The Charlotte Observer (Sunday)
Charlotte Symphony musicians to play nightclub with EDM DJ
The Charlotte Symphony has a groundbreaking project in the works that takes the nearly century-old organization somewhere it’s never gone before — into the world of electronic dance music.
It’s called “MERGE: Symphonic x Electronic,” a multi-sensory experience that combines classical repertoire, electronic dance music and immersive visuals. It’s the first in a series of forays into immersive entertainment for the orchestra.
The concert is set for May 10 and 11 at Blackbox Theater, a live music venue off East Sugar Creek that typically plays host to driving beats and late night dance crowds. The club’s website describes the space as “gritfrom ty-chic.”
A few acts will play at “MERGE,” which stretches 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. But the evening’s centerpiece will be the symphony’s live performance, beginning at 9 p.m. along with Asheville-based electronic music composer and DJ Liam Collins, known as Push/Pull.
The orchestra’s resident conductor, Christopher James Lees, will direct 25 string musicians as they perform by themselves and with Push/Pull.
The performance will also feature original digital art created by Joe Vassar, who goes by the moniker Tenorless.
With the aid of about a half dozen projectors and projection mapping, his creations will pulse and undulate on surfaces throughout the space, creating a visually immersive experience. They will also illuminate a 26’x14.5’ LCD wall.
After about a 70-minute set with the symphony, Push/Pull will DJ until midnight. The evening will also include a latenight takeover presented by Kouch Kollective, featuring Jack choices including a yogurt and fruit bowl; French toast with fruit; Lil’ Angie’s Breakfast with scrambled egg, bacon and breakfast potatoes; pasta pomodoro and cheese pizza.
Adult entree choices are:
Angeline’s Breakfast with choice of eggs, crispy potatoes, choice of breakfast meat and toast
Steak and Eggs with grilled NY strip, choice of eggs, crispy potatoes, roasted tomato, pistou the Giant live set & DJ and Empti b2b Scratch the Surface b2b Poetic.
“This is very much an experimental opportunity for us,” said CSO President and CEO David Fisk. It’s rare, he added, for a large organization to “have a chance to go public and try something and see if it catches.”
He said that experimentation is possible thanks to a $210,000 grant, spread over three years, from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Knight Art + Tech Expansion Fund.
WHAT’S BEHIND THE CSO EXPERIMENTATION?
Fisk said the orchestra was Inspired by Blumenthal Arts’ success with Immersive Van Gogh, which ran for six months in 2021. (That popular event drew more than 300,000 visitors, including 78% of whom were first-time ticket buyers, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.)
Fisk said the orchestra’s leadership wondered if there was an equivalent musical path they could pursue that would also align with a new emphasis on music and wellness.
Beyond its creative potential, a major objective of the project is to expand the orchestra’s audience, said Mical Hutson, vice president of marketing and audience development. Electronic dance music audiences generally skew younger than typical audiences for symphony events.
In Charlotte, EDM fans are also very ethnically diverse, she said.
The hope is to capture a new audience segment that may not have yet experienced the symphony.
“Even if we have folks of a similar age-range coming to hear us at our On Tap series or at our movie series or at our other outdoor concerts,” Fisk said, “this is a definite kind of audience that we don’t have right now, because we haven’t done anything like it before.”
Hutson said she knows of several orchestras on the West Coast and in Europe that are also experimenting with classical music and immersive entertainment. But Charlotte’s project will be an original undertaking featuring all North Carolina-based artists.
COLLABORATING WITH BLUMENTHAL ARTS
Blumenthal Arts, which has quickly established itself as a