Getting to Know Beerthoven
By: Ella Pedrozo
In this “Getting to Know You” blog post, we are featuring Beerthoven, an organization based in Austin, Texas. Live Music Project’s Ella Pedrozo conducted an interview with Beerthoven’s Dr. Daniel Swayze.
Classical music, free beer, and a 145 year old venue. What do they all have in common? Well, if you’re in Austin, Texas, you might just find out!
Beerthoven, an Austin local organization founded in 2014, combines classical chamber music performances with free beer at the Austin Saengerrunde (est.1879) to provide a one of a kind experience. We sat down with the director and founder of the organization, Dr. Daniel Swayze, to discuss upcoming performances, event approachability, and, of course, the (free) beer.
Visit Beerthoven’s website here and grab your tickets for the grand conclusion of their tenth season: Tequila Mockingbird.
Free beer, courtesy of Easy Tiger and Lazarus brewing, will be available, as well as free tequila cocktails, courtesy of Casa Distales.
Hello Dr. Swayze, and thank you for meeting with me to discuss your unique, critically-acclaimed organization, Beerthoven! Your events are described as down-to-earth, approachable, and affordable–ones that share classical music with the community while keeping a low bar of entry and providing free beer and drink from local artisans. Was there a particular moment of inspiration ten years ago where you saw the potential for the formation of this organization?
“It all started very organically–the first time I went to a Monday night rehearsal for Austin Saengerrunde’s Maennerchor (men’s choir) I was greeted with a mug of beer and a German welcome. Luckily I remembered enough high school German to respond, and from there, it was such a welcoming and laid-back environment that a few months later I pitched an idea to organize a small concert in the space. That went really well, and the first season and a half of events were really supported by the German club, and it was all kind of German themed. After we’d done three or four of those concerts, I was encouraged by members of the club to start expanding the reach of the salon concerts. I started to think this could have its own identity, and I had to do some thinking about what was important to me about it. I landed on the intimacy and approachability of the environments that we create.
Another point of inspiration for me is the manner in which a lot of our classical chamber music was originally performed. Most of it was done in living rooms and these very up close, intimate spaces, and there was a lot more variety to them than we would generally have today at some of the concert halls. For example, today you might go to a concert where you’d just see a string quartet perform for the whole show, whereas if you look at the programs from Beethoven’s time, concerts were a lot more varied in terms of instrumentation expectations. For example, at a symphony concert there might’ve been a part of the program that was for a string quartet, and then came a piano solo, and then a duo. I like to build programs with that kind of variety for artists and audiences, and people are welcome to chat and engage with the musicians during intermission and after the show over some beer.
The underpinning thing with our mission is for classical music events to be accessible and approachable–not for them to have a barrier of formality where people aren’t sure what kind of rules they need to follow as they come into the space. I think that’s where the beer part of our organization is helpful for that. It’s kind of symbolic, in a way, because it’s kind of the everyman’s drink. It’s not a beverage anybody looks down upon or sees as ivory tower, either, and I want our experiences to be relaxed in that way, available to everyone who’s interested. I put a lot of thought into equalizing the experience for people, so there isn’t a primo seats section per se, or an equivalent. Sometimes if I do have a seat that’s further away, maybe that’s the seat that also has a drink table to put your drink on. Things like that, I think, are important to balance out and think through. That’s a point of inspiration for me that I think sets us apart, as well.”
Incredible! It’s true, audiences appreciate the sense of community accessibility creates, especially at concerts. Speaking of events, you’re about to wrap up Beerthoven’s tenth season with Tequila Mockingbird this upcoming weekend. Congratulations! On your website, you’ve described the punny name as a nod to our flighty friends through the program’s scheduled repertoire. Can you expand upon the theme of birds for this event?
“The idea for theming this event around birds is something I had been thinking about for a while; over the pandemic, my wife and I adopted a parakeet bird, that was kind of our pandemic friend, and it got me thinking about how much classical music is inspired by birds. That sort of planted the idea in my head a while back, but it wasn’t until this season it all came together. It was a little bit like when you buy a certain random car, and suddenly you start seeing that same make and model everywhere. You just have a heightened awareness of it. That might have been one of the things where I started realizing ‘oh, there’s a lot of bird music and yeah, Austin’s kind of a bird town,’ and there are a number of bird instances in repertoire in other programs that just kind of appeared, and I got to thinking ‘we’ve done this song about birds, and that song about birds already, and maybe I could bring some of those together.’
The fact that Austin happens to also be a bird town also spoke to me as this could be something that serves that feature of the community in that way.”
Very true, Austin’s semi-arid environment is a favorite for our bird friends! On your website, you mention you’re also donating 10% of ticket proceeds to Travis Audubon in support of conservation efforts. Amazing!
“Yes, we’ve partnered with Travis Audubon to support their conservation efforts and their work in protecting habitats for birds and other wildlife. A great part of theming your events is you can connect with communities in different avenues that you might’ve not otherwise, so that’s been a great thing to do for this event.
We also were able to connect with Casa Distales, an artisan tequila distillery, that will be serving their tequila at this concert, too! Really contributes to the theme nicely.”
Sounds delicious! Something unique about Beerthoven is y’all’s emphasis on partnering and working with local musicians and local breweries. Do you have any advice on how to go about forming these interdisciplinary partnerships and relationships for those who are interested in the event space?
“I would say embrace curiosity about your community and do lots of listening and talking with new people with other interests and different kinds of backgrounds. You know, one thing that is all too easy for a lot of artists to do is they just surround themselves with other artists. There’s something convenient and helpful about that, because you have other people around who are very passionate about art the way you are, but that can be limiting if you never go outside your immediate circle. There are other points of interest in any given community that also are worth exploring that need to be recognized, too.
