The delicate chamber music drifted through the unlikeliest of venues, the Valparaiso Moose Lodge 1357, on this beautiful spring evening.
Past the handwritten sign, “Chamber Ensemble in Residence – Enter Here,” taped on the back door of the decades-old lodge. Past two older women behind the empty bar. Past posted reminders about a Friday fish fry and open bingo on Monday.
In a nondescript meeting room, less than a dozen guests listened to Debra Silvert and Paul Bowman play their hearts out as Duo Sequenza, the classical chamber music ensemble they founded in 1988.
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Silvert, who plays flute, and Bowman, who plays guitar, were flanked by an American flag, a Bingo board and a moose head mantle on the wall.
“This next piece, ‘The House Carpenter,’ is another tragic love story,” Silvert told the audience in between musical pieces.
The duo was supposed to perform next door, at the historic Memorial Opera House. Advance ticket sales played another tune. Guests were directed instead to the Moose lodge, where Duo Sequenza performed a 90-minute concert.
In celebration of National Chamber Music Month, a nationwide initiative to draw attention to small ensemble performances, the duo performed pieces by living composers such as Beaser, Blackwood, Krouse, Liebermann, and Owen.
Their concert featured Appalachian folk tunes, a spirited Irish piece, an homage to Jethro Tull, reflective Native American motifs, and a reimagined Schubert piece.
“We’re used to playing to tiny audiences like this one,” Silvert told me afterward. “This is the usual size of a chamber music audience these days in this region. Flute and guitar is a tough niche in the chamber music world.”
Silvert is determined to introduce, or reintroduce, chamber music to mainstream audiences. The married mother of four from Valparaiso knows it’s a daunting challenge.
“You don’t have to know anything in advance about chamber music or classical music. And you don’t have to be well versed to the pieces or composers,” she said. “You simply have to have two ears, an open heart, and allow yourself to enjoy this experience.”
Silvert asked rhetorically, if you play classical music in an empty forest, regardless how beautiful it sounds, if it’s not heard by anyone should it still be called music?
“What’s music? Music is about communicating and connecting with others,” she said.
Silvert and Bowman, a Chesterton native now living in North Carolina, have played in too many empty forests.
“With our music, there’s no place to hide on stage. Think of body building,” she said.
Chamber Music America defines chamber music as works for small ensembles of two to 10 members, each playing a part of the music, generally without a conductor.
Duo Sequenza is committed to developing new audiences for contemporary classical music while promoting the work of living composers. The Valparaiso-based duo recently founded Sequenza Chamber Music Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit, to broaden its reach.
“There is a large body of classical music that deserves to be heard,” Silvert said.
“Music for the People” is the tagline of Classical Revolution, a grassroots movement of world class musicians to change the demographics of today’s classical audiences.
“Chamber music is a vibrant and diverse field,” said Margaret Lioi, CEO of Chamber Music America. “It includes contemporary music, jazz, world music, Western classical, and styles that draw from all of these.”
The local duo is trying to attract and reach new audiences in different ways, from innovative programs such as “Bach’s Lunch Hour” (get it?) to private “salon concerts” in homes. They signed with a record company. An album is in the works.
Their rewritten motto is, “Real music by real artists for real people.”
“It’s a well-established fact for concert artists that these musical pieces change when performed for an audience,” Silvert said. “There’s some intangible feedback we get while performing that impacts how we’re playing a work.”
The more “miles” on any given piece, the richer that piece becomes, musically speaking.
“We like to say it grows,” Silvert said. “An artist can never bring a work to its full potential, no matter what mastery they have over it until it’s performed. The real masterworks are those that keep getting richer and deeper with each performance.”
The duo’s brochure states: “Let us show you how this music can be the lemon sorbet to cleanse your palette between courses of your harried life. It’s called an intermezzo!”
Silvert has been cleansing her palette with classical music since childhood.
In second grade, she owned her first flute. At 15, she ran away from home, taking that flute with her. At 16, she began taking formal lessons, with encouragement from her foster parents.
“I just knew I wanted to be a flutist in life,” she recalled. “God didn’t give me a voice. He gave me a flute.”
Her mother was a bookkeeper at a Buick dealership. Bowman’s father was an ironworker. They both have non-musical, middle class roots.
“I often think classical music is like a great big unabridged book. And popular music is a movie based on the book,” she said.
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Silvert was once told the reason why pop music fans don’t tune in to classical music.
“They can enjoy pop music without having to pay attention to it,” she recalled.
It’s about having a sense of mindfulness.
“We are a society of shortened attention spans and ubiquitous electronic screens. We live our days to the accompaniment of device after device, often too connected to technology to connect with one another,” Silvert said. “Or with this kind of music.”
Classical music is perceived by much of the public as elitist, instantly ruled out as enjoyable by the masses. Outsiders are routinely convinced they won’t “get it.”
“News flash – you do get it,” Silvert insisted. “You just don’t realize you do.”
Learn more about chamber music
Listen to a five-minute “sampler” of Duo Sequeza’s music at https://tinyurl.com/HearDuoSequenza.
Listen to a full 24-minute performance of “Romeo & Juliet,” composed by Indiana-born, Pulitzer Prize-winner Ned Rorem at www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TwCug0K0lk&t=106s.
Learn more about the duo at www.DuoSequenza.com.
