Photograph courtesy of New Jewish Theatre
Realizing that all the performing arts share common goals, the New Jewish Theatre is expanding its offerings to include an exciting and innovative new chamber music series. Not only will this series bring standard and contemporary works to an intimate venue, but will also showcase talented students along with accomplished professionals, and audiences will be offered the opportunity to dialogue with performers and learn about the origins and cultural context of the music.
Appropriately entitled "Salon Music," NJT is resurrecting the noble 19th-century salon tradition, in which intellectuals, writers, musicians and artists gathered together in private residences or to share ideas, discuss issues and trends of the day, and form attentive and thoughtful audiences to new works of art. Schumann, Liszt and Chopin, among countless others, participated in this tradition.
The NJT Salon Series will host its programs in the Marvin and Harlene Wool Studio Theatre in the Staenberg Family Complex at the Jewish Community Center. The series was inaugurated in January, in cooperation with the St. Louis Symphony's Community Partnership Program, and featured Symphony musicians. The next program will be presented on March 16, and will feature members of the Symphony Youth Orchestra and accomplished students in the Preparatory Program of Webster University's Community Music School.
The young musicians performing at the March concert will present music of Mozart, Faure, Bartok, Brahms, Dohnanyi, Ravel and others, composed for duos, trios, quartets and quintets. The ensembles performing in this program have been selected to compete in the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition held annually in South Bend, Indiana.
The beauty of NJT's vision of incorporating chamber music into a salon setting is three-fold: audience members will not only hear great music up close and personal, but they will also have the opportunity to increase their appreciation by learning about the music and the performers. Add to this the fact that the diverse repertoire featured will dramatically illustrate the incredible diversity of styles, rhythms, periods and ethnic origins that combine to build the vast edifice we term "classical" music. Programs such as this help us to retain cultural literacy, and teach us about the common heritage we share.
Later this year, in June, the Salon Series will sponsor the Gesher Music Festival of Emerging Artists. This week-long event will focus upon community outreach and will introduce promising young professional artists to the community.
NJT's commitment to the musical life of our region highlights the enormous contribution to all music by the Jewish community throughout its history. It is difficult to imagine what music would be like without Mendelssohn, Mahler, Schoenberg, Gershwin and Bernstein, to name but a few. From the psalms of King David to the call of the cantor, to the dazzle of a klezmer band, to the glow of Yiddish theatre, to the mind-blowing majesty of a Mahler symphony or the uncharted landscape of a serial composition—the Jewish community continues to help shape and maintain our traditions, in St. Louis and everywhere.
Gary Scott blogs about music, education and life in general at scottmind.blogspot.com.
