It’s Sunday night and the Revolution café, a hotbed for San Francisco hipsters, is filled to capacity. A large crowd of 20- and 30-somethings, many squeezed into skinny jeans, has spilled out onto the sidewalk to chat loudly, a cigarette in one hand, a pint glass in the other. Inside, the line to the beer-and-wine counter seems endless, but the packed crowd is remarkably quiet. That’s because a string quintet has managed to cram itself into one of the bar’s corners. In between movements, the musicians reach down to take swigs from the pints of beer kept at the foot of their music stands. Some in the audience remember to applaud, though sometimes they shush one another, hoping to hear the music a bit better. Others just talk right through the performance.

This is the evasive demographic that symphonies in the United States have been trying to woo for years with discounted tickets, modern music, shortened programs, and even cocktail hours. But inside the Revolution, the seats are free, the drinks are cheap, and the audience members are welcome to take in as little or as much of the show as they want.

“We are there to play music and have fun, and the audience is free to receive it however they feel appropriate—there is nothing enforced,” says Charith Premawardhana, founder of Classical Revolution, a nonprofit organization committed to bringing classical music to the people instead of people to the music.

The nationwide organization does this by staging chamber-music concerts in venues seen as more accessible than your standard recital hall.

Thus far, seven additional chapters have been founded: Portland, Oregon; Chicago; Reno, Nevada; New York City; Philadelphia; Berlin; and Toronto. All work to produce weekly concerts, for the most part, in bars and cafés.

Violist Kati Wentink heads up the Classical Revolution chapter in Reno. The organization’s third chapter actually got its start in a smoky bar in neighboring Sparks, a speck of a blue-collar town that is hardly, if ever, noted for its arts-and-culture scene. Yet the Sparks bar that hosted Classical Revolution drew a crowd that most likely has never seen the inside of a symphony hall.

During the slow movement of a Brahms viola quintet at that first show, a biker dressed head to toe in leather wiped tears from his eyes.

“That’s when I realized that there’s a stigma to classical music,” Wentink says, “but it doesn’t have to be that way.”

Eventually, Wentink moved the Classical Revolution concerts to downtown Reno, where the group was guaranteed more foot traffic. Plus, the move shortened the commute time for musicians, who already need a lot of convincing to participate. San Francisco’s chapter has a core group of 12 musicians to choose from and a complete roster of close to 200. But Wentink struggles to find musicians who will play Revolution gigs for little or no pay.

Most of the chapters have worked hard to keep concerts free of charge, meaning musicians volunteer their time, only passing a tip jar now and then. Wentink has started testing out a $2 cover charge as a way to cover expenses and pay musicians a small stipend.

Performing in bars does more than just expose unlikely listeners to chamber music, it expands performance options for musicians. “While I was at the [San Francisco Conservatory of Music], we were met with restraints as to booking the concert hall for student recitals,” Premawardhana says. “So I booked my recital at the bar across the street where we all hung out after practicing.”

Premawardhana’s first solo viola recital was held at the Eagles Drift In, a dive bar located across from the SFCM’s former location in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset neighborhood.

It is a place better known for its competitive darts than its music scene.

The performance was accompanied by the various bleeps of the video-game machines people played while seated at the bar. But though the din and mixed attention of patrons might frustrate some, it only encourages Premawardhana. “I prefer to just play music and let the audience awareness be free to waver in and out. And when things really lock in musically, the energy has a natural flow and awareness is drawn in very naturally,” he says. “Musicians enjoy being free to play music without these same stigmas.”
More than a performance opportunity for emerging musicians, Classical Revolution has begun to draw such established string players as Mads Tolling and Jeremy Kittel of Turtle Island Quartet. More recently, Jeremy Cohen of Quartet San Francisco swung by to read tango music with the ensemble. “I think we have a pretty solid concept of what we want to do: presenting concerts in highly accessible venues,” Premawardhana says.

“My current goals are to increase funding so we can provide higher-quality programs and be able to pay artist fees—to do exactly what we are doing, but do more and do it better.”

For more information on Classical Revolution, visit classicalrevolution.org online. There, you’ll find dates of upcoming events and information on the venues, how you can donate to Classical Revolution, and how to book a group. Interested in starting a chapter of Classical Revolution? E-mail info@classicalrevolution.org.