed 20th-century composer’s works during its 2011-2012 season, which begins Saturday, Oct. 29. But the concerts at UCSD’s Mandeville Auditorium on Dec. 3 and 4 will certainly be stimulating—works on the program include Stravinsky’s folksy ballet Les Noces, Béla Bartók’s magical choral work Cantata Profana and Gyrgy Ligeti’s cacophonous Pome Symphonique for 100 metronomes. $15-29. lajollasymphony.com
Email peterh@sdcitybeat.com or follow him on Twitter at @peterholslin.
