“Music for the People” is launched!

I have been dreaming of starting a group with my friends and I for years now. We started off by getting together to read symphonic works in an informal atmosphere, and the energy and enthusiasm we found were unique and memorable. At first I was doing this to practice conducting, but it quickly became obvious this was about a lot more than that for all of us – it was and is about friendship, sharing, music. It’s been a few years and here we are, the time has come to bring our group to the audience. I have taken the liberty of drafting the following manifesto:

“Music for the People is an ensemble, flexible in size, which performs symphonic and chamber music written from 1600 onward. We believe that classical music is for everyone, and that its depth and beauty can be enjoyed by all, regardless of previous experience and exposure. We want to be a laboratory for how art music would be experienced and performed had it only been discovered in the 21st century and we had the task of introducing it to today’s world, without preconceived notions from anyone.
We focus of the visceral experience of “classical” music and aim to bring its unique energy to the audience, not unlike in jazz or rock music, and believe that’s the right start from which to attract new listeners.

We want to propagate art music based on its place among the humanities and its connection to the human experience, and not from a narrow, specialist view. We believe that this approach, combined with the music’s inherent beauty and intellectual depth, is the way to truly thrive in the future. Music for the People is a platform to be free and unfettered by dogma, and a new beginning for the classical music experience.”

I have been blessed to have amazing players collaborate on this project since the beginning, including members and principals of the New York City Ballet, the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, players from Broadway shows, and other distinguished musicians from all walks of the New York scene. I couldn’t have done it without them.