Getting to Know Washington Musica Viva
For this week’s Getting to Know You blog series at Live Music Project, Alexi Caruso’s interview with Carl Banner is featured to share more about the presence of Chamber music in the D.C. area and their partnership with LMP’s Concert Calendar.
Washington Musica Viva’s website can be found at https://www.dcmusicaviva.org/
By: Alexi Caruso in conjunction with Anna Smith
This interview began with some questions about Washington Musica Viva’s audience, as well as their mission and future goals.
What are the benefits to sharing concert listing information in a central hub for the listeners in the Baltimore & Washington D.C. area?
“We’ve been doing this for a long time and things change. The way you promote chamber music has changed a great deal in the last 20 or 30 years. There used to be bulletin boards, paper press. There used to be even web listings and those involved have faded away, and so right now there are only three places where I can lose my concerns of which Live Music Project is one. We have a County Arts Council, and they run a listing that is free, and I saw this list with them on the web. It’s called Culture Spot for Montgomery County, and Como Park has a listing service. That’s a paid listing, so you have to pay an annual fee and then they will list you, but only events that are actually in Como Park.”
What is Washington Musica Viva’s longest standing goal in providing music to their audience?
“Well, we’ve been doing this for a long time and things do change, but one thing we’ve always done is commission new music, so we have commissions in process right now, but the thrust of our mission is to get people together with small ensemble music in an intimate environment.”
Can you give us an example of a performance from Washington Musica Viva that you thought was particularly meaningful? Why do you think it resonated with you and/or your audience that way?
“Just a month before the pandemic, we did a concert of all Black composers, and we had commissioned a piece by a local African American man named Larry Goins, and we did some pieces. It was a whole program of Black composers, and I partnered with an organization in DC that promotes Black culture, so we had a really large, diverse, authentic, and enthusiastic audience for this event. It was for saxophone, violin, piano, and I believe trumpet. That was a lot of fun and really interesting.”
Washington Musica Viva has clearly developed a loyal following for their concert series. In which ways are you excited to see their work grow this year?
“So, you know, we’re coming out of the pandemic, and before the pandemic hit I had the idea that chamber music could be self-sustaining if you could sell enough tickets, and it wasn’t that many tickets, but it’s more than I can fit in my studio here. So I was partnering with a church in the neighborhood, and we were getting audiences of 60, which is about the point at which you break even in ticket sales. Of course all of this disappeared over the pandemic, but I have a schedule I’m planning with the music director there for another series of concerts. We’re starting the first on September 23rd, and hopefully we will continue to do intimate concerts here in my studio, but I want to do concerts at the church in part because some people prefer a slightly less informal situation. Also, I can then sell enough tickets to cover my costs.”
We’re really passionate at LMP about a culture of resource sharing to help uplift entire music communities. Are there any benefits you’ve experienced by sharing Washington Musica Viva’s concerts on the LMP Concert Calendar?
“Yes, definitely. It has really elevated our web presence, so people who google us will now see it on LMP, and it means that people in Baltimore, for instance, who want to know what’s happening will see what’s going on down here. It’s filling a real lacuna in the system here. There are very few ways for us to promote our concerts, and LMP is one of the ways to do so.”
LMP’s Concert Calendar for the DC and Baltimore area can be found at https://www.livemusicproject.org/events/?include=&near=baltimore-md
What are some of the ways that you’d like to see your music scene in Washington D.C. grow?
“Well, I’d like to see more chamber music concerts and new music concerts proliferate so that people know something about what’s going on. There’s just not as much happening as I would like to see, and young musicians don’t have a lot of opportunity to play chamber music, and most of them say that’s what they love to do. It would be very helpful to me if some of my musicians had more to do.”
