“The Park Avenue Chamber Orchestra seems to have come up with the best solution yet” to reaching audiences with new concert formats, writes Peter Danish in a review of the orchestra’s recent NYC performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, in Friday’s (5/18) BroadwayWorld.com. “The Inside/Out format, where the audience actually sits among the musicians of the orchestra while they play the performance, is the most exciting and original concert-going experience the classical music audience has seen in a very long time. Maestro David Bernard does a splendid job of welcoming the audience to the experience and shepherding them through the performance, with musical examples and lessons along the way. He is one part conductor, one part musical sherpa, and the audience was spellbound…. The PACS’s Inside/Out concerts are nothing short of a classical revolution. They are performance, promotion, outreach and education all wrapped up in one…. Exhibit A: my wife turned to me after the last concert and said: ‘You know, if I had attended one of these Inside/Out concerts when I was a kid, I would absolutely have taken music lessons, and possibly have become a musician.’ That is the kind of impact these concerts are having.”
Posted May 23, 2018
