In St. Paul's Lowertown neighborhood sits the Northwestern Building, a drab eight-story brick edifice that once housed railway administrative offices. It seems the most unlikely place to go hunting for interesting musical experiences.
On the second floor, however, along a tiny maze of bland institutional corridors, a listener finds the Baroque Room, a hidden gem of the Twin Cities classical scene.
The Baroque Room and other small groups are like craft breweries for the classical industry. They take music away from the grandiose settings of major concert halls and into more intimate, even domestic environments. The up-close and personal experience is appealing to new audiences, plus it's a boon for musicians who crave attentive listeners.
"A thin gray carpet and drop-down fluorescent lights" was the uninspiring sight that first greeted violinist Marc Levine when he entered the Baroque Room seven years ago. But Levine and his wife, harpsichordist Tami Morse, had a vision for transforming the defunct office space. They hoped the room would help them build what they called an "inclusive movement" for diversifying the Twin Cities early-music scene. They wanted to fill it with carefully curated presentations of baroque music, with plenty of post-concert socializing.
Graduates of Stony Brook University on Long Island, the pair were eking out a living as freelance musicians in New York City when they decided to relocate to Levine's hometown and hatch their musical start-up (he grew up in Mendota Heights). With "nothing to lose," as he put it, they hired an architect to plan a remodeling of the unattractive space. Thanks to grant funding, they swiftly opened the Baroque Room, a bright, welcoming cocoon of musical activity.
Since 2011, it has grown to host about 50 concerts a year in its intimate performance area, measuring little more than a generously sized living room.
For Levine, the venue's size is crucially important. "The biggest comment we get is that the musicians are so close," he said. "You can hear everything, and really be part of the event."
That sense of intimacy is particularly important in baroque music — encompassing, roughly, European music from 1600 to 1750, when instruments were quieter and more delicately voiced than their modern counterparts. Music like that can get lost in larger, more conventional spaces.
The Baroque Room proved itself a fine venue for other music, too. The resonant acoustics are well suited to small-group playing and single-instrument recitals, such as a recent program of 20th-century American chamber music. For baroque aficionados, however, the room offers manna from heaven with vibrant performances of composers you generally hear only on CD or radio: Couperin, Leclair, Locatelli and more.
Location: 275 E. 4th St., Suite 280, St. Paul.
Upcoming highlights: Lyra Family Concert Series: Bach's Brandenburg Concertos (3 p.m. Sun., free); Byron Schenkman plays harpsichord music by D'Angelbert, Couperin, Boismortier and Duphly (May 6, $10-$20); Gloria Shih and Marc Levine play Bach and Fauré (May 27, $5-$15).
Tickets and info: 651-705-6772, thebaroqueroom.com.
Studio Z
Location: 275 E. 4th St., Suite 200, St. Paul.
Percussionist Heather Barringer first saw the St. Paul new music group Zeitgeist perform in the 1980s when she was a student at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls — she has the bizarre memory of a box office employee trying to unload a bucketful of newborn kittens on audience members.
In 1990, Barringer joined Zeitgeist herself, eventually becoming its executive director. Zeitgeist operates from Studio Z, located in the same Lowertown building as the Baroque Room. The quartet is vigorously committed to what it calls "the cutting and creative edge of classical music," providing a platform for contemporary composers of all ages, many from the Twin Cities.
Performances are consistently excellent, creating new sounds that are often wonderfully unexpected. Bonus: Concertgoers can nibble on Barringer's delicious homemade cakes and cookies as they listen.
Upcoming highlights: Zeitgeist and Spitting Image play music by Katherine Bergman, Joshua Clausen and Daniel Nass (May 4-6, $10-$15); the New Ruckus Composer Night (May 17, free).
Tickets and info: zeitgeistnewmusic.org.
Picnic Operetta
Location: Community gardens, urban farms, vineyards and other green spaces.
It's opera, but not as you know it. Come late summer, the Picnic Operetta company packs its costumes into traveling bags and takes its show to various al fresco locations around the metro area. The organization has presented operas by Purcell, Mozart and Beethoven in recent seasons. Each gets the Picnic Operetta treatment: a radical trim to 70 minutes, with injections of contemporary content throughout.
This year's presentation is the Haydn opera "Philemon and Baucis," which promises snippets of music by glam rockers Queen while touching on issues such as gentrification and animal extinction. Food is always central to the experience — an "island-spiced" watermelon canapé was served for Handel's "Escape From Alcina's Island" in 2015 — but it's no gimmick. "It's an important aesthetic and visual element," said artistic director Scotty Reynolds. "The harvest celebration theme at that time of year — and connecting to the Earth — is what Picnic Operetta wants to honor."
Upcoming highlights: "Philemon and Baucis" (Aug. 13-Sept. 24, donations encouraged).
Tickets and info: mixedprecipitation.org.
Punk-Ass Classical
Location: Basements, attics and living rooms around the Twin Cities.
The name tells all: Punk-Ass Classical offers a cheeky alternative to the formality and occasional stuffiness of the usual classical concert experience. The brainchild of flutist-composer Sam Tygiel and pianist Bess Boever, the series takes the classics into domestic settings, hosting concerts in friends' lofts or living rooms.
That makes for an intensely intimate experience, with tight proximity between audience and musicians. It also makes for a fun, party-like atmosphere, with a "bring your own beer" ethic, according to Tygiel. PAC majors in 20th- and 21st-century music. Music lovers can sample the action by liking the group's Facebook page or signing up for recitals as they're announced.
Upcoming highlights: Music by John Cage and Arun Chandra (May 26, donations encouraged).
Tickets and info: facebook.com/punkassclassical.
Terry Blain writes about classical music and theater.
