When you hear the words “classical concert,” your mind probably goes to a big concert hall with a conductor in a tux, musicians wearing black jackets and gowns, and a hushed, reverential audience.
You probably don’t think about a bar, with an audience sipping beer and munching pizza and chicken tenders.
But that was the scene this week inside Triple C Brewing Company in Charlotte’s South End. About 100 people sat around a wind quintet playing 16th-century works by Joseph Hadyn as bartenders quietly filled orders and stacked glasses in the back.
This concert is part of the Charlotte Symphony’s ongoing “Symphony On Tap” series, where symphony musicians perform condensed — or let’s say distilled — concerts in bars and breweries all over the city.
Fermenting new audiences
"We started these before COVID," said Symphony President and CEO David Fisk as he sipped a glass of sauvignon blanc. He said the symphony is trying to build new audiences with these pub concerts — and neighborhood performances on a newly-built mobile stage.
"Either you put on compelling programming in your regular venues and hope to grab people’s attention, or you go find them," Fisk said.
And performing classical music in pubs and breweries isn’t a break from tradition. In a way, it’s a return to the music’s roots, Fisk said, "because that’s how many pieces were first played way back when, in the places where people were gathering — in the music halls and the theaters and the wine bars."
The musicians also get a chance to select their own music and interact with the audience. At this concert, the program ranged from French composer Darius Milhaud to a piece called “A Moonshiner Laughs” (apt for a brewery) and even a couple of sea shanties.
'It makes a difference in your playing'
At intermission, the musicians sip drinks and mingle alongside the audience. Paige Quillen, the French horn player, took her drink to the back.
"I have the sour," she laughed. "My boyfriend just handed this to me as I was walking over here."
Quillen is the quintet’s lone brass player. She’s been playing French horn since elementary school, and just moved to Charlotte from New York City in September.
She said she’s played in many concert halls and a few parks, but performing for a bar is new.
"It’s really nice to be able to see your audience while you’re playing, and to be able to interact with them afterwards," Quillen said.
It’s a much different experience from sitting on a brightly lit stage with the audience far away in the dark.
"As we were just playing, I looked out during the Milhaud and there was just a man in the front row smiling," Quillen said. "And, it makes a difference in your playing when you can see someone reacting that way."
The symphony’s next pub performance take place at NoDa Brewing Co. on Feb. 25. The performances are ticketed.
