Chamber Music Monterey Bay has been around for 48 years. What is it and how does it work?

Chamber Music Monterey Bay, which is 48 years old this year, closes its Arc of Life series of commissioned pieces this evening with Miro String Quartet. It's been an ambitious project, inspired by Artistic and Education Director Amy Anderson's viewing of the video installation Going Forth By Day by Bill Viola, and arrives as a world premier in the middle of a program that starts with Haydn and closes with Schubert. 

The CMMB website has been hacked and is in the process of being rebuilt by new executive director, Douglas Paul Ambort. In the meantime, Anderson has invited readers to take a look "backstage" of the small but formidable classical music operation.  

Weekly: What's your own background in music? How did you come to join Chamber Music Monterey Bay?

Amy Anderson: I've been playing the cello since I was 9. The first time I played chamber music, I subbed for somebody who got sick. [We played] Vivaldi's Seasons for a women's club. I was scared to death. But I was hooked. It was so much fun. It's intimate. You can call it a chess game, a tennis match. You're dependent on each other but you have your own part to play. I got a degree in music at Berkley. I went back later to get an advanced degree in biology. 

My husband [George Somero] and I were teaching at Oregon State. Then he got a job offer at Hopkins Marine Station. We moved here, got involved in the local orchestras, and [Chamber Music Monterey Bay] recruited me.  

Officially, as artistic and education director, this is the end of my first year. But I joined the board 16 years ago and did it unofficially. I was also president and executive director. I was always the volunteer Person Friday. I'm very happy to be down to one function. 

How small is Chamber Music Monterey Bay?

It's small in that we present five concerts a year between October and April. It's not a symphony. We also do outreach with visiting artists. Education is an important part of our mission. Miro [went] to two schools in Pacific Grove—P.G. Middle School and Monterey Bay Charter School. 

How do you decide how to program your concerts?

There are four people on a committee. We gather materials and decide which groups to bring. There's an embarrassment of riches of extremely good ensembles that want to play here. We like to have a variety. We have never had a season of all string quartets. We like a mixture of instruments. There are really seasoned, musically mature groups at the top of their game like the Juilliard String Quartet. There are young, up and coming groups that knock your socks off and everybody wants them back. 

We're known for our diverse programming. It was a crowded market back in the '90s. There were six presenters of chamber music on the Peninsula. Most of them are gone now except for three of us—Ensemble Monterey, Carmel Music Society, and us. We wanted to really distinguish what we're doing. We have a strong commitment to the classical masterpieces, but also to new works by living composers that are a reflection of our current time. It's extremely important to keep this genre of music alive. You wouldn't want to stop painting when Rembrandt painted. Or stop theater after Shakespeare. You've got to have contemporary expressions by artists in their own time. 

It's also what our patrons like—not just the masterpieces. If they know what to expect, they might go to sleep. We like undiscovered gems not played in concert very often. It's the masterpieces the majority of presenters want for their audiences. Ours are like "Wow, that is not what we expected." Usually we get offered more than one program [by musicians]. We listen to the works and decide if this would be a great program and put it together. For instance: the Romantics, contemporary, Brahms and his colleagues. 

Sometimes they'll let you mix and match. Some groups have a lot of repertoire and say "Here's our list." But that's really rare. They need to rehearse the pieces. If they're out doing a tour and they have seven concerts in a row in seven cities, they're going to want some crossover. 

What do Miro String Quartet do that CMMB wants to give audiences? 

They've been here a number of times. I've known them 16 years. I met them at a chamber music workshop for adult chamber music players. They were coaches. I love their playing. The first violinist, Daniel, is in my top five. They're all phenomenal. 

Because I had gotten to know them, I recommended they do the Arc of Life project. This is the last commission of this project. It turned out they were ecstatic. They had been trying to get [composer] Chris Theofanidis to commission a piece. So that was a great hookup. [Miro] were the first quartet we commissioned a work for in 2007, by somebody they had been wanting to write a piece for them, Kevin Puts. A successful piece called "Quado." 

I'll say one other thing about this program. Haydn is the father of string quartets. He wrote a huge number of them. They're funny. He's the first composer to write what we know as a string quartet. It's common to start a program with one of his string quartets. This one is going to be delightful.

The Schubert is by the request of the Miro. They've had Schubert as a feature of the last two years. They just recorded and made a Blue-Ray of them performing them on Strads [Stradivarius violins] loaned to them, and talking about the piece. The recording of this "G major" piece has just been released. We haven't had it for a while so it works great for us. 

Do you play in a group, yourself? 

