Part of my inspiration for my year of classical immersion had a great deal to do with the exciting work that groups like Opera Theater Oregon and the Portland Cello Project are doing to take the music out of the concert halls and into bars and rock clubs.

One of the most successful groups has been Classical Revolution PDX. This musicians' collective gets together a few times a month to put on what they call “chamber jams” - a wildly varying program of classical, both old and new. And with 150 members at their disposal, no two shows are ever alike in lineup or set list.

I recently had some tea with Mattie Kaiser, the classically-trained violist and former San Franciscan who started CRPDX. She provided her unique insight on the classical scene and the work that her group is doing to break down what their manifesto calls “the elitist and inaccessible nature of the classical world.”

What is your take on the classical scene here in Portland right now?

It's a rough scene right now. It's pricey and it's hard to get a job in it. It's still amazing. If you go to the symphony, it's going to be amazing. Or if you got to a Chamber Music Northwest performance, it's going to be mind-blowing. But it's also going to be expensive. And for those us coming out of the conservatory, we can't get a job in those establishments. I know the Oregon Symphony had a viola audition and 109 people were there auditioning for one slot. It feels like the doors are closed on that system. If you're ridiculously talented, sure, you can get in there, no problem.

I feel like they need to evolve a little. Its very stuck. That's not to say they're not trying. The Symphony just did that Antony and the Johnsons concert, which I guess was really successful. It's not like they're not paying attention, but when you have a board and you have more wealthy patrons to keep happy, you have to follow within the lines. Whereas with us, we are totally flexible because we have no one to please but ourselves. I think a lot of people think that we're the anti-establishment but we're actually just trying to create a passion there. We're trying to create a fan base for classical music and just take away all the extra crap.

I was reading an essay by the editor of this classical music publication where he was saying that orchestras shouldn't pander to the audience. If people aren't smart enough to get what we're doing, maybe this music isn't for them. What do you think about that?

There's a difference between inventive programming and dumbed down programming. I can't stand these classical pops concert, where it's “Classical for everyone!” And it's usually light classical and it's just totally (shrugs). I mean, program a Shostakovich concert and market it well. That'll get people in there. I remember I was talking to Brett Campbell and he was quoting someone else that said “There's nothing about classical music that wouldn't be solved by lowering the ticket costs.” If you just programmed good stuff and lower the ticket prices, people will show up.

Are there things that the Portland classical community is doing right and are successful at?

The symphony I think they're on the right track they know what to do but I think it takes an organization like that a really really long time to change. The TBA/Antony & the Johnsons show was a huge step and successful. I think Chamber Music NW puts on a really incredible concerts. Friends of Chamber Music are doing some incredible things but no one seems to hear about them. Or Third Angle - their TBA piece was really inventive and such a completely different experience.

Do you think that classical music is going to be dismissed and forgotten about in 30 or 40 years' time?

It's really not. I can say that with such assurance because of the way CR has taken over. It started in San Francisco and I started the pod here. Now, it's started up in Reno, in Chicago and Philly and New York and Berlin and it just exploding. There's so much energy and so many musicians out there that just love it so much that we won't let it go. We won't let that happen. It's never irrelevant. There's still amazing things being composed. The same people who are graduating with me are composers too doing really really cool stuff. A lot of it's crap too, just like anything else, but time will tell on that.

How do you program CR shows?

Sometimes I try to put together a theme - like Bachxing Day or the Baroque Bash. But what I usually do have is through this Google group where they can go and sign up and say, “I want to play this Saint-Saens piece for harp and violin and I have a harpist.” I take all these pieces and create a set list and I say if there's time at the end then we'll jam. They're really hasn't been a program where I say, “Oh God, that didn't work at all,” because I leave it up to the individual. I moderate it but I'm not designating the program by any means.

I imagine that the people who participate aren't joining up CR hoping to make money but rather just for the love of the music. Is that right?

Totally for the love of the music. I was talking to the leader of the SF one, and he said that you can provide people with two kinds of gigs: you can provide them with a paying gig or you can provide them with a musically fulfilling gig. Usually paying gigs aren't musically fulfilling. We're playing weddings and were playing [Pachebel's] Canon In D and playing classical fluff. But it plays really well. But at CR we can play Schubert's cello quintet which is like the meaning of life. It's so much more satisfying to me.

What you have to do to make ends meet?

A lot of us are teachers. Some of us do play in regional orchestras around town - the Columbia Symphony or the Vancouver Symphony.

You've done some work with Opera Theater Oregon, but are you planning on collaborating with other groups here in Portland?

I want do more collaborations with indie bands. Not like we're playing together, but instead where we're just like an opening band. They do our set, we do our set. Something where we can show that we're not so different. You don't have to be afraid of us. I've got a couple of those up my sleeve.

Are there any ideas that you really want to try out with Classical Revolution that you haven't done yet?

I want to do guerilla chamber music. So that one day all over the city there's a chamber group in the park blocks and there's a chamber group in Alberta and there's a chamber group on the MAX - everywhere you go, you're running into more music. I want to do a big collaboration show with all these alternative groups. We had this one idea around Bach's Goldberg Variations. We thought of this MAX route where every stop you make, you heard the next Goldberg Variation. For right now, I think just more spontaneous acts of chamber music would be really cool.

What has been your best experience with CR, the one where you really changed someone's perceptions about classical music?

I think the looks on the faces of the kids at Holocene when we played Shostakovich. They mainly went for Stars Of The Lid, but we came out and we just rocked the shit out of Shostakovich. And to look at them, it was like they had been hit by a bulldozer.

Links:
Classical Revolution PDX

Illustration by Casey Jarman