I think that an arts nonprofit should be in service of its local community, and the identity of that community is going to vary depending on its people and culture. We’ve had a sort of grassroots approach to building these relationships; a lot of them happened because people attending a show were interested and got more and more involved, and connections with people with different skill-sets and passions grew from there.”
You also work primarily with local musicians. Do they suggest repertoire to you or do you present them with the music you would like to program?
“We definitely make an effort to feature local musicians and artists here. It’s an important part of our organization that’s also very practical. Typically the way that I will start to form a program is I’ll pick the musicians first, or at least I’ll pick some particular artist. I’ll have a conversation with them and figure out what music they’re passionate about and what they’re interested in.
I’ve always got some ideas in the back of my mind, too. Often I’ll find points of overlap or synchronicity that we can then expand on to form a full program. There is the occasional program where I get onto a theme and I really want to make it work, and Tequila Mockingbird was one of those moments where I also found artists that were interested in this idea, too.
I also make an effort to find music that’s written by minority communities, as well as local cultural communities. We had a concert a year and a half ago specifically for Ukraine and Ukrainian music, and we discovered a lot of Ukrainian composers here in Austin. In that way I was able to engage with that part of the community, and we also donated a part of our proceeds towards humanitarian relief efforts.”
Directing and planning events uses different, though also very essential, creative muscles than the performance skills needed to perform at these events. What’s your favorite aspect of directing Beerthoven?
“You know, I actually love writing emails or newsletters, because it’s another form of sharing. It’s a way of letting people know this is what’s important about this music. At the same time, it’s another outlet for my humor and my dad jokes, ha. Really, I like to write emails that don’t just teach people something, but that make them laugh and feel like they’re being welcomed in an approachable way. I often get feedback from people on those emails, and that’s always really invigorating for me. I would say direct marketing is something I enjoy a lot.
When it comes down to the actual day of the concerts, there’s a different sort of energy in every performance that you need to be aware of, and I will say like you’ve got to love the unique energy of that and the sort of adrenaline rush you get from all of those many pieces coming together in those final hours. That’s certainly the most invigorating and thrilling part of it. It’s great when, in the moment, you’re able to overcome a challenge and see the show come together, and then everybody has a great time.”
You have a Doctorate of Musical Arts, are a piano instructor, and organize musical events, among many other things. What advice would you give fellow musicians, artistic entrepreneurs, and creatives about balancing several different projects and interests?
“You know, it really is a challenge because the way the arts industry works today, everybody does have to hustle and wear many hats, and my impression is that in preceding generations, it was a little more realistic to kind of get the one job or maybe two to balance everything. You have to cultivate different talents, and you can’t just lean entirely on your ability to play an instrument anymore. You have to be able to self promote and form other connections. Because of that, I think it’s important to cultivate those other business skills, including a lot of the admin, which certainly can be less fun for people, like bookkeeping, general management, and being able to organize a schedule really efficiently, but it’s all necessary.
Thankfully, a lot of the artists that I’ve worked with, and the shows where I’ve not been performing myself, have done quite well on coordinating their own rehearsal schedules, and that sort of thing. Things like that, some of those nuts and bolts, are super important as well and take a lot of planning and working around other people’s schedules.”
Speaking of collaboration, if someone wants to get involved in supporting the local music scene, what advice would you give?
“I think that engaging directly with artists at concerts and following their socials, getting onto their newsletters and using your own networks to share what’s happening is a great way to do it. There are a number of people who are kind of our diehard fans that, whenever we have a show, they’ll be posting photos of their experience and commenting online. Often they’ll end up bringing, you know, half a dozen other friends the next time around, usually people who didn’t know about us before. One of the tasks of marketing and building an organization like this is you learn how to welcome other people’s networks in that way. I think that’s the key there– networking, essentially. All the artists I have had on always say they are delighted to talk with people who are appreciative of their music, and look to keep up with them on when their next performance is going to be.”
Any advice for people and venue spaces interested in hosting events?
“It’s a great and necessary way to advertise all the talent here in Austin. Hosting is a completely different animal than amplifying, and there are a lot of potential logistical tasks to navigate. The big one is the size of the space you might have. I like to think every space has a certain type of music that will work best in it. Some spaces, of course, are very flexible and variable and I’m thankful that one here at Austin Saengerrunde happens to be such a great venue.
There are some spaces where the best thing might be to just have a guitarist, and then, you know, a dozen or fifteen people seated around on the couch chairs. For other spaces, it might be a backyard performance, and you’re gonna need to figure out if the music needs to be amplified, or if the instruments in the set that are just loud by nature, like a brass quintet, or something of that sort.
One thing about classical music is that it does take a lot of time artistically to prepare, which is why I think you have to have the right kind of setting for what it is that you’re doing. For example, if you are a classical guitarist, and you happen to do the right kind of networking, you could build up that sort of tour from various living rooms and small spaces, and maybe a few big ones in there, too. I’ve known some musicians to do that effectively.
But for programs involving piano trios, string quartets, any type of chamber music, is where you see more commonly statewide or national nationwide tours. That’s great, but that’s also where it’s harder to get the local artist focus. That’s something I’m still learning how to balance myself– the tension between supporting local artists and supporting real intimate house concert kind of spaces that are more accessible.”
Thank you, Dr. Daniel Swayze, for your time, and all your efforts. Consider me one of your diehard Beerthoven fans! Looking forward to this weekend. Prost!
Beerthoven will be concluding its tenth season this weekend, Friday April 26th, Saturday, April 27th, and Sunday, April 28th. Grab your tickets and skip byob –beer (and tequila this time!) on the house. Cheers!
