Chamber Music Tulsa invites public to 'Mochas With a Musicologist' informal session
BY JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer
Friday, September 14, 2012
9/14/12 at 4:28 AM
If any art form might require a little extra explanation, it's chamber music.
That is because, as Jason Heilman says, chamber music is perhaps the most abstract of the classical performing arts.
"In opera, for example, there's always a story being told," said Heilman, a local musicologist. "Most ballets have some kind of narrative, whether it is telling a story or implying relationships among those on stage.
"Even symphonies can have something that resembles a plot," he said. "But with chamber music, by and large, you don't have that. The music itself is what's going on."
On the other hand, many of the world's great composers wrote some of their best - indeed, most personal - music to be performed in intimate settings by a small number of musicians.
That is why Chamber Music Tulsa is hosting an informal session it calls "Mochas With a Musicologist," 10 a.m. Saturday at DoubleShot Coffee Co., 1730 S. Boston Ave. The event is free and open to the public.
Heilman, who writes the program notes and presents the pre-concert lectures for Chamber Music Tulsa, will host the event.
"It's something that we have been talking about for about a year," Heilman said. "The organization has been wanting to expand its outreach and education programs, to offer more adult music education outside of the concerts.
"And since, in some people's minds, chamber music has a kind of 'highfalutin' air to it ... we wanted to deflate that and open this music up to everyone."
The "Mochas With a Musicologist" program will begin with Heilman giving a brief overview of the first three concerts of Chamber Music Tulsa's season.
"We have three very different ensembles in the first half of the season who will be doing a wide range of music," Heilman said. "So I'll also talk a bit about musical form and point out some of the structural or formal elements that these pieces have in common, and how each composer puts his own spin to those common forms."
A question-and-answer session will follow.
"I'll be there as long as people have questions I can answer," Heilman said. "The whole point is to make this as informative and as informal as possible."
Chamber Music Tulsa season
Chamber Music Tulsa will open its 2012-13 season by presenting Chatham Baroque, one of the country's most acclaimed early music ensembles. They will perform Sept. 29-30 at the Tulsa PAC.
The world-renowned Tokyo String Quartet will come to the Tulsa PAC Oct. 20-21, as part of the ensemble's final tour with its remaining two founding members.
Nov. 17-18 will be The Peabody Trio, an ensemble of violin, piano and clarinet.
One of the nation's rising ensembles, the Tesla Quartet, will be joined by Grammy-nominated composer Carter Pann for a Tulsa performance Feb. 16-17.
Quartetto di Cremona, an ensemble based in Rome and Milan, Italy, makes its first U.S. tour this season that includes concerts in Tulsa on March 16-17.
Closing out the season will be the Gryphon Trio, a Canadian ensemble, April 13-14.
MOCHAS WITH A MUSICOLOGIST
Who: Chamber Music Tulsa
When: 10 a.m. Saturday
Where: DoubleShot Coffee Co., 1730 S. Boston Ave.
Original Print Headline: Informal music education event set
James D. Watts Jr. 918-581-8478
james.watts@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
The Tokyo String Quartet will return to Tulsa and perform at the Tulsa PAC Oct. 20-21. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World file
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