Butler County symphony shares music at arts center
When Butler County Symphony Orchestra members played for Butler residents Saturday, Jan. 4, it wasn’t in front of a large concert hall; it was an intimate gathering at an art gallery.
The Saturday show at the Butler Art Center & Gallery was part of the symphony’s new chamber music series, a community outreach program the symphony created in hopes to reach more area residents.
McKenzie Holt, a member of the symphony’s board of directors, said the series was proposed to have instrumentalists play in more intimate settings, during months where there weren’t any larger shows.
The show at the Butler Art Center consisted of various duet, quartet and octet performances from brass and woodwind instrument players of the symphony. The crowd of around 60 people listened to pieces by various composers, with symphony conductor Tad Grieg leading the octet. Holt’s husband, Will Holt, played the trombone along with Laura Lynn Crytzer, with Matt McCormack and Wesley Woodward rounding out the brass quartet with trumpets. Christina Savannah and Amy Baker played bassoon, while Allyson Huneycutt played the clarinet and Cassandra Eisenreich played the flute, rounding out the octet.
Baker, also played the contrabassoon, an instrument not normally included in most orchestra pieces. She said it is the lowest octave of woodwind instruments. She said the instrument, along with the intimate space to share music that isn’t always played, made the show unique.
“You’ll see them in orchestras but you don’t really see them like that, so we were excited to do that,” Baker said of contrabassoon. “I loved being able to connect. Because with the chamber music you’re really able to connect with the audience, unlike a bigger orchestra with a distance.”
A big part of the appeal to the symphony members, some of whom have been with the Butler County Symphony Orchestra for at least 10 years, was bringing the music to the listeners. This means playing in different venues like community centers or local parks.
“As orchestras have changed how they approach community engagement, it’s more than just going somewhere and playing a concert,” Woodward said. “It’s these small concerts with the chamber series, or it’s shows in the park.”
The interaction between the performers and guests is also a big part of why the chamber music series was important to the symphony.
“I really enjoy playing music in creative and artistic spaces. It feels alive, and has a different kind of energy than a concert hall,” Eisenreich said. “Seeing audience members react and interact with the different sounds is a cool feeling.”
The art center was also a well-liked venue by both the performers and the attendees.
“You actually look out and see people. Normally when you’re on a stage, you look up and see lights,” Honeycutt said. “Sometimes you forget you’re playing for people, so to look out and see the audience right there, it’s a different kind of connection, and this is a really cool space, a nice resource and good community building space, very happy we got to play.”
The octet’s music, consisting of several songs written by 1800s Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, is not commonly played by symphonies and orchestra’s, according to McCormack. The symphony members who played in the Saturday show liked their selection of music to share with the guests.
“The Stravinsky music, that’s a piece that we study in college, and because of the actual mechanics of the music itself, not a lot of orchestras will play it,” McCormack said. “And because it’s so difficult to put together, and has such few people, most orchestras won’t play it, they’ll go for other common ones, so it was really cool to play it.”