I have a string quartet. We go to workshops and work on a piece very hard and do house concerts, very small intimate concerts here and in San Jose and Berkeley. The name of the group is Giocoso. It means jolly. An Italian word, like allegro, andante, moderato. Since we were silly together, like to eat a lot and have a good time, we thought it was a good name. 

What distinguished CMMB from other classical music presenters?

Choosing the groups and the repertoire are hugely important for the series. We have a good reputation for offering quality groups. You need to keep hearing from your audience. They don't really want Baroque much—they get that in the [Carmel] Bach Festival. About 60 out of 66 people responded that they like new music. Many presenters are afraid to challenge their audiences with it. In a premier you don't know what you're going to get. It hasn't been recorded. 

A lot of new music was written in the '70s to '90s that was very academic. "Nobody is going to get it" was the attitude. It didn't serve people very well. I think that's why people are not used to new [classical] music. I listen to a lot of new music. If me and my friends don't get it, we won't book it. What's the point? 

Somebody who's such a challenge, it's so difficult to put together and gnarly—there are people who say it's worthwhile—but if nothing resonates, then I don't understand the purpose of it. Yes, it's somewhat subjective, but I'm doing this with our committee. We always come to a consensus on that. 

Can you give me an example of a composer who you think is more difficult or esoteric than your audience likes?

Stockhausen. That belongs in a contemporary music specialty performance. It's part of the history of music. Just like art went through Cubism, all these [music] styles went through transition. Elliott Carter is very prolific. [His music] is like ground glass. There was a period in classical music that went through these extreme changes. Stockhausen was part of that. Academics picked it up. Like the 12 Tone [scale]. There's beautiful music out there. But there is also some very academic music. It's not how our brains are wired. That's passe now, but when it was being done it was an experiment, which is good. 

How did the Arc of Life project happen?

I was in New York in 2003 for a chamber music meeting and I went to the Guggenheim Museum. They had this video, a multi-video production [Bill Viola's Going Forth By Day]. A giant black room that showed five 30-minute videos at the same time, of phases of life. The first is "Fire Birth." The third is called "Deluge." I spent over 2 hours in there. There's a birth sequence, then people walking through life, all ages, races, walking through this forest. "Deluge" is middle life, some kind of chaos. 

There are two death scenes. One is called "The Voyage." This old man, this son and daughter-in-law coming to say goodbye. He goes to the water and his dead wife is waiting for him. They get into a boat and travel across this lake. A very peaceful image of death. The last one is…the life of a young man who's been killed in an accident and his mother and this rescue crew are in the mountains at this lake to rescue [the body]. I thought about it for years. What a great subject: birth to death. Bill Viola was very generous with me. He gave me quite a few high-definition still images. He also produced a cut-down version of each of the five tape loops to put on a CD to share with the composers. 

The most wonderful thing that happened is that Chris [Theofanidis] was in Paris for his honeymoon and he went into one of the big museums and got to experience [Going Forth By Day] himself. He wrote about it in his program notes. The other composers were quite jealous. He was profoundly moved by this video piece. Bill Viola is very well known. You would recognize his style. It's not just arresting and provocative images. It's got a theme. It's changed my life. It's my life project. It was in my head when I walked out of that room and it's never left. It's very peaceful, a very holistic feeling, it's been very rewarding to put it out there. 

Have you not heard Chris's commissioned piece yet? 

I haven't heard it. I haven't gotten the score. He will give us a score. We're going to show the Powerpoint of the [Bill Viola] imagery. Five slides. 

What can you tell me about your new executive director, Douglas Paul Ambort?

He has a perfect mixture of skills and persona: sophistication in marketing, his IT knowledge is incredible. He worked years ago for the Santa Cruz Symphony. He's worked in theater and nonprofits. He was looking for steady part-time work. He knows music, mostly symphonies. He lives here, which is a great advantage. He's really good with databases. We're going to be doing a big database transition. It was the perfect storm.  

There is a pre-concert lecture tonight, right? 

By Kai Christensen. He's so wonderful. He has a big following. He's on my booking committee. His knowledge is very deep. I met him in New York but he lives in San Francisco. He will be interviewing the composer [Chris Theofanidis] at this concert at 7pm. It's free. 

You sound happy to be doing what you're doing.

Obviously I'm passionate about this. Music is real important to me in life. I love to talk about it and play it and it's been a privelege and surprise to get hooked up with this organization and indulge my passion. I still get to read all the science I want. I still read some journals. But this makes my heart sing. 

Miro String Quartet play 8pm Friday, April 10, at Sunset Center, San Carlos and Ninth, Carmel. $15-$59. 625-2212, www.ChamberMusicMotnereyBay.org.