Ft Worth Star 04/04

Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX) April 19, 2004 (Section: Life & Arts, Page: 1E)

Classical music artists bring Bach to the bar

Author: WAYNE LEE GAY; Star-Telegram Classical Music Critic

Usually, when cellist Matt Haimovitz performs concertos with orchestras, or recitals in concert halls, the greatest disturbance might be a concertgoer's sneeze or a dropped program.

But these days, Haimovitz has been spending a lot of time in bars, playing classical music for the beer and buy-me-a-drink set. Sometimes, it can get a little rough.

"I had to break up a fight at Genghis Cohen," he explained in a recent telephone interview, recalling his appearance at the famous Los Angeles rock club. "I think somebody spilled a drink on somebody's wife, or something like that."

Barroom brawls, obnoxious crowds, smoky rooms -- they all come with the territory for this club-hopping evangelist for classical music, now in the midst of a 50-state "Bach and Anthem" tour. By next spring, he plans to have performed at clubs across the country.

Haimovitz, 33, admits it's a tough sell -- he's hardly breaking even financially -- but he's not out on this ledge alone. NEO Camerata, a Dallas-based ensemble configured as a traditional quintet of piano and strings, was his opening act at a recent performance at Club Dada in Dallas (at which they appeared as a string quartet without piano).

Together and separately, artists such as Haimovitz and NEO Camerata are trying to make inroads where classical musicians rarely dare to venture.

Haimovitz, who has performed as a soloist with the Dallas and Fort Worth symphonies, discovered the possibility of playing outside the concert hall when, on a whim, he held a release party for his CD of J.S. Bach's Suites for solo cello in 2000 at the Iron Horse Music Hall close to his home in Northampton, Mass. There, he discovered one of the most diverse audiences he had experienced.

This inspired a tour of mostly music of Bach at mostly folk venues. That was followed by the 50-state tour. He's mostly performing contemporary composers, as well as Bach at rock clubs like Club Dada.

With more than 30 performances on the tour complete, Haimovitz is well aware of the advantages and drawbacks of the club scene.

"It's great to be in an intimate room, to be close up to the audience," he says. Bach, he quickly points out, probably wrote his unaccompanied music for a social venue, such as a coffeehouse.

The casual atmosphere also adds the option of casual attire for the artist.

On the other hand, as a classical musician, Haimovitz has a natural aversion for electronic amplification, which is almost always necessary at a nightclub.

"I try to keep it as natural as possible," he says. "I want the cello to sound like a cello as much as possible."

Although Haimovitz is likely to return to the concert hall, the musicians of Dallas-based NEO Camerata hope to build an audience for chamber music in the club scene and, eventually, on the pop circuit.

The violins and viola play standing up; because of the venues, NEO's musicians use electronic amplification. Unlike most traditional classical chamber ensembles, the group always plays from memory. And, it performs mostly the music of its violist, Mark Landson, the driving force behind the ensemble and its philosophy.

"I had grown up around serious classical music, and though I enjoyed it, I never felt it really communicated to me and to people of my generation," Landson says.

In 1996, Landson and his brother cellist John Landefeld organized SONAC (Society of Non-Alienatory Composers) to perform contemporary serious music in informal venues -- in this case, a restaurant called Yellow on McKinney Avenue in Dallas.

"When the restaurant went under, so did SONAC," Landson admits.

But Landson kept considering the possibilities.

"I wanted to do something to present new classical music in a way that would appeal to people who were not in the classical fold," he says. "I believe that classical music can be an integral part of pop culture."

By late 2003, intense Bulgarian-born first violinist Vesselin Demirev and equally intense Italian-born pianist Valeria Vetruccio had joined up with Landson, along with cellist Landefeld and Austin-based second violinist Jamie Desautels.

The group began trying itself out with "warm-up" gigs at parties, bookstores and the Dallas Public Library.

NEO Camerata began to go before a larger public with a locally televised performance during the 2003 Christmas season, followed by a children's concert in January sponsored by the Plano Symphony, of which Landson is a member. After opening for Haimovitz at Club Dada in February, the group performed with Dallas Contemporary Ballet at McFarlin Auditorium at SMU and followed up with an appearance before an audience of about 250 in the informal, clublike atmosphere of the Granada Theater in Dallas in March.

The group has recorded a disc, Journey of Mind and Emotion, featuring Landson's music. And it's forming a working relationship with the Dallas rock band Mur. Landson hopes that NEO Camerata can eventually be a touring opening act for a rock band such as Mur.

"Obviously, playing at clubs in Deep Ellum isn't financially viable in the long run," Landson says. "But it's a step. Just like the rock bands that play in Deep Ellum, to be financially viable we have to eventually play larger venues."

NEO Camerata
7:30 p.m. Thursday
Latin Cultural Center, 2600 Live Oak in Dallas
(214) 670-3320