Intermix
holds a monthly open-mic talent show.
“The HSO has spearheaded this. We are providing the physical space, the atmosphere. This is an openly collaborative environment.”
Colette Hall, HSO operations manager, helps program the concerts along with the orchestra’s Music Director Carolyn Kuan. Musicians also offer input. Hall says that the suggestion for the Bernard Garfield piece came from the bassoonist which the orchestra had already been planning to feature in the concert.
Colette says the concerts are distinctive because “it’s chamber music, more virtuosic in the individual parts. Carolyn keeps a list of chamber works that don’t get to be performed live. This series is also more contemporary. It’s an opportunity to do works by living composers, female composers and composers of color. Another goal is to be more intimate, to have the audience closer to the musicians.”
The Intermix series is now in its third season. Venues have ranged from Hog River Brewing Co. to Real Art Ways. The largest number of musicians at an Intermix show so far has been 33; the smallest has been five.
The other two concerts in the 2018-19 series are “Dance Card,” (featuring a piece by that name from composer Jennifer Higdon, plus works by Samuel Barber and others, led by Kuan) on Feb. 28 at Real Art Ways; and a performance by the Philadelphia-rooted string trio Time for Three on May 1 at Spectra Wired Cafe in Constitution Plaza.
“The response has been really great,” Hall says. “There have been several sold-out performances. The audiences love having a different experience.
“We’ve been building this entirely from scratch. We learned a lot in the first year, just getting away from The Bushnell.”
THEHSO-INTERMIX CONCERTS