by Mike Telin
Since 2008 audiences have come to expect the unexpected from the Cleveland-based FiveOne Experimental Orchestra (51XO). The ensemble regularly presents concerts in truly non-traditional spaces including warehouses, cemeteries, sculpture gardens, and even at a vintage consignment store. Beginning in January, 51XO will extend their innovative approach to the sustainability side of the organization with a new outreach program that enables Cleveland-area employers to hire the ensemble to perform for their employees onsite.
“Sustainability is the holy grail of non-profit organizations,” 51XO cofounder and executive director Jeremy Allen said during a telephone conversation. “We are constantly tasked with finding new and increasingly sustainable ways to share art with our community. Grants are wonderful when you get them, but you can’t build a revenue model around them.”
Allen said that 51XO has learned a lot about sustainability during the past couple of years through the training they’ve received from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. “We’re creative people and we should be using those creative energies to develop new programs in both artistic and organizational capacities. I anticipate that we will have a good bit of interest in this program once the word gets out.” [Read more…]
A concert of “new music” conjures up for some listeners the works of the atonal and twelve-tone works of the likes of Arnold Schoenberg and his disciples, the austere works of Pierre Boulez, or the dense modernist Harrison Birtwistle. But these days composers of contemporary “classical” music are no longer bound by such musico-political considerations. There is no “accepted” modern style. Instead composers now draw upon a wide variety of inspiration: old works, pop and rock music, jazz and world music, among other influences. 
Since May of 2008, the Cleveland-based FiveOne Experimental Orchestra (51XO) has presented concerts featuring an eclectic mix of repertoire that bridges the gap between pop and art music at out of the ordinary venues such as the Sculpture Garden and the East Cleveland Cemetery. On Saturday, September 26 at 8:00 pm,