Ben Folds will perform his “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra” tomorrow with the National Symphony Orchestra.
Orchestras across the country are facing a similar problem: as their audience—and hence subscriber base—ages, these organizations are struggling to run expensive operations on increasingly tight budgets. The National Symphony Orchestra, housed in the Kennedy Center, is trying creative ways to draw new audiences toward orchestral music. Mason Bates was named Composer-in-Residence, while the NSO Pops has staged hip-hop collaborations with Nas and Kendrick Lamar.
Tomorrow, the NSO will also launch a new performance series, DECLASSIFIED. The evening’s centerpiece will be a collaboration between the orchestra, under the direction of Sarah Hicks, and pianist-songwriter Ben Folds, performing Folds’ Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.
While the NSO’s aim may be to draw in the much sought-after millennial demographic, the 49-year old Folds comes at this event from a more artistic perspective.
“It’s more about having popular music artists collaborate and compose with and for a symphony orchestra,” Folds told DCist in a recent interview. “There’s such potential in what both sides of that musical aisle could get from each other.”
Though the NSO and Folds may have differerent goals, they are not mutually exclusive and are likely complementary. When the concerto was premiered with the Nashville Symphony in 2014, that orchestra sold thousands of tickets for a series of sold-out performances.
Trained contemporary classical composers are often coming from a more intellectual space, but a successful pop songwriter has a proven ability to translate a melody that may appeal to a wide audience. So it’s no surprise that Folds’ piece, which is over twenty minutes long and in three movements, has an easier time of engaging a listener.
“Melody is my religion, it’s what I do,” Folds said. “A person studying at Juilliard may flunk with the piece that I wrote. It may not make sense for those coming up through those ranks.”
At the same time, Folds’ intention with his Concerto was to engage the orchestra as much as the audience. Unlike most orchestral pops performances, he did all of the arranging and orchestrations. He even wrote a piano part for himself that required significant practice. The result is a piece that distinguishes itself from normal orchestral pops fare.
“The alternative is to make a pop show and arrange an existing catalog,” Folds explained. “That translates to a dumbing down of orchestral music for the symphony player, a detour for the artist, and a novelty for the audience.”
“In Motion” is the theme for tomorrow’s DECLASSIFIED, meaning all of the music was written for or inspired by dance. In addition to the Nashville Symphony performing Folds’ piece, the Nashville Ballet also developed choreography for it. The Chairman Dances by John Adams, Paul Creston‘s Dance Overture, and Mason Bates’ Mothership will round out the program.
Activities in the Kennedy Center’s Grand Foyer will bookend the seventy-five minute concert. Earlier in the evening, the venue will be specially decorated for the event and Company Danzante Contemporary Dance will perform. DJs Pork n Beans will spin afterwards and cash bars will be open throughout, with booze allowed in the Concert Hall.
The NSO hopes to build on a successful event with a second DECLASSIFIED, taking place in April, that will feature Bates along with violinist Anne Akiko Meyers. Ultimately, Folds hopes that the audience will see these occasions as more than just unusual happenings worthy of a night out, but instead as engaging and creative endeavors.
“You know when something is legit or not,” he said. “I want people to feel proud that it’s not a lost, dumbed-down era.”
DECLASSIFIED takes place tomorrow, December 4, at the Kennedy Center. The 9 p.m. concert is sold-out, but it’s worth contacting the box office for last minute availability. The activities in the Grand Foyer are free and open to the public.
