Ritz Chamber Players
Artistic Director Terrance Patterson
(Photo by Dennis Ho)
Posted
On Sept. 30, 1999, The Ritz Theatre (re)opened on the corner of Davis and Union streets, to great fanfare.
As part of former Mayor Ed Austin’s River City Renaissance plan — which
cobbled together more than $200 million earmarked for low-income
neighborhoods — the theater was originally conceived as part of a much
larger revitalization effort. Although plans for a soul food bistro and a
string of entertainment venues — all aimed at recapturing the vibrancy
of the historic neighborhood — never materialized, the theater’s
unveiling was still seen as a hopeful moment for a city coming to terms
with its tumultuous racial past.
Terrance Patterson remembers well the hype surrounding the
Ritz’s opening. The internationally acclaimed clarinetist had
maintained his connection to his native city, following the saga of the
Ritz from the early efforts to rebuild the theater in the early ’90s.
“I remember when the plans for the Ritz Theatre were being
presented — it was supposed to house all of these different things in
the community,” Patterson tells Folio Weekly Magazine. “It was going to be a museum, a performance space, a gallery, and all of these different things.”
Then there was the idea that the Ritz should have its own band. Patterson liked that idea.
When he was a young boy growing up in
Northeast Florida, Patterson remembers, his father listened to local
public radio. “He would leave it on all day,” Patterson says. “Back
then, they had all these great music programs.”
Patterson says he was particularly fond of Karl Haas’ show Adventures in Good Music.
“He was so engaging and the music was so wonderful,” Patterson says. “I
really found my love for classical music through his show.”
As an elementary school student at James
Weldon Johnson Elementary School, Patterson took piano lessons. Even
considering the history of the famous man for whom the school is named —
and though Patterson’s parents pushed him and his 11 brothers and
sisters to practice music — it would be years before Patterson would
meet another person of color who shared his passion for classical music.
Still, Patterson’s father stoked his son’s fire for the
art form, acquiring tickets to a Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
performance that would turn out to be a life-changing experience for the
young musician.
“I’ll never forget that first concert,” Patterson says. “My eyes were as large as 45 RPM records.”
Aside from being wildly entertained, Patterson met
principal clarinetist Peter Wright at that JSO performance. Patterson
played the clarinet in Raines High School’s renowned marching band, but
under Wright’s tutelage, he began private lessons that would unearth the
young man’s true talents.
He set his sights on the famous Peabody Institute at Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he hoped to study under Loren
Kitt. Though he was accepted to the school, eventually excelling as one
of Kitt’s best students, Patterson says the experience was a big change.
“The Raines marching band was like a big
family back then,” he says. “You go from Raines, which was 99 percent
black, to the Peabody Conservatory, which was roughly .00009 percent
black. That was different for me.”
Black men and women have built practically every musical
tradition in the West — from jazz to blues to rock to funk. But when it
comes to classical music, both onstage and in the audience, people of
color are few and far between. It’s estimated that fewer than three
percent of American orchestral musicians are black.
While Patterson was making his mark at the Peabody, he
says he and the other black musicians he met were acutely aware of the
few African-American musicians who had broken through to become stars in
the world of classical music. There was soprano Leontyne Price, pianist
André Watts, and opera singer Jessye Norman.
“These were people that, even though they were rare, we
were all, as African Americans, holding onto them,” he says. “They
represented what was possible.”
Patterson’s illustrious career took him
around the world and back again, performing with symphonies from Paris
to Las Vegas to Moscow. Along the way, he worked with talented musicians
and composers of all races, creeds and colors. When he returned to
Jacksonville in 2001, Patterson was already making plans to start an
ensemble of musicians whose purpose would be to foster an appreciation
of chamber music through performances featuring preëminent
African-American musicians and composers whom he’d met throughout his
career. More broadly, the ensemble’s mission, Patterson believed, should
be to expose more people to classical music — especially more young
people of color.
Sparked by the early momentum behind the Ritz Theatre and
LaVilla Museum, Patterson launched the Ritz Chamber Players in 2002,
with a season of concerts at the Ritz. For 14 years now, Patterson has
been bringing together some of the most talented musicians in the world,
and offering free concerts and inspiring educational programming
throughout the community.
The ensemble’s members perform with the New York
Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, The
Philadelphia Orchestra, and London Symphony Orchestra (to name a few)
and a short list of RCP members reads like a who’s who of contemporary
classical music virtuosos. Notable longtime players include principal
harpist Ann Hobson Pilot (40 years with the Boston Symphony ), violinist
Kelly Hall-Tompkins (currently the fiddler in the highly acclaimed Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof),
and cellist Tahirah Whittington (who’s performed as a soloist with the
National Symphony Orchestra and with jazz iconoclast Ornette Coleman).
Five-time Grammy-nominated pianist Terrence Wilson has
been playing with RCP for the last 12 seasons. He’s performed with
symphonies around the globe and is widely considered one of the most
gifted instrumentalists alive. Demand is high for Wilson’s services, yet
he always makes time for the Ritz Chamber Players Ensemble.
“The Ritz [Chamber Players] has enriched my musical life
immensely,” Wilson says. “I’ve had the opportunity to learn and study
and perform a whole repertoire that is new to me. To be able to immerse
myself in this music and work with musicians of such high caliber has
shaped who I am as a musician.”
Talk to many of the musicians in the Ritz Chamber Players
ensemble and they’ll tell you the music comes first. The mission is also
a driving factor in bringing everyone together, year after year.
“It would be special just because of the high quality of
my colleagues in the Chamber,” Patterson says. “[RCP] exists to share
the passion of this music with everyone. We hope it enriches the lives
of people of all races. But we want to dispel the perception that
classical music is only for a privileged class.”
Wilson praises Patterson for his commitment to making classical music more accessible.
“Terrance Patterson is truly a great pillar of hope for
the future of classical music,” Wilson says. “He is tireless. He is
committed to the music first. But his mission is to share it.”
As Patterson began to prepare for RCP’s 15th season, Folio Weekly Magazine
sat down with the founder of the ensemble to talk about his crowning
achievements as artistic director, the 2016-2017 concert season, and the
struggle to make classical music relevant in 2016. An excerpt from that
conversation follows.
____________________
Folio Weekly Magazine: Can you talk a little about what defines chamber music, as opposed to what an orchestra performs?
Terrance Patterson:
Chamber music is usually performed by two to nine people. In an
orchestra, you can have somewhere between 30 to 125 musicians. We are
working in classical music. We can have different combinations of
players and instruments.
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