Fine Art, Fine Food and Jerry Springer

Sorry for the title. More on that later.

We have not done anything like this for A Little Lunch Music since it began. Most performances have presented on the lite side of classical music, or if not lite, then pretty traditional. Also, not much of it has been new music, that is, newly composed "classical" music.

Everything that will be performed tomorrow will be by composers who are still alive...at the time of this posting...as far as I know.

Josh Pifer played some new music when he performed in September. Some of Houlik's recital was new (duh). Tzu-yi did a fiery Prokofiev piece, but he died in 1953. And come to think of it, at two different times, I played my part in a great little canon composed in 2010 by Friedrich Kühn for three recorders.

That's about it, I think, unless I've forgotten something. And even if it was new, it was still pretty conventional. The closest we've come to tomorrow's performance was Doug Rosener's percussion students last spring. Remember that one "out" piece with mixed percussion and flute? Sure you do.

The instrumentation of the Fountain City Ensemble (website) is flute, clarinet, saxophone (I know, there it is again) and percussion. Just reading it makes me see a fantastic mix of colors in my mind. They pride themselves on offering choices to composers. Each wind player brings in tow a family of instruments with voices from bass to piccolo, and percussionists come with lots of toys.

They've commissioned works, one they'll do tomorrow by Georgia composer J. M. David, Found Objects, that they world premiered in Japan in 2005. They are preparing to premier a chamber opera (so cool) by Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon in 2013, maybe in Mexico City. Zohn-Muldoon was a Pulitzer nominee. Did I mention these guys are based in Columbus? Georgia?

The performance will be in the museum's auditorium, reason being that some of the music they will play requires a bit of sound reinforcement and also video. This will not change the informal nature of the performance. Visitors will be able to come and go as needed, and we may even keep the doors open so people will wonder what the heck is going on down the hall.

Another piece, Heartbreakers, by Jacob Ter Veldhuis who goes by JacobTV, will feature video audio clips from the Jerry Springer Show (see, the sensationalist title is technically accurate) with some stylized video. They are edited to present a rhythmic structure onto which the composer has laid music for the live performers. Do check out JacobTV's website. It's social commentary. Some of it is pretty funny.

You can hear a good bit of their music on the Ensemble's website, linked above. If you can't come, do listen. It's a fantastic chamber group and it is making a name for itself right here in our extended community.

Many thanks to great friends of the series Nick and Carolyn Davis for sponsoring the performance. Incidentally, check out their son Nathan's website. He's a percussionist himself and a composer of some note, living in New York. I'm hoping we can make a love connection here.

The Café will be open from 11-2 serving Ursula's delicious fare, and it's so reasonably priced. See you there!