December 2009

Thom Mariner
Co-publisher, Express Cincinnati & EXP/arts

Last Monday night, in a vacant semi-basement space downtown, a performance was about to begin. One of the organizers of the event stepped forward a few minutes past the appointed time. He asked the audience for its patience – there were 75 people still standing outside in the cold waiting to buy tickets. Volunteers scrambled to set up more chairs. Seats were rearranged. Friends of the performers stood and offered their seats to the incoming patrons. Within a few minutes accommodations were made and the concert began.

Must be some hot new band, right? In some ways you might call it that, but probably not the kind of band you might think. The performance was by concert:nova, an emerging classical music ensemble made up of members of the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, with a few invited guests (including this writer in a supporting role). The program was contemporary art music enhanced with video and light sculpture. The patrons ranged from CCM students to seasoned chamber music aficionados, with a smattering of the curious, there to expand their experience.

We learned later that this audience was 60% larger than any prior concert:nova performance. Some of this increase can be attributed to two articles in local publications the week before (one by Anne Arenstein for “CityBeat” and the other by Yours Truly for “Express Cincinnati”), but it was the nature of the event that brought people in: a carefully constructed, highly creative melding of aural and visual. Fresh, informal, affordable…a grassroots effort by consummate professionals to create a new kind of audience experience.