The crazy side of classical
The Playground Ensemble, the region’s premiere presenter of contemporary art music, gives Colorado composers a rare chance to have their music heard live.
It’s hard to imagine any other classical group in Colorado taking on composer George Crumb’s “Black Angels” with the verve of the Playground Ensemble.
The 20- minute piece, with a score that looks more like a road map than sheet music, is notoriously difficult, calling for an electrified string quartet to produce precise and unpredictable notes at a frantic pace. At the same time, the players have to bang gongs, shake maracas and shout, reverse their hands so they bow at the top and finger at the bottom, work their strings with glass rods, thimbles and paper clips, and every so often, drop their instruments and pull haunting tones out of seven wines glasses filled with various levels of water.
And that’s just the opener for the ensemble’s next concert— and just another day’s work, really. The Playground Ensemble specializes in the new, from 20th century avant garde chamber music standards, like Crumb’s 1970 work, right up to scores being written today. Over its 10 years, the group has given special priority to living Colorado composers, presenting music writers with a platform to be heard and inspiring world- class art along the way.
“The level of composition has actually gone up here because
of the opportunities we are providing,” said Executive Director Conrad Kehn, a former rock ’ n’ roll guy who brings his raucous sensibilities to the ensemble’s efforts.
But the Playground Ensemble has also been a gift — and an ongoing challenge— to regional audiences who have few chances to hear art music that’s on the adventurous side.
Last summer, for example, the group performed local composer Nathan Hall’s “Ghost Light” at Boettcher Concert Hall, offering the usual symphony hall experience in reverse. Audiences took to the venue’s giant stage, laying down on mats with the lights completely out, while various sounds came at them from musicians playing from the seats.
Versatility has been the key to a decade of success and it extends to the group’s structure. The Playground Ensemble has a core of 12 members— strings, woodwind, percussion— but they are deployed in various configurations as the pieces they play require.
A typical Playground program might include a solo clarinet work, another for voice and laptop computer, and a third employing the entire group.
“We do try to find larger ensembles pieces for everybody to play,” said Kehn. But that means arranging rehearsals for more busy musicians “and the difficulty of that goes up exponentially.”
That is to say, the musicians are part- time, working with the ensemble between teaching gigs, jobs with other orchestras and any other work classical musicians must do to make a living in a midsized city. The Playground Ensemble pays its players, but the operation works on a tight budget.
In return, though, musicians get some rare opportunities, a chance to break out of the routine of big Mozart and Beethoven, to play things they haven’t played a hundred times before and to take on compositions where individual players can shine rather than being part of a large, anonymous gang.
“One of the things that’s very important for this group is the personal gratification of the people in it,” said Kehn.
That extends to inventing new music from with- in. Group members often compose the pieces that are performed in concert, such as the upcoming premiere of Loretta Notareschi’s “String Quartet OCD,” which “sketches the emotional landscape of the composer’s experience with postpartum obsessivecompulsive disorder in the year following her daughter’s birth.”
The group presents the piece Tuesday at DazzleJazz club and again Feb. 10 at Regis University, where it will be followed by a discussion on postpartum mental health.
After that, the ensemble moves on to its annual Colorado Composers Concert— known as CoCoCo — which always brings its season to a close in the spring. The event is a competition of sorts, and the program is culled from new works submitted by composers across the state. Over the event’s history, the group has presented 88 works by 61 different writers. One lucky composer is offered a commission for a piece that appears on the next season’s schedule.
And the group’s commitment to inspiring new works also involves kids. The ensemble is dedicated to developing the next generation of Loretta Notareschis, working in schools with programs like Young Composers Playground, which teaches music writing through storytelling and gives young people the chance to compose using nontechnical means. At the end of the teaching, the professional players perform the pieces.
“We feel a tremendous obligation to Colorado composers and we spend a lot of timed educating people about what we do,” said Kehn.
The Playground Ensemble performs “Black Angels” and “OCD” at 7 p. m. Tuesday, at DazzleJazz club, 930 Lincoln St. “Black Angels” gets a repeat performance at 2 p. m. Feb. 8 at Kenneth King Concert Hall on the Auraria campus. “OCD” gets a second performance at 7: 30 p. m. Feb. 10 at St. Peter Claver Hall on the Regis University campus. This performance includes an educational panel on postpartum mental health.