Experience the rock band of classical music<\/p>\n
The musician-led group, now in its 15th year, has been reviving the tradition of chamber music salons in L.A. and Orange counties, with the price of a ticket as little as $5.<\/p>\n
Centuries ago, chamber musicians performed at the homes of wealthy patrons or well-to-do dilettantes. Today, Jasper White said Salastina preserves the intimacy of these smaller public performances \u2014 more than 20 each year \u2014 that are “unpretentious and very, very social.”<\/p>\n
One of Salastina’s performances.<\/p>\n
For Salastina’s musicians, the smaller format affords a different league of artistic freedom.<\/p>\n
“You think of classical music and you think of a giant orchestra. And there’s a conductor bossing you around and telling you how fast and slow and how loud and soft to play,” Jasper White said. “We have none of that.”<\/p>\n
Think of each performance as a jam session, which Jasper White likens to a “conversation.”<\/p>\n
“If you think of the Beatles, they weren’t the Beatles when they had Pete Best. They were only the Beatles once they got Ringo Starr.\u200a So there’s a certain conversational quality,” she said. “A rock band or a chamber ensemble really rides and dies on who’s in the group and their chemistry.”<\/p>\n
That’s top of mind for Jasper White and co-founder Kevin Kumar in curating their group of resident musicians, which includes a flutist, a pianist and other instrumentalists.<\/p>\n
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Salastina co-founders Maia Jasper White and Kevin Kumar<\/p>\n
Many of the residents are performing musicians \u2014 many work in the movie business recording soundtracks. The salons are what they do for fun, for the pure love of expression.<\/p>\n
“You can hear and process and react to what every single other person is playing in real time,” said Jasper White, who’s also a resident violinist, just like Kumar.<\/p>\n
“You feel like you have this top-to-bottom stimulus for your brain and your soul,” she said.<\/p>\n
It’s a pulse the audience can also feel.<\/p>\n
Upcoming salons<\/p>\n
Salastina<\/a> hosts salons at different locations<\/a> in front of audiences of various sizes. <\/p>\n