D Magazine (TX) June 2005 (Section: Pulse)

NEO CLASSICAL

Author: STACY YERVASI

As the faint sounds of orchestral music drift through Club Dada, the emcee jokes, "NEO CAMERATA is theorizing its music right now." As if on cue, the quintet appears on stage wearing boots and jeans. From the first strike of bow to strings, it's clear that the group's Average Joe appearance belies the layered and rhythmic quality of the music. The audience is transfixed. The brains behind the experience is Mark Landson, a viola player who studied at New York's Eastman School of music before migrating to Dallas in 1995. Feeling constrained by his genre, he experimented with what he calls "a new kind of classical music" - a pop- and rock-influenced variation of the traditional chamber sound. He teamed up with his brother, cellist John Landefeld and violinist Vesselin Demirev. They later added Jennifer Choi, a violinist, and Jeanne Shumann, a pianist. A national tour followed, and this month they will start recording their first major release. But you can still catch them on June 17 at the Majestic Theatre. Their music should properly be theorized by then.