Sitting in a semi-circle in front of a video projection was a small chamber ensemble of cello (Downing), violin (Aleksandar Gajic), double bass (Joe Phillips), guitar (David Occhipinti), clarinet (Peter Lutek), trombone (William Carn), and trumpet/cornet (Kevin Turcotte). Stylized videos played throughout the evening, illustrating the themes of each song. The story tells of Robert Kirk, a 500-year-old magician who asked the King and Queen of Faerie to break a spell on the land. GMOs have rendered the seasons out of whack. They enlist the help of a Sylvia, a 16-year-old Hasidic girl, and Johann, a 16-year-old Amish boy to find 3 cosmic eggs hidden in Pennsylvania and restore balance to the world.
If the story sounded like hipster mish-mash, I wasn't reassured when Southworth entered after the instrumental intro to sing "Nip It In The Bud." With his deep voice but babyish face, and sporting a brimmed hat, he looked and sounded too much like an Leonard Cohen affectation. It wasn't until the sentimental lyrics of the 3rd song "Falling In Love With The Old World Again" that I felt the sincerity of the performance. Then it became a wonderful show with the aforementioned "Old World", "Metamorphosong", "Robert Kirk Is In His Lighthouse", and "Rumspringa" being stand-outs.
The music, though still obviously pop, was classically orchestrated. The program described the performance as cabaret, and the songs do have that musical theatre arrangement: not typically classical but not merely background ornamentation to a pop refrain. From frantic trills on the clarinet, to stately melodies on the trombone, and complex interplay between the string instruments, it was great to listen new music that straddled genres and push boundaries. As a bonus, with the exception of guitar and voice, it was truly acoustical with no electronic amplification.
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