Music to a Promoter’s Ears

Stylistic embellishment gets on my nerves. A jacket or sweater with a nonfunctional bit of ornamentation can send me into “Dr. Strangelove” mode. I have to restrain myself from ripping off the offending epaulet or teddy bear applique and screaming Purity Of Essence.

The same goes for usage. Try and ratchet up my interest in a product with a bolded and uppercased SUGAR FREE and it drives me right for the tooth-decaying alternative. Add misspelling to hyperbole, as in LITE! and I reach for a loaded pen and start writing my congresswoman.

A tendency toward hysterical overstatement is, though irritating, at least understandable when selling toothpaste, dish soap or any product whose ubiquity and blandness require a certain amount of special pleading on the part of advertising copywriters.

But, at first glance, it seems downright perplexing in the context of MUSICS ALIVE!--the distinctive countywide chamber series that has been a highlight of the cultural season for the last six years. These seasonal concerts lure audiences down a musically challenging path to that place where contemporary composers meet non-western musical traditions.

It is a refined yet ambitious series--which this year takes place, according to the promotional brochure copy, over “one festive weekend,” starting Friday and concluding Sunday.

So why market it like so much Cheez Whiz? The answer is inherent in the question: Market it like Cheez Whiz because lots of people eat Cheez Whiz.

“This series is not a big budget item and we are after a market that is not huge--let’s be honest, this is rarefied repertoire,” said Charles McDermott, artistic advisor of New West Symphony, the series’ sponsor. “So it has taken time to develop.”

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And it has challenged the symphony’s promotional arm to find ways--big, small and hyperbolic--to generate interest in the series.

“It came about largely when a patron of the Ventura County Symphony, Barbara Barnard Smith, an ethnomusicologist who now lives in Hawaii, started a fund that made performances of non-western music possible,” said McDermott. “The fund is dedicated to Ventura County.”

While the Smith fund gave the series a push, it was never intended to keep it rolling along in perpetuity.

“We get less money each year, and that’s how it should be,” said McDermott, who has been involved with MUSICS ALIVE! since its inception. “She got it going, but we’ve got to be able now to raise the money.”

Not necessarily an easy sell, even with exclamation points and capital letters strewn across the page. This is ambitious programming, especially in a county that has trouble attracting a crowd for “Beethoven’s Greatest Hits” and “Mozart Madness.”

“Obviously this type of music and an appreciation of it are well-represented in urban areas--there are substantial music programs in Los Angeles,” said McDermott. “In Ventura it is an uphill battle; it is not as easy to market as regular symphonic programs.”

Because the series attracts a smaller audience, performances are generally held in more intimate, and more salable, chamber settings.

“We have used Ventura City Hall and the GTE Center in Thousand Oaks as the two main venues, trying to service both parts of the county by repeating these concerts,” said Richard Fricke, director of marketing for the New West Symphony.

Hardly robust, the series has poked along for six seasons, though it has been at times a bumpy ride. While innovative and bold in content, the concert season has from the beginning, and by necessity, been modest in scale. There are but a few concerts each season, sometimes only two. Last year, the series suffered its greatest embarrassment when lack of ticket sales forced New West to cancel a program by world-renowned composer Lou Harrison.

“There is always this fight between financial realities and artistic decisions,” McDermott said. “Working within our budget is a major challenge.”

Which may explain why this year, in addition to the many exclamation points, the program is adding more populist features. In addition to two concerts--Argentina Alive! on Saturday and Indonesia Alive! on Sunday--there will be a Tango Party! on Friday and a FREE EVENT! on Sunday.

“Tango is the sound of the moment, with big marketing machines behind it,” McDermott said. “We have in past years had three concerts for the series. The idea this time was to try to make it more of a coherent unit, and add the ancillary activities. It’s letting a thing grow and trying different things. Instead of three isolated events, this is just another way of packaging it.”

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And keeping it coherent and affordable means confining the entire weekend of activities to the west end of the county.

“Everything is in Ventura,” Fricke said. “It celebrates Ventura’s renaissance. Behind the whole packaging concept is making things free for the family and adding something that is more fun, the tango dinner. It’s not just sitting in front of musicians and listening.”

Fun! Free! Family! Not words generally associated with recondite art forms.

Perhaps McDermott and Fricke are onto something. Maybe all esoteric culture should be sold this way. It could be the breakthrough that poets, philosophers and French Deconstructionists have been waiting for.

“FOUCAULT UNRAVELED!

“WITTGENSTEIN IS BACK!”

It could work, especially with some wine and cheese.

But nothing fussy.

FYI

Tango Party! 8 p.m. Friday, Pierpont Inn, Ventura, $25; Argentina Alive! 8 p.m. Saturday, Ventura City Hall, $20; Indonesia Alive! 2 p.m. Sunday, Ventura Theatre, $20; Cal Arts Gamelan Ensemble, 11 a.m. Sunday, Ventura County Museum of History and Art, free event. For tickets, call 497-5880.

Wendy Miller, staff writer, can be reached by e-mail at wendy.miller@aol.com.

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OUT & ABOUT: Conejo Creek North offers respite; “Sweet Charity” at Moorpark College. B8