At last year's event, a sidewalk on Broad Street was trod by a contingent of kazoo holders and blowers, led by two musicians playing French horns. (Photo by Greg Garner courtesy Mozart Festival)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richmond go together quite well, thank you very much, as you can experience throughout Scott’s Addition, for free, on Saturday, April 28, during the Fifth Annual Mozart Festival that takes Wolfie into bars, coffee shops and other nontraditional venues. Yes, you read that right, this is the fifth year, and the last as event director for the Richmond Symphony's principal second violinist, Ellen Cockerham Riccio.
This year’s events include the Clover Hill High School marching band leading kids and parents from the courtyard of Gather to King of Pops, operatic arias at Gelati Celesti, and a full orchestra playing excerpts from Mozart symphonies at the Urban Farmhouse. The festival is powered by the talents of more than 200 musicians, including a student recital that includes a 40-piece children’s choir, the City Singers, chamber music and story time with “The Magic Flute.”
The festival grew out of the time-honored tradition of already busy people thinking that this one more thing would be great fun to create, not anticipating success, and finding themselves with a hit.
“I think a lot of people only know me through Classical Revolution RVA,” Riccio says, referring to the group that is part of an international affiliation of classical musicians bringing music outside the concert hall. “I have a full-time, demanding symphony job. Everything I did through Classical Revolution [I did] through force of will.” That the Mozart event became popular, and that people flocked to it, came as a pleasant surprise.
This is Mozart’s first go at Scott’s Addition. Riccio is enthused to see dance incorporated into the roster, which will include not just performance, but also a class about 18th-century dance at the Turn Cardio Jam Studio. Oh, and there’s yoga in the morning, too, at The Yoga Dojo, termed “Namasdeus.” She laughs. “I’m creating the playlist for the yoga.”
Musician and promoter Prabir Mehta describes Riccio: “Whatever she sets her mind to she makes happen. She’s one of those rare individuals who under-promises and then over-delivers, which are great traits for a human being.” Mehta became acquainted with Classical Revolution through players in his band Goldrush. “My bandmates were super pumped about the music they were playing,” he says, “but I couldn’t walk into Plan 9 and hear an opera. That world wasn’t speaking to me until I met Ellen.”
Riccio wanted to put the “revolution” into the Classical Revolution, and, Mehta, with a decade of organizing promotions for music and cultural events, joined in to make the first Mozart Festival in Carytown. After a screening of “Amadeus” at The Byrd, the Mozartians adjourned to what was then Portrait House (now Citizen Burger Bar) to assess their accomplishment, which led Mehta to remark, “Next year we can do a lot more.”
“I didn’t intend — I didn’t think — we’d have an annual event come out of it,” Riccio says.
Now there’ve been five of the festivals, two in Carytown and two in Jackson Ward. Portions of Mozart’s symphonies filled Babe’s of Carytown, and his “Requiem” soared toward the skylights at the Candela Gallery and vibrated through the packed audience. And yours truly wore a three-cornered hat at the Art 180 Atlas Gallery and provided narration for a version of “The Magic Flute.”
Mehta has sought to balance elegance and sophistication as befits the subject while also bringing tongue-in-cheek quirkiness. “It’s esthetically related. People are intrigued. It’s ‘Listen, you can hear some world-class music by some of the best musicians on the East Coast in a coffee shop.’ ”
The 2016 festival poster borrowed a theme from “Batman,” with a wig signal shining in a rainy nighttime Richmond sky, and this year’s theme riffs on “Jurassic Park.” Here is ancient (to some) and powerful music returning to life before your very ears and eyes. This extends to activities for the family, with a paleontology musicology pit at Gather, where youngsters can search for hidden musical instrument parts: a viola tuning peg, a bass bridge, a wind reed. “Then they’ll see these musicians performing using those elements,” Mehta says.
There will be a year six. Andrew McEvoy, a classical guitarist, is stepping onto the event conductor’s stand. Riccio says, “He’s been with us from the beginning, and he’s very close to the organization, so he was willing to step into this tradition.”
After this year, Riccio can just show up at the right time and play.
For a complete schedule of this year's Mozart Festival, including lead performers and directors of the open-to-the-public events, visit the festival website.
