Passion on tap

The artistic directors of The Chamber Project

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When, just over a year ago, I published a post on this here blog about the innovative programming being done by The Chamber Project St. Louis, I never would have guessed that I might become part of that programming thirteen months later.

I guess it's a good thing it was a positive article!

Those of you who know me might be a bit surprised to learn that I'm appearing as a guest soloist in a classical chamber music concert. Yes, I played a number of instruments in my feckless youth, but none of them very well and none of them at all now. And while I'm a fixture (not of the plumbing variety) on the local cabaret scene, I do not have anything remotely like a classically trained voice.

I do, however, have plenty of experience as an actor, and it's in that capacity that I made my debut with The Chamber Project last night (September 11, 2014; the concert repeats on September 18) in Kenji Bunch's "Sonnet 128" for narrator, cello, and percussion. This haunting and charming little work (around seven minutes long) is part of a longer evening titled "Passion" which, according to the group's web site, explores "the passion makes the heart sing and that keeps us going through thick and thin."

The evening opens with the prelude to Bach's "Cello Suite No. 1," which segues straight in to the Bunch. It's a dramatically smart move, and the leap from the 17th century to the 21st ("Sonnet 128" premiered at Tanglewood in 2003) feels remarkably seamless to me.

A short break for a stage re-set and audience discussion is then followed by "And Legions Will Rise" for violin, clarinet, and marimba by St. Louis native Kevin Puts. The composer says the work "is about the power in all of us to transcend during times of tragedy and personal crisis. While I was writing it, I kept imagining one of those war scenes in blockbuster films, with masses of troops made ready before a great battle. I think we have forces like this inside of us, ready to do battle when we are at our lowest moments." The fact that it was written just a few months before the 9/11 attack is one of those "you can't make this stuff up" real-life coincidences.

The concert closes with Beethoven's "String Trio, op. 9 no. 1" In G major, a lively and engaging work from the point in the composer's life when he was just beginning to hit his musical maturity. His first symphony was still two years away when he wrote the three trios of his Op. 9, but you can hear the beginnings of the revolutionary changes he would bring to the forms of the 18th century structural and harmonic models in this music.

The essentials: The Chamber Project of St. Louis, with yours truly as special guest, repeats their "Passion" program at 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 18, at the Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust. The performance is part of their "On Tap" concert series at local imbibing establishments where you can consume the libation of your choice along with the music—much as audiences often did back in Beethoven's day. For more information on this and other Chamber Project projects, check out their web site.