A grand old home for innovative music
Though the Stotesbury Mansion on Rittenhouse Square would appear to be a century away from the present, currently, it's catering to the immediate future. A few weeks ago, in a ballroom literally transplanted from an 18th-century British estate to 1923 Walnut St., cellist Tom Kraines of the Daedalus Quartet played his own improvisational hybrid of Bach's solo cello suites.
Though the Stotesbury Mansion on Rittenhouse Square would appear to be a century away from the present, currently, it's catering to the immediate future. A few weeks ago, in a ballroom literally transplanted from an 18th-century British estate to 1923 Walnut St., cellist Tom Kraines of the Daedalus Quartet played his own improvisational hybrid of Bach's solo cello suites.
"It's rare to find a presenter who is interested and willing," he said, "in combination with a room that works well."
For some, Kraines fails to fall into a convenient category; for others, he might not be experimental enough. But September's first Sessions@Stotesbury concert inaugurated a new forum for musicians who often don't quite fit elsewhere. (Next: on Wednesday, the contemporary-music choir the Crossing, and on Nov. 11, jazz violinist Diane Monroe and guitarist James Emery.)
"Nice presence here. The acoustics . . . feed back to you," said guitarist Brendan Evans, who performed after Kraines. "It has a salon feel, not a rigid concert hall experience."
The typical model for attracting new, young audiences to classical-ish music has often involved something light and fun. But the model emerging here and among other concert producers who speak a similar curatorial language is anything but a watered-down version of the concert hall.
Now in its sixth year, the LiveConnections series at World Cafe Live presents newly commissioned works and musicians in unlikely configurations six or seven times a season. It builds on spade work by isolated entities ranging from cellist Matt Haimovitz, who played Bach to Boulez programs at the Tin Angel in Old City years back, to Astral Artists, which tried out Sunday brunch concerts at World Cafe Live and will announce a new series of club concerts this season. In the interim, this quasi-classical medium has acquired its own style, manner, and audience.
"Classical music is really diverse already," said Melinda Steffy, executive director of LiveConnections. "Part of what we do is acknowledge the diversity of that tradition . . . but we're interested in the newer avenues . . . and how we can give those a home and support artists who are doing unusual, even innovative projects. The in-between space is not for every musician, but there are audiences who want to hear it." The Middle Eastern Al-Bustan Takht Ensemble, for example, memorably collaborated in March with classical guitarist Jason Vieaux. And instead of having question-and-answer concert postludes, the musicians just hang out at the bar.
Whatever the repertoire, performance elements are more crucial here. "The audience isn't automatically silent and attentive," said LiveConnections curator Mary Wheelock Javian. "The onus is more on the performer to engage in that way that singer-songwriters do, drawing the audience in between songs, making sure the audience gets to know them. People want that connection."
As simple as the situation may look, when Haimovitz tried doing club concerts on his own in the early 2000s, much of the driving, unloading, and parking tickets fell on him and his wife. And once inside, the Tin Angel was a narrow room with acoustics unsympathetic to an unamplified cello.
Still, the success Manhattan's Le Poisson Rouge - a casual downtown club with serious eclectic programing - appeared to offer a possible model for Astral founder Vera Wilson to emulate it. She found a primary challenge is at the front end: devising marketing to attract the much-sought-after younger audience. Who is willing to take on that cost?
Social media now solve some of that problem. Still, a larger infrastructure is needed to make the right concert-giving pieces come together comfortably. LiveConnections grew out of World Cafe Live's 50-plus "Bridge Sessions" a year that bring in area schoolchildren. The concerts, which sometimes draw on Astral musicians, are held both in the cafe's acoustically controlled downstairs and its clublike upstairs.
With Sessions@Stotesbury, the starting point was the venue. Though rented out for weddings by its owner, the Philopatrian Literary Institute, the Stotesbury Mansion - with its faint time-capsule aura, ornate Corinthian columns at the doorway, and lavish decor inside - is a hidden gem in the middle of the city.
Having visited the mansion for private events, TV host Jim Cotter began using it for interviews for his WHYY show Articulate and heard one musician after another say the ballroom made them want to perform in it.
His ready collaborator is Veronica Jurkiewicz, who explored alternative venues (coffeehouses, etc.) as cofounder of the local chapter of Classical Revolution and in her work with the Prometheus Chamber Orchestra. "It's not a gig where you make your month-to-month expenses . . . but every dollar goes to the musicians . . . so they're not just here on good will," she said.
It's also a place where doors open at 6 p.m. for happy hour (alcohol or smoothies), giving everyone a chance to mingle before the 7 p.m. performance. Then, lights are dimmed. Candles are lighted. And without printed programs, listeners sit down for an undetermined musical destination.
MUSIC
StartText
Sessions
@Stotesbury:
The Crossing
6 p.m. happy hour, 7 p.m. performance Wednesday at the Stotesbury Mansion, 1923 Walnut St.
$10 suggested donation
Information: