Philadelphia Camerata

Wednesday, April 30. 2008

Casting Pearls

If critically acclaimed contemporary art suddenly appeared on a busy street in a major European city, how many passers-by would notice?


48 hours and 2965 potential admirers later, we find only 107 pedestrians (just under 4%) stopped to look.

Surprised?

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Tuesday, March 25. 2008

To Build an Audience

Earlier this month I found myself, entirely by accident, in the tiny town of Death Valley Junction, about five miles from the California-Nevada border. The population of Death Valley Junction is reported variously as 10 to under 20, down from its peak of approximately 300. There is no gas station in town, no post office, no grocery store, no restaurant. There is, however, an active opera house, a functioning hotel, and even an airport about a mile outside of town, though I haven't been able to determine if it's ever been in operation.

The owner of the town (she bought it in 1979) and of the Amargosa Opera House, the hotel and the airport, as well as its most illustrious resident, is dancer, painter, designer and producer, Marta Becket. Born in Manhattan in 1924, Ms. Becket moved to Death Valley Junction in 1967. At that time, the opera house (then a community meeting place called Corkhill Hall) was abandoned, so Ms. Becket took it over and began performing there in 1968. She wrote the shows, produced the shows, designed the costumes and was the sole performer.

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Tuesday, December 18. 2007

Kile Smith: Epiphany Vespers

Some weeks ago I asked Kile Smith to write something about his Epiphany Vespers to be premiered by Piffaro and The Crossing Choir on 5 and 6 January 2008. I am particularly interested in this piece as it is the only new work commissioned by an early-music group to be premiered in Philadelphia this season. Kile tells us something of his own musical past as well as of this work's rooting in (Lutheran church) history. He writes:

"My first love in music was choral music. Specifically, it was Lutheran liturgical choral music. This I remember from childhood, even before I had any conception of what classical music was (that was to come later, in high school). So I was thrilled when, during discussions with Piffaro, the idea was floated of a new composition inspired by the musical flowering of the Lutheran Reformation. This idea became this Vespers.

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