Crazy Strings concert features alternative classical music

TRANSCRIPT:

CAMPBELL: People have enjoyed classical music for centuries. But, as with any art form, there’s always room for it to change, adapt and grow. Alternative classical music is a burgeoning genre that allows players to improvise notes and melodies within classical works. Monday night, UCLA music students gathered in Jan Popper Theater to play selections from this new genre as part of a concert called Crazy Strings.

FERGUSON: We were asked to improvise on certain riffs.

CAMPBELL: That was third-year cello performance student Niall Ferguson, who played in a quintet for the concert. According to him, alternative classical is similar to jazz, which involves extensive improvisation within chord structures.

FERGUSON: It’s not quite reached the realm of jazz where we’re given chords symbols and completely left to create our own melodies, but we have an outline of a melody that we can riff on.

CAMPBELL: And riff they did! For nearly four hours, various student groups lit up Popper Theater with updated renditions of works by composers such as Astor Piazzolla. Listening to the work of old composers seemed to have inspired new ones, at least in the case of fourth-year classical composition student Gabriel Wheaton.

WHEATON: As a classical composer, I think we really need to be taking classical music in general in this direction. It has a traditional harmonic palate, but also more of a groove. Piazolla is a great example of that.

CAMPBELL: Musical improvisation is a skill that can be difficult to master, even for veteran musicians. Knowing which notes, arpeggios and melodies will fit inside a certain chord structure can take years of practice.

For Catherine Arai, a second-year violin performance student, five weeks of preparation built up to a daunting but exciting experience.

ARAI: I was just so nervous because this isn’t usually my main thing. I’m not used to improvising and putting my own style and twist into it, so this is an interesting experience. I think it turned out pretty well.

CAMPBELL: Proponents of alternative classical music claim that it provides an opportunity for growth, not just for performers, but for the classical genre itself. Wheaton hopes to see similar concerts in the future.

WHEATON: It’s just really refreshing to see the music department moving in this direction, having a concert that features exclusively this type of string music.

CAMPBELL: For Daily Bruin Radio this is Chris Campbell, with interviews done by Jonaki Mehta.