Soundbox Ventures program seeks new ways to engage classical music audiences

With his new “Listen Hear” salon-style concert programs, violinist Max Tan hopes to attract new audiences by changing how concerts are put together and presented.

“We’re constantly asking how do we build audiences down the line for classical music, and how do we help future artists,” said Tan, an alumnus of the Perlman Music Program who plays with the Sarasota Orchestra and will become concertmaster for Opera Philadelphia next April.

He said the classical music concert hall style is a type of “museum culture. Most concerts are defined by a theme and pieces chosen in accordance with that theme. People enter that space and sit in reverential silence, experiencing one piece to the next and then they leave.”

He wants the new series, presented by Soundbox Ventures, to help explore “what can classical music do for the 21st century?”

Tan will join pianist Marisa Gupta in each of the programs. The season begins at 7 p.m. Dec. 16 with “Preludes with Marisa,” featuring Gupta performing the world premiere of “123 Preludes for Solo Piano” by Catalonian composer Marc Migó. Tan will lead a conversation with Migó and Gupta about the process of creating new works and the relationships between composers and performers.

Each concert program will include a reception “to keep the conversation going,” he said.

And Tan said audiences “will be encouraged to react to things in the moment, not just sit obediently and quietly in their seats.”

With the help of private donations and grants, each concert will be presented free of charge at St. Boniface Episcopal Church, 5615 Midnight Pass Rd., Siesta Key.

At 7 p.m. March 8, the series will mark the centennial of the birth of American composer Ned Rorem with a program of his work, including “Aftermath,” which he wrote in the wake of 9/11. It will feature baritone Tom Meglioranza.

At 7 p.m. March 20, Tan and Gupta will present “Carnegie Hall Recital Debut Preview,” a first look at the concert the two plan to present at the famed New York venue on April 3. They will be performing Clara Schumann’s “Three Romances,” Thomas Ades’ “Märchentänze,” Igor Stravinsky’s “Divertimento,” Eugène Ysaÿe’s “Ballad” Sonata No. 3 for solo violin, and Richard Strauss’s Violin Sonata.

Expanding a new series

The “Listen Here” series is an outgrowth of performances that were presented over the last year at the Sarasota Art Museum, where Tan said executive director Virginia Shearer “wanted to use a museum space in a way that catalyzes creativity. We launched a program with different ways of listening.”

He said there is a specific opportunity in Sarasota to launch and build such programs because it “is one of the most arts-intense cities in the whole country, the investment in the arts, and the impact of the arts on the economy and the number of nonprofits is astounding. We didn’t create Soundbox to compete with any of them.”

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He wants “Listen Here” to “help artists better communicate with people who are not as fluent in musical language. It gives artists a chance to practice those skills and it gives the community a chance to grow something, rather than have someone come in for a day or two and leave.”

Soundbox Ventures also operates the Suncoast Composer Fellowship Program, which brings together 12 musicians and two award-winning, established composer mentors in residence with six composer fellows selected from an international pool of applicants.

Executive Director Mia Laity said the organization wants to facilitate “as many opportunities as we can for every individual to engage with music in a way that nourishes their inner artist.” She added that moving to St. Boniface gives the “Listen Here” series a space that “is ideal for gathering. The room is an acoustical instrument in itself and the context of the sacred space is in perfect harmony with the invitation to contemplate profound beauty in community.”

For more details about the program and “Listen Here” series: SoundBoxVentures.org.

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota classical concert series seeks new ways to engage audiences