Camerata offers 'something a little different'

By KIM BROWN World Scene Writer
Published: 5/19/2011 2:10 AM
Last Modified: 5/19/2011 3:20 AM

The opening season of the Tulsa Camerata will conclude memorably on Thursday - with pieces ranging from Igor Stravinsky to Frank Zappa.

The chamber ensemble was formed last year by local musicians who wanted to branch out and play music not typically performed in Tulsa, said Jason Heilman, Tulsa Camerata board member, who serves as the master of ceremonies at performances.

"This concert was actually the concert that really kind of started it all," Heilman said. "When we were founding the group, this is the one concert we really wanted to play."

In the meantime, the group of string and wind players have given three concerts this season.

"It's not easy to start a classical music group from scratch," Heilman said. "It's a lot of work and not a lot of money comes in the first year, so you also have to have a full-time job. It's one of those things where it's hard to get grants and funding unless you've been around a while. And then it's hard to have been around for a while."

But this Thursday's performance will be the payoff the group has been yearning for as they present a program that includes: "The Soldier's Tale" by Igor Stravinsky; "Octandre," for seven winds and bass by Edgard Varèse; Pieces for string quartet, "Op. 81" by Felix Mendelssohn; and Frank Zappa's rock instrumental "Peaches En Regalia," arranged for a string quartet.

And "The Soldier's Tale," which will conclude the program, will feature more than musicians. Actor Dan McGeehan will narrate, and dancers from Tulsa' Portico Dans Theatre will round out the libretto created by Stravinsky in 1918.

"It's one of those once-in-a-lifetime pieces," Heilman said. "It's really something special we're putting together."

If the string quartet arrangement of the Zappa piece sounds out of place, it's not.

"The concert started out as a Zappa tribute concert. We thought, 'Why don't we play a few pieces by Zappa and a few pieces by his heroes, Stravinsky and Varèse.' Then when we started thinking about playing Stravinsky, we thought we should really go for it."

The resulting mix of compositions is precisely why the group was created.

"There's definitely a market for this. It's something a little different. It's in it's own niche," Heilman said. "It's not the Tulsa Symphony that plays the big orchestral pieces and it's not Chamber Music Tulsa. There's a lot of middle ground that doesn't get covered."

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/scene/article.aspx?subjectid=272&articleid=201...