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Classical music for the iPod generation

Redeemer is thrilled to host Fringe Atlanta, dubbed "classical music for the iPod generation." The next concert will take place this Saturday.

Fringe Atlanta, the mixed media concert series with two seasons of artistic successes, rave reviews and sold-out houses, returns on March 13. This edition of Fringe will feature pianist Brandt Fredriksen, cellist Erin Breene, violist Tania Clements, double-bassist Emory Clements and violinist Fia Mancini Durrett, the latter Fringe’s musical director.

Most Fringe events have been complete sellouts, and organizers expect more of the same, so patrons are advised to purchase tickets well in advance.

In two seasons, Fringe has succeeded in overturning the sometimes staid conventions of the classical concert, drawing a youthful, enthusiastic audience. As Atlanta Journal Constitution classical music critic Pierre Ruhe said:

“It’s hard to decide what Fringe Atlanta does best. Is it the committed, sometimes superb chamber-music performances—or the presentation of those concerts?”

And yes, let’s talk presentation. From the beginning, Fringe’s model has been to enshrine classical chamber music at the center of an evening filled with art. Patrons now know to arrive early, to allow enough time to listen to a set from DJ Little Jen, to take in a visual art display in the lobby and to mingle in the courtyard over a libation or two.

So while the centerpiece of the evening will be the musicians’ performance of Schumann’s Adagio and Allegra, Debussy’s sonata for cello and piano and the Schubert “Trout” Piano Quintet in A major, an evening at Fringe is “mixed media” in every sense of the phrase. For the second season, The Atlanta Film Festival will curate short film selections, DJ Little Jen will be back to mix classical textures with beats during the laid-back, convivial pre-show and intermission and visual art by Alberto Mier (from San Juan, Puerto Rico) will be on display. Performances are preceded by commissioned pre-show documentaries, allowing audience members to get to know the musicians better before they’re brought out to perform.

Re-living the performances after the event is no problem, since each ticket includes a free .mp3 download of the music, made available within a few days after the last note is struck, plucked, blown or bowed.

As Fringe friend Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker and author of The Rest Is Noise: Listening To The Twentieth Century, writes, “The phrase [“classical music”] is a masterpiece of negative publicity, a tour de force of anti-hype. I wish there were another name.” Ross and many others should be delighted to find out that classical music does indeed have another name and, at least in Atlanta, that name is Fringe.

Fringe events take place at the 300-capacity Church of the Redeemer, on Peachtree-Dunwoody road. The event will begin at 8 p.m., with doors (and DJ) at 7 p.m. Audience members are encouraged to come early to mingle, take in visual art and hear the DJ. Tickets are $12.50 for adults and $7.50 for students in advance and $15/$10 at the door (if available). For those wishing to lend more support to this worthy endeavor, “pay what you wish” tickets are offered at $25 and $50. Advance tickets can be purchased at FringeAtlanta.org or TicketAlternative.com. More information about the performers and the series is available at FringeAtlanta.org as well.