Bringing classical music to new audiences in new ways is the goal of Mason Bates’ innovative activities as a curator. His eclectic stylistic appetite, eye for production and stagecraft, and DJ’s zeal for local outreach and promotion have made a major impact on the institutions and communities where he has worked. Currently serving as the nation’s first composer-in-residence with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, he has previously held the position with the Chicago, San Francisco, and California Symphonies. Bates also serves as the Artistic Director of Mercury Soul, which collides DJs and classical musicians in commercial clubs in San Francisco and around the country.

KC JUKEBOX at the Kennedy Center

Bates created the hit KC Jukebox series to activate the variety of venues at the nation’s arts center. The series is unique in its diverse use of “information outreach” through technology, transforming the program book into an immersive combination of video and projections that take the audience into composers’ and performers’ minds. KC Jukebox has featured a walk-through history of ambient music, from Erik Satie to Aphex Twin; a tribute to Johann Johansson from the composers of the music to Stranger Things; and more traditional concerts featuring renown groups such as Chanticleer and composers such as Julia Wolfe, Marcos Balter, and Gabriella Lena Frank. The series has also presented genre-bending visionaries such as Thievery Corporation and Tycho alongside powerful works of living composers.

For the opening of the Kennedy Center’s new Reach campus, Bates created the immersive 2-week installation Skylight Soundscapes. Surrounded by immersive sounds and visuals, the audience entered a meditative space that journeyued through five different trajectories of music history: Techno, Chorus, Bluegrass, Burning Man, and The Synthesizer.

MUSICNOW at the Chicago Symphony

Social elements add new entry points to programs featuring adventurous works, with an emphasis on creating bustling social platforms that bring people to the music in substantive ways. With composer Anna Clyne at the Chicago Symphony, Bates partnered with local DJ collective illmeasures to provide pre- and post-concert musical platforms from a diverse array of Chicago artists, and the audience on the MusicNOW series grew to up to a thousand. From Magnus Lindberg to the electronica duo Mouse on Mars, from minimalist David Lang to maximalist George Friedrich Haas, the programs balance heart and mind. This social approach extends into the digital realm, where has worked closely with Google and YouTube (on the YouTube Symphony projects), Cisco (at their Partners Summit), and Digital Obscura to bring the deep experience of classical music to online viewers.

MERCURY SOUL in San Francisco

Launched in San Francisco clubs ten years ago by Bates and Maestro Benjamin Shwartz, this innovative “post-classical rave” embeds classical sets into a fluid evening of DJing and immersive stagecraft. The organization’s SF series occurs at various clubs such as The Great Northern, Monarch, and DNA Lounge, and nationally at clubs such as Metro (with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) and ensembles such as Miami’s New World Symphony. Mercury Soul regularly draws over six hundred attendees and offers a platform for ensembles such as Philharmonia Baroque and Jazz Mafia. Additionally, Mercury Soul offers free afternoon shows in clubs for local high school students, expanding its mission to bring live music and DJing together in vibrant ways.

Curating the Concert Experience

This “mini-miniseries” explores the ways we experience music in the 21st Century, from string quartets to club shows. The first episode, Curating: Intro & Programming, introduces the series and examines how we choose music and the order we present it. Curating: Production delves into the complexities of lighting, stagecraft, and ambient information, with a special look at transforming the program book into something cinematic and engaging. Curating: Platform looks at the entire experience of a concert, asking us to consider ways to expand the platform to include pre- and post-concert artists from different genres to bring a wider audience and create a deeper impact.

Curating: Intro/Programming

Curating: Production

Curating: Platform

Program Samples from

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