“It was a quiet night for a revolution,” writes Tim Smith in Saturday’s (10/20) Baltimore Sun. “People at the bar in Joe Squared Station North sat huddled over drinks and conversations. Folks occasionally strolled in to pick up pizza orders or headed to dining tables in the back. Few even glanced at the small group of musicians nestled by the storefront window playing Bach. … But those players, members of a national movement called Classical Revolution, soldiered on for several hours, dedicated to the cause of bringing a venerable old art form into unexpected places. … Classical Revolution began on the West Coast, where a violist fresh out of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music found other musicians interested in playing outside the box; in 2006, they set up a regular gig at a San Francisco pub conveniently called Revolution Cafe. Today, there are nearly three dozen chapters of Classical Revolution in North America and Europe. Baltimore’s version was started by students and recent grads from the Peabody Institute … The inaugural event was held last fall on a Friday night at the Bohemian Coffee House. ‘It was totally packed,’ said Rafaela Dreisin, a trumpeter who serves as director of Baltimore’s Classical Revolution. … Dreisin, who works for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s OrchKids program in inner city schools, also envisions a collaboration between Classical Revolution and the students.”
Posted October 24, 2012
