With all the attention given to the major performing arts institutions in the Los Angeles area, it’s easy to forget that there are many other amazing organizations doing great work. Amongst them is Pasadena-based MUSE/IQUE. Rachael Worby, the group’s Artistic Director and Founder, formed MUSE/IQUE on the heels of her departure in 2010 from the Pasadena Pops.
Saturday night MUSE/IQUE continues its summer season with a program called Moving/Pictures at The Huntington in San Marino. The program focuses on songs and music from feature films. As with all of their concerts, Worby carefully curates the program. Joining the MUSE/IQUE Orchestra, which Worby will lead, will be three-time Tony Award nominee Joshua Henry (Carousel, Violet, The Scottsboro Boys) and LA Philharmonic cellist Ben Hong.
I recently spoke to Worby about her goals when she started MUSE/IQUE eight-and-a-half years ago, how she imagines the programs and what she plans to do for the tenth anniversary of the orchestra.
In a video on MUSE/IQUE’s website you said you have “ridiculously lofty goals.” If that’s your present-day point-of-view, what was your point of view in March 2011 when you founded MUSE/IQUE?
When I founded MUSE/IQUE I had a very specific notion in mind. I came to the belief over an extended period of time that live music needed to be within the purview of every human being. While that’s a notion that’s easy enough to speak, it requires a re-imagining of how and where events are going to be presented. I actually think in March 2011 my notion was to gather around me, from time to time, 40 or 50 people in a very democratic way – which is to say that the people sitting in front of me would be highly representative of our community and country. Then over the course of the rest of my life, making live art in front of a certain 40 people, another certain 50 people, moving around in different locations, somehow I would find a way to make an impact and cause the kind of social change for which I think America, at this point, is screaming for. That goal felt lofty because philosophically it was not deeply resonating with any of the arts organizations for which I worked.
You spent 11 years with the Pasadena Pops. When you left in 2010 did you have MUSE/IQUE in mind?
I had in mind a way to use my voice more provocatively. And to re-design the experience of live art. I guess I had, after many decades of working all around the globe and feeling successful, it was a nagging thing behind my heart that something was missing. That I was not really making the kind of change in people’s lives which that kind of platform seemed to demand. I felt almost irresponsible. I’m giving [audiences] a night of great music, but I’m not contextualizing it. I imagined that somewhere I could create a salon, an intimate salon, that would allow me to bridge this gap I felt existed between audience and music and musicians; all thinking and listening, hearing and imagining. I started to experience the world as being a planet full of human beings who were bit by bit losing this fantastic ability to hear and then synthesize the information they were hearing. Can I cause people to bring themselves – their souls, their minds, their ears… then they leave, we hope, feeling changed.
Saturday’s concert celebrates the movies. That’s a fairly common source of inspiration for concerts. What will make this concert different than other concerts centered on film music?
Before pictures moved they were tableaus and the frame was finite. When pictures began to move, the frame became infinite. Though the screen seems to have a frame, the experience of being a part of a motion picture makes the frame infinite. I think that movies basically can make us believe that anything is possible. When music and movies are married there is something sublime and magical. This show will be about the magic of our imaginations and understanding how a soundtrack can influence us. I think the film score is an unexpected expression of art.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic just concluded their 100th season. You are probably already in the planning stages for your 10th anniversary season. Where would you like to see MUSE/IQUE in 2021 and how do you plan to celebrate?
I don’t know. But I want to celebrate. Ten is not 100, but ten has to count for something when it was initiated in the 21st century. To not just be alive, but thriving. I really have to let my mind go. I want to make some kind of splash because I think it’s important for all the people who have invested in us – and those numbers are growing magnificently – to be able to look around and say, “Wow, we did it. Look at us now.”
In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling gave Dumbledore the following line: “Ah music, a magic beyond all we do here!” What keeps the magic alive for you and by extension your audience?
Firstly…[there’s a long pause and she is clearly tearing up] my simplest answer is if you would know enough to connect the dots and ask me a question like that, that you understand my work and know that I want to keep some magic. And…I have to collect myself further to answer more eloquently. My nieces and my daughter are going to be overwhelmed that you asked me that question. My two nieces, who are sisters, have this as a tattoo. There are lot of quotes about music in the world, but you are pulling out one that they have as identical tattoos – each in the other person’s handwriting. My mascara is wrecked.
She takes a long pause before continuing.
I guess deep down where it really counts is that I believe change is possible. That’s a simply as I can put it.
For tickets go here.
All photos courtesy of MUSE/IQUE