September 28, 2008 - Expert at old music, Chatham Baroque has gotten younger this season with the addition of violinist Andrew Fouts. Not only does the 29-year-old abound in fresh enthusiasm for baroque repertoire, he is as conversant with pop as Purcell.

"Baroque music was the pop music of its day, and I think we would be remiss to not be in touch with the pop music of our day," he says.

At the Chatham Baroque studios in Lawrenceville recently, Fouts demonstrated how a J.S. Bach partita, a Janet Jackson song, a number from "High School Musical" and a Bjork tune all share the same descending bass line. That Fouts has never seen the need to dig a divide between art and pop culture goes back to his decision to be a violinist after watching "Sesame Street" with Itzhak Perlman (Fouts was 8). "I was pretty impressed and begged my mom for a violin," he says.

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Chatham Baroque performs a varied program at 6 and 8:30 p.m. Friday at Palate Bistro, Downtown; 8 p.m. Saturday at Synod Hall, Oakland, and 2:30 p.m. next Sunday at Calvary Episcopal Church, Shadyside.

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While Fouts is certainly more inclusive than many baroque scholar-performers, purists shouldn't fret. His passion for period performance stems from his "conversion" from a talented traditional violinist who never jibed with the competitive scene at the Eastman School of Music. "I went to a summer camp in Toronto run by Tafelmusik," he says. "I was floored; the quality of sound, the organic nature of the music and how they were performing it blew me away. Early music was sort of a godsend in a way."

After his studies at Eastman (1997-2002), Fouts returned to his native California and acquired his Claude Pierray-built violin (Paris 1710). He began gigging in San Francisco's American Bach Soloists, later branching to the Philharmonia Baroque, El Mundo, Ensemble Galilei and more.

Fouts succeeds Julie Andrijeski as violinist in the Chatham Baroque trio, joining Patricia Halverson (viola da gamba) and Scott Pauley (theorbo and baroque guitar). The group, which balanced its $338,000 budget last year and has a $363,000 budget projected for this season, will continue to branch out from traditional concert halls to other venues in the city.

While it still performs in Synod Hall in Oakland, Calvary Episcopal Church, Shadyside, and Chatham University, the first place to hear Fouts with the ensemble is at a restaurant: Palate Bistro on Sixth Street, Downtown, part of Chatham Baroque's "Wandering Minstrels" series (St. James Parish, Sewickley, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Shadyside, and The Andy Warhol Museum, North Side are upcoming).

Not your typical venue for baroque music, but that fits Fouts, who's not your typical baroque violinist, either.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08272/915120-42.stm

Publication: Pittsburgh Post Gazette

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