FOLLOW + LIKE US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
B A R RY
JO H N S O N
FROM THE EDITOR-AT-LARGE
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Plays Well
With Others
CHAMBER MUSIC COMPANIES GO ALL IN ON A NEW FESTIVAL
I was talking to Peter Bilotta, the executive director of Chamber Music Northwest, about the origins of January’s chamber music festival, and he used a common
metaphor. “We decided we could all get in
the same sandbox and play together,” he
said. And suddenly, I flashed on the following familiar line: “The more we work
together, the happier we’ll be.”
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So claimed one of the first songs my
oldest son learned in preschool, one I was
coerced into singing, myself, in the group
circle of parents and children at the end
of class. That was one of the very few
times it has occurred to me since then,
though I suspect it’s been lurking in my
subconscious somewhere (perhaps lodged
next to “a clean desk is a sign of a sick
mind”).
“WE DECIDED WE COULD ALL
GET IN THE SAME SANDBOX
AND PLAY TOGETHER.”
We know that simple sentiment actually conceals another truth: working
together can be REALLY difficult, and
it partially contradicts another, perhaps
more powerful, cultural directive: “My
way or the highway.” Many of us spend
our lives working in small groups, and
we don’t get much more preparation for
it other than a song or an admonition
to “use your words” instead of pulling
someone’s hair.
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Still, increasingly, in this particular
culture-shed, where the Willamette
meets the Columbia, we’re experimenting with different ways of cooperating
with each other, sometimes directly,
sometimes indirectly. In the tech sector,
particularly, various incubator spaces
have opened to encourage interaction
and collaboration — and the arts are
ARTSLANDIA AT THE PERFORMANCE JANUARY | FEBRUARY
starting to follow suit. So far, the most
impressive experiments have come from
Artists Repertory Theatre, which has
reorganized itself internally to include
more than 20 resident artists and has
developed its Southwest Morrison Street
headquarters as an arts hub for various
other arts groups. Meanwhile, local dance
groups have collaborated on the Dance
Card promotion, and visual artists have,
where possible, colonized old buildings
for studio spaces, allowing for the sort of
informal, casual encounters that can be
so important to the creative process.
The most significant example of collaboration among classical music groups, and
the one with the most potential importance to the culture in general, has been
the development and implementation of
the Arts for All idea, a collaboration that
encourages food stamp recipients to attend arts events for a very small cost. But
in general, the numerous classical groups
haven’t done much together, choosing to
go the