Group Changes Name to Fine-Tune Its Image

The Bach Camerata is dead, long live Camerata Pacifica. One of the clear success stories in the realm of chamber music in Southern California, the Bach Camerata has, in the last couple of years, built up a solid operation, commercially and artistically, with spring concert seasons performed in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Thousand Oaks.

As the group kicks off its 1997 season this weekend, the newly named Camerata Pacifica is the name to watch for.

If the name has changed, the agenda remains true to the original intent of the ensemble’s founder, Santa Barbara-based flutist Adrian Spence. The Irish emigre doesn’t lack for drive or infectious enthusiasm, no doubt an important factor in the success of the group. The Camerata has been known to sell out its shows and appeal to audiences who might not necessarily seek out other classical music.

In part, the name change came about as the ensemble began thinking about the eventual recording phase of its career. Spence said, “It’s been pointed out that anyone scanning the bins who sees the name Bach Camerata will think baroque and probably period instruments. I was reluctant to change it, because I liked the name, but the reality of the situation came into play.”

Changing the name reflects the broad musical identity of the group, which may play Bach, but also music of vintages right up to the present. Two years ago, the group premiered Oxnard resident Miguel del Aguila’s “Wind Octet,” which went on to win the prestigious Kennedy Center Friedheim Award.

This weekend’s program includes music by Mozart, Brahms and the more obscure British composer Charles Villiers Stanford. The second concert of the season features the “difficult” 20th century composer George Crumb’s “Vox Balaenae” (Voice of the Whale), amid a program otherwise given over to music of Brahms and Martinu.

“Whenever you hear music, it’s a contemporary experience,” Spence asserted. “It’s like striking a match. It doesn’t matter if it’s 300 years old or if the ink’s still drying on the page. When it happens, it happens in real time. It doesn’t happen in the past. It happens right there and then.”

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It was seven years ago that Spence launched the Bach Camerata in its ambitious early incarnation, as a chamber orchestra. This coming season will be the fourth in the pared-down chamber music format. Since the change, the roster of musicians Spence works with has remained constant.

“These people are happy,” he said, adding with a laugh, “it’s a good gig, you know. The thing that I’m best at doing is just getting a bunch of good people together to play good music. They love to play, and these concerts are well received. I do my patter beforehand. I’m like a warmup act.”

No stranger to lecturing or onstage banter, Spence’s charm tends to create a user-friendly atmosphere in concerts. He recently gave talks at Border’s Books in Santa Barbara under the title, “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Classical Music.” Generally speaking, Spence tends to be an outspoken crusader for the cause of classical music.

To hear Spence tell it, advocating this music is more than just a matter of filling seats at Camerata concerts. It has to do with cultivating audiences in a larger sense, even helping neophytes overcome a fear of music.

“Say you haven’t heard a classical concert before and you go to a mediocre concert, you come away thinking, ‘What a snore,’ ” he said. “Then, we’ve lost this person. You and I know how great it can be. I just want to share that. I’m really motivated to spread that around.”

* Camerata Pacifica, performs at 8 tonight at the Music Academy of the West, 1070 Fairway Road, Santa Barbara; at 8 p.m. Friday at Fe Bland Forum at Santa Barbara City College, 721 Cliff Drive; at 8 p.m. Saturday at Meister Hall, Temple Beth Torah, 7620 Foothill Drive, Ventura; and 8 p.m. Sunday at the Forum Theatre of Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. Single tickets are $22; (800) 557-BACH.