THE WICHITA EAGLE

BORN IN A BARN

-- PLAYING CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC IN A RELAXED RUSTIC SETTING IS A DREAM COME TRUE FOR CHAMBER MUSIC AT THE BARN. THE GROUP CELEBRATES ITS FIFTH SEASON BY UNVEILING EVEN BIGGER PLANS.

Sunday, May 20, 2001 Section: ARTS & LEISURE Edition: main Page: 1D

BY CHRIS SHULL, The Wichita Eagle

In a cultural landscape where the status quo is celebrated as a sign of organizational strength, Chamber Music at the Barn is showing off its robust institutional health with a spurt of growth and a bit of risk-taking. The organization is approaching its fifth season playing classical chamber music at the quaint, rustic Barn at Prairie Pines with plans for more concerts, expanded programming, greater community outreach and a new concert hall.

"We have established ourselves as a very fine professional classical music organization," said Bob Scott, executive director of Chamber Music at the Barn. "In terms of the business structure, we are incredibly strong. We are doing well; we are doing the right stuff."

"We know that what we do performing on these concerts enriches people's lives," said Catherine Consiglio, the artistic director and founder, with Scott. "I feel like, finally, we are at a stage where we can have an even greater impact."

As its fifth season begins on June 6, Chamber Music at the Barn has increased its annual budget to $142,000, up $40,000 from last year. It is adding an educational component to its regular summertime concert series, establishing a weeklong summer music camp for high school string players and creating a strategic partnership with Northeast Area Strings Academy of Wichita, a group devoted to the support and training of young African-American string players.

Chamber Music at the Barn is even offering its patrons college credit through a brand-new program, "Clap for Credit," administered by Wichita State University.

"We have been taking smaller steps - any organization has to until they feel they have established themselves," Consiglio said. "Nobody is going to stop and say, 'Why are you doing educational things?' That was like the last important element.

"And I think we could not go forward with that until other parts of our recipe were strongly in place. So all of the hallways in the dream are now coming together."

A new home for Chamber Music at the Barn, a roomy barn built especially for chamber music performances, is still early in the development stages.

Last year, Scott purchased an antique barn built by his great grandfather in western Kansas in 1897. The original timber and native wall stone - some 300 pallets worth cut by hand from the surrounding hills - were dismantled and shipped to Scott's Prairie Pines Christmas Tree farm. The material (and more stone purchased from two local landscape nurseries) will be used in the construction of a new concert hall, though likely not until after the 2002 summer season.

Scott has visited several chamber music festivals around the country and is quick to point out that it is the quality of the music, not the perfection of the building, that has fueled the popularity and growth of Chamber Music at the Barn.

"The fact is, the thing that makes it everywhere is the music, it is not the facility," Scott said.

The centerpiece of the upcoming Chamber Music at the Barn season remains classical chamber music, four programs repeated on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. During the performances, patrons choose either to sit indoors or relax outside in the garden (with a picnic, if desired) and hear the concert broadcast through loudspeakers.

The popular preconcert buffet dinners will be offered again this summer. (Reservations must be made and purchased separately from concert admission.)

In addition to performances of rather highbrow pieces by Beethoven and Shostakovich, concerts at Prairie Pines this summer feature delightful music by Mozart, Vivaldi, Debussy and Mendelssohn, and a season-ending program featuring jazzy classics by Claude Bolling, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and others.

Last season, several concerts sold out, so this season a third performance has been added to the first and last programs. These Family Friday concerts feature the same musical program and dinner menu as the Wednesday and Thursday concerts, but children are admitted for half-price.

Chamber Music at the Barn is also reaching out to new audiences with a partnership with Northeast Area Strings Academy of Wichita (NASAW).

Student string players from NASAW will perform during the dinner hour at the concerts in July, and NASAW students will serve as volunteer ushers throughout the season, receiving a concert ticket in return.

Also, the partnership allows the organizations to combine their fund-rai sing and marketing efforts.

"In the past I ran NASAW strictly on the money we took in from lessons," said Kay Buskirk, executive director of NASAW. "The partnership with Chamber Music at the Barn will give us a greater visibility within the community. In time, it will allow us to do things that we would not have had the ability to do in the past - take some trips, do some projects. We will be able to expand our program."

Founders Scott and Consiglio hope these efforts - the added concerts, the education and outreach - will make Chamber Music at the Barn the main arts destination in Wichita during the summer months.

"I am just trying to expose more people to different kinds of chamber music," Consiglio said. "I mean, nobody wants to go and hear just string quartets all the time.

"Yes, this business of chamber music involves very in-depth, soul-felt issues, but it is also just a lot of fun."

Chris Shull writes about music and fine arts. He can be reached at 268-6264 or by e-mail at cshull@wichitaeagle.com