“Are you familiar with Nirvana?” asks Mary Gardner-Firestone, one of two violists in Sempre Dolce.
The quartet—Gardner-Firestone, fellow violist Marie Valigorsky, violinist Greg Glessner and cellist Matt Masek, with guest violinist Sjrsten Siegfried—is rehearsing on a Tuesday evening amid the gymnasium-style Capitol Room of the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center (H*MAC).
Glessner closes his eyes while trying to identify one of the most famous rock bands of all time.
“I’ve heard the name.”
Glessner, raised on classical music, has only a passing familiarity with the musical culture most others could not avoid if they tried.
“The only pop culture I’m in tune with is old TV shows,” says Glessner, citing “The A-Team” and “ALF” as favorites.
With a prompt from Gardner-Firestone, Glessner lifts his instrument to his chin and sprints into a lively version of “The A-Team’s” signature theme song.
“Well, I think you’ll like this one,” says Gardner-Firestone before passing over sheet music for her own arrangement of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
A regular feature at the MakeSpace, Sempre Dolce will have its third performance of chamber music at H*MAC early this month, featuring a combination of original pieces by Valigorsky, arrangements by Gardner-Firestone and selections from a range of canonized composers such as Philip Glass and Johannes Brahms. Largely an invention of Valigorsky, the group is a product of an underground classical music scene kept alive by challenging where classical music does and does not fit.
Arrangements of contemporary works have become a centerpiece of Sempre Dolce’s performances, with Gardner-Firestone shifting the band AWOLNATION, the “Game of Thrones” theme by Damon Djawadi, and the White Stripes into classical notation. Upon seeing “Seven Nation Army” in the set list, cellist Massek bemoans, “Not this one—the Ravens song? They play it at Ravens games all the time.”
It’s a tactic the violist is used to for introducing newbies to the sounds and themes of classical music. Gardner-Firestone regularly creates arrangements on request for a variety of private students—ranging in age from “5 to old enough to be my grandparents”—when she’s not playing for Sempre Dolce.
Early Starts
The group began from a chance meeting between Gardner-Firestone and Valigorsky in 2015 when the latter attended a performance by the former at the MakeSpace in Harrisburg.
“I’ve been playing chamber music and forming groups since graduate school,” said Valigorsky. “It started small but really grew as we went along.”
Gardner-Firestone introduced Valigorsky to Glessner, whom she had met through a private chamber music group hosted by Camp Hill bassoonist Jan Jekel.
Glessner, like most members of Sempre Dolce, began playing as a child. After nursing a jealousy towards an older brother who began piano, Glessner sought out the violin by age 6.
“They so wanted it to be piano,” Glessner said of his parents. “We already had a piano, we already had a teacher. But no, it had to be the violin. From there, I took it up quite naturally.”
Valigorsky introduced the pair to Matt Masek, with whom she had an existing musical relationship. Masek stands out among the group for his experience in the rock band Shadow Scream.
“We actually put out three albums,” said Masek. “The last album was based on Madeleine L’Engle’s ‘A Wrinkle In Time.’”
After the band went bust, Masek began playing for Valigorsky and her original compositions at the MakeSpace.
New to the November performance is violinist Sjrsten Siegfried, whom Valigorsky met through the West Shore Symphony Orchestra.
“My mom started me on the fiddle when I was 5,” Siegfried said. “My first instrument was built my by great grandfather. I went to university on a scholarship and was paid to play for a while.”
The casual setting of H*MAC is nothing knew to Siegfried, who played violin in bars while studying abroad in Beijing.
“They really liked when I played George Michael’s ‘Careless Whisper.’ They liked when I ripped into it like a saxophone.”
The group’s inclusion in H*MAC’s fall lineup (which includes a reunion of punk legends The Dead Boys, a My Chemical Romance tribute band, and the venue’s annual “The Rocky Horror Show” production) might seem strange to some, but not to co-owner John Traynor.
“A lot of people don’t understand exactly what H*MAC really is,” said Traynor. “When we first announced H*MAC as a project back in 2009, it was always to be multi-faceted. We do theater. We do rock. We do classical.”
Traynor cites a joint project with Elizabethtown College to bring opera to H*MAC as well as last year’s performance of the Broadway show and classic rock masterpiece, “Tommy.”
“Partnering with chamber music and classical music is just an extension of all of that,” he said. “The goal is really to offer something to everyone in the community and not just have one genre in our focus.”
In Touch
For most members of Sempre Dolce, working as classical musicians in central Pennsylvania mostly means hunting for the rare opportunity to play with others, thereby raising the complexity of music they can pursue.
“It’s meditative by yourself and that’s great,” said Siegfried. “But there’s just something about making music with other people. It’s like conversation with instruments.”
The connections of private groups, public symphonies and live bands that brought together Sempre Dolce is emblematic of the links that keep the genre alive and well in the midstate.
“It’s mainly through finding a group and networking through there,” said Glessner. “I feel like it’s kind of an underground network of sorts.”
Classical musicians are hidden throughout public life, Masek added.
“The flipside is, for the members of this group, there are fantastic players out there who are probably sitting at home—doctors, lawyers, engineers—who can play these instruments like crazy but haven’t touched them in years,” he said.
“Families know families,” said Gardner-Firestone. “And just staying in touch with people helps.”
Sempre Dolce performs Nov. 3 at the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center, 1110 N. 3rd St., Harrisburg. For more information, visit www.harrisburgarts.com.
