{"id":18643,"date":"2017-09-11T12:26:17","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T16:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=18643"},"modified":"2017-09-18T16:20:08","modified_gmt":"2017-09-18T20:20:08","slug":"envage-non-stodgy-non-snobby-classical-ensemble-makes-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2017\/09\/envage-non-stodgy-non-snobby-classical-ensemble-makes-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"EnVaGe: Non-stodgy, non-snobby classical ensemble makes Chattanooga debut at UTC"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"well span3 pull-right\">\n<h3><strong>Future EnVaGe Performances<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Chamber Variations: Exploring Chamber Music.<\/strong> Nov. 18, 2017.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Celebrate Diversity: Music and Poetry.<\/strong> Feb. 10, 2018.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Play It Forward: Benefit Concert.<\/strong> May 12, 2018<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Niky Tejero was ready for her solo.<\/p>\n<p>As clarinetist, she would be the only musician playing during \u201cAbyss of Birds,\u201d a movement in Messiaen\u2019s \u201cQuartet for the End of Time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s hollow and desolate and then, out of nowhere, comes this musical gesture like a little birdlike call,\u201d she explains, offering a vocal interpretation of the section\u2019s trilling notes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was a child in the audience and when I played it \u2026,\u201d she says, imitating a high-pitched giggle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember that afterwards, one of the other musicians went off about it: \u2018Oh my gosh, people should leave their children at home.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018No! That was the most real reaction to what I did.\u2019 The child got it and they reacted. That day I did my job and that day I connected with my audience,\u201d says Tejero, associate professor of music theory and applied clarinet in the Department of Performing Arts.<\/p>\n<p>Although trained in a classical repertoire, Tejero rejects the snobbery and stodginess\u2014both real and perceived\u2014that surrounds classical music. Which is why \u00a0she and her musical partners, Cesar Leal and Jessica Usherwood, are bringing EnVaGe, the Ensemble of Variable Geometry (pronounced in-VAZH), to campus.<\/p>\n<p>Before you get freaked out or confused by the idea of combining music and obtuse angles, take a breath. In this case, variable geometry has nothing to do with Pythagorean theory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt refers to the fact that the ensemble is malleable,\u201d she says. \u201cThe ensemble size and makeup are dictated by the repertoire we choose to program. As the program requires, as the program demands.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words, they bring in the number and types of musicians they need to perform a specific piece of music. On Saturday, they\u2019ll be performing Mahler\u2019s Fourth Symphony, a piece written for an orchestra of about 100 players. EnVaGe will bring in 15, and one of those is a soprano for the piece\u2019s vocal movement.<\/p>\n<p>In future performances, they may have video or amplification or dancers or lighting. Again, whatever they believe is needed for the music as well as enhancing the experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not just pre-packaged for you. Go listen to your CD if you want that,\u201d Tejero says. \u201cWe want them to feel like they\u2019re part of the music-making process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>EnVaGe offers a listening experience that\u2019s different than going to an orchestral concert or an opera, she admits. But that\u2019s the whole point.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSociety is being trained to be increasingly more insular, more isolated, you put your earbuds in and the world disappears; you create your own imaginary landscape,\u201d she says. But a live performance should embrace \u201cthe human element at work. It\u2019s a human part of the art.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s one of her personal requirements as a musician.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI need the audience. I go into a performance as a musician to connect with the audience. I feed off that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And the truth is, classical music needs a transfusion of younger blood, she says. The current audience tends to be older and, to be frank, is dying off. Young people need to be shown that classical music doesn\u2019t have to be wear-your-suit-and-tie, sit-up-straight and be quiet, Tejero says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere has been perhaps some bad PR; classical music has gotten a bad rap that it\u2019s kind of snobby; that there\u2019s this concert etiquette concert. I don\u2019t know when to clap and that makes me feel really uncomfortable. That it\u2019s hoity-toity people, better-than-thou people that I have to sit next to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s not untrue, she admits. But EnVaGe hopes to erase those strictures and bring the audience closer to the musicians and the music itself. And, at the same time, also bring the audience members closer to each other, to pull the earbuds out and burst the insular bubble.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe arts make us human and they put us in touch with our humanity and they make us feel alive,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EnVaGe wants to remove the perception of classical music only being stodgy and snobbish. <\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><span><a class=\"more-link button text\" href=\"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2017\/09\/envage-non-stodgy-non-snobby-classical-ensemble-makes-debut\/\"><span>Continue Reading <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_slider":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_featurette":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12659,61,7712,12777,64],"tags":[70182,70183,70181],"class_list":{"0":"post-18643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-college-of-arts-sciences","7":"category-events-entertainment","8":"category-faculty-and-staff","9":"category-music-college-of-arts-sciences","10":"category-news","11":"tag-classical-music","12":"tag-envage","13":"tag-tejero","14":"entry","15":"has-post-thumbnail"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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