January 3–10, 2002

music picks|classical

Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia

Can classical music concerts, often snubbed by the under-30 crowd, become that generation’s hot ticket? Philadelphia arts benefactor Ted Wolf posed this question, and 25-year-old classical musician Eric Haeker took up his challenge. Backed by Wolf and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Haeker enlisted technology company Onadime, painter Peggy Gyulai and experimental street-savvy production team Sir Eel Productions. "We are always bombarded by eye candy, and we wanted to try a visual approach to get this music across," says Haeker. Thus, the Chamber Orchestra’s shows on Jan. 6 and 7 at the Kimmel Center will be a multimedia, and hopefully multigenerational, event; Haydn’s "Creation" will be synched with onscreen images, mixed in real time by Gyulai and Onadime’s creative director Phillip Reay. Cypher Zero of Sir Eel Productions — a veteran of experimental theater performance and promotions in Philadelphia as well as in Atlanta and Seattle — coordinated two additional multimedia spectacles that further challenge the preconceptions of classical music. He’ll collaborate with partner and video artist Ricardo Rivera/VJ Kaboom, plus live musicians, dancers and performance ice sculptor Peter Slavin, for shows on Jan. 4 and 10. Says Zero, "I’m drawing upon the technologies of the day to reinterpret the great stories and compositions of antiquity."

—Karen Gross

The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Sun., Jan. 6. 2:30 p.m.; Mon., Jan. 7, 7:30 p.m., Perelman Theater, The Kimmel Center, 260 S. Broad St., 215-790-5800, www.kimmelcenter.org. Multimedia performances by Sir Eel Productions, Fri., Jan. 4, 7 p.m., Second Street and Elfreth’s Alley, and Thu., Jan. 10, 8 p.m., The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street, 215-925-5116.