New York Threads

November 22, 2011

Nouveau Classical Project (NCP) members backstage before their performance (Left to right: Mariel Roberts, cellist, and Samir Zarif, guest saxophonist) / Photo by Teresa Mahoney

The entryway to a five-by-nine dressing room glows backstage at the Galapagos Art Space in Dumbo, just a few blocks from the Brooklyn Bridge. Damp socks are scrunched into rain boots, and unlaced sneakers find edges in the tiny room. Street clothes are traded for hooded cloaks, draping mini-dresses, and velvet leotards with large puffy sleeves.

Members of the Nouveau Classical Project (NCP) were getting dressed for their October performance of “From the Margins, This, Unmentioned”—a musical work originally by Bryan Senti for a multimedia production that included music, video, poetry, and fashion. The eight-person ensemble re-created the piece, narrowing it down to two ordinarily independent components: classical music and fashion.

While traditional classical-music types favor head-to-toe conservative black as the concert uniform of choice, the Nouveau Classical Project wears anything but. T­he group partners with emerging fashion designers—Maja Gunn, Heidi Lee, and Neon Music to name a few—who use NCP’s music as an inspirational soundtrack to create original, more flamboyant outfits for the musicians to perform in.  

Collection worn by NCP made by Maja Gunn, Swedish fashion designer / Photo by Teresa Mahoney

Sugar Vendil, the 28-year-old founder and creative director of the Nouveau Classical Project, always had a knack for fashion. She sewed her own clothing throughout high school and considered studying fashion design in college. Instead, Vendil traded her sewing machine for a baby grand piano to pursue classical piano (she has taken lessons since age 3) at NYU for both her undergraduate and graduate degrees. 

Six years later, she decided to revive her relationship with fashion, an admittedly rocky one for Vendil whose edgy style wasn't always approved of in music school. The Nouveau Classical Project grew from Vendil’s frustration with traditional classical music standards and was launched October 2008 with the guidance of her adviser in an independent class study at NYU.

She organized a group of 20-somethings who also hoped to earn a living playing classical music and recruited a five-person board of directors from the fashion and music communities who together donated $1,500 to seed the project. The money supported the group’s early shows and marketing expenses.

The first concert three years ago tied the concept of fashion and music together by a thin thread: Vendil hung dresses from fishing line on stage as a backdrop in midtown’s Joria Productions dance studio. Nevertheless, the rough-draft show sold out all 75 tickets ($25 door, $22 advance) which covered the $175 venue rental and paid each musician about $100 after Joria collected a 60% ticket fee.

Sugar Vendil, founder of NCP / Photo by Teresa Mahoney

“A lot of musicians play for free. That first show was a surprising success and encouraged me to keep working at it. I think what draws the crowds is that we are doing something interesting,” Vendil said, remembering the project’s quirky beginnings. “It’s largely from word of mouth that we draw our audiences.”

NCP’s average attendee is the mid to late 20s creative-type, whereas the typical classical-music goer falls in their mid-50s, according to a study by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The ensemble’s stylish appearance not only draws younger, enthusiastic crowds, but also provides footing to acquire more grants from organizations that focus on funding New American Music—a more contemporary version of classical music that grew from the mid-1970s.

In recent weeks, NCP received its first grants from the American Composer’s Forum and Open Meadows Foundation, totaling $4,000. Three-thousand dollars will go to composing music, and the remainder will go to buying fabric and supplies for designers.

“Funding for classical music just doesn’t exist anymore. Those days are over,” said Patti Kilroy, the group’s violinist. Several international orchestras had to cancel their 2011 tours due to lack of funding. “New Music is where the money is,” said Vendil.

Until NCP builds a larger budget, Vendil has to be resourceful: “We’ve been good at being scrappy while putting on a good show at the same time.” She just acquired a membership to New York’s Material for the Arts, which offers organizations free scrap materials for artistic use.  Hat designer Neon Music created eight costumes with virtually no budget by using the membership.  

Even when designers have grander visions than the budget can afford—another partnering milliner, Heidi Lee, contributed about $400 from her own pocket—a small personal investment can go a long way.  

Lee said she has produced some of her favorite work using NCP’s music as inspiration. “I listened to the songs nonstop, studying the notes, soaking up the details. [The song] felt sorrowful and isolated,” Lee said. As a result, her “Parasol Skeleton” hat (a head-band with a black umbrella structure protruding) was born.  NCP’s soprano, Amanda Hicks, was the first to wear it. Now, Lee sells two versions—small and large—at End of Century, a boutique in the Lower East Side, and at LaForet in Tokyo.

“Music transcends you to a different creative space and mind, like looking at fish in a swim tank,” Lee said. The self-described mad-hatter comes from a musically-inclined family. Her father taught music classes to grade-school children in Korea, and her mother took opera lessons for as long as she can remember. “Sound and form are connected to each other,” she said, “I hope to continue to collaborate with [NCP] because I make incredible couture millinery as a result.”

Now that Vendil is developing a more formal budget, she hopes to eventually pay designers who have until now worked purely for exposure.

“Sugar is right on the ball,” said Sarah Charness, a 26-year-old electric violinist who left NCP to focus on her solo career. “There’s a real pull to draw in younger people to get involved in classical music. You’re not going to do that by dressing like an old lady.” Charness is not afraid to wear shorter dresses and bright colors when she plays her signature hot-pink violin.

Charness has experienced the pull fashion can have in reviving classical music first-hand. High-end, New York-based fashion designer, Elene Cassis, approached Charness’ publicist, originally searching for a shoe designer who could provide for her Fashion Week show. With no shoe designer clients at hand, she suggested Charness open Cassis’ show. Cassis was in, and Charness strutted down the runway, violin to chin.

Though she was only compensated in credibility and a free dress, Charness said her web traffic increased significantly, and the next day she appeared in nearly 40 blogs.

NCP can’t now afford full-time classical music careers for any of the artists, but Vendil believes the project has a strong chance to head in that direction. She continues to apply for grants to support the project and says, “It is my goal to make this something. Everyone in it deserves a career and fulfilling work doing this as their job, not running around doing 10 different gigs.”