BRATTLEBORO — Brattleboro Music Center (BMC) has the reputation for being a fine place to study classical music.
With more than 400 students, 30 dedicated and talented faculty members, and music instruction in 15 instruments and voice, the BMC is the heart of music in the Brattleboro area.
However, many do not realize that BMC does more than teach the likes of Mozart and Bach.
In the past decade, the center has expanded its vision to include the teaching American traditional music under the guidance of spouses Keith Murphy and Becky Tracy, who last month presented in association with BMC the 10th annual Northern Roots Festival.
BMC also has courses in Broadway show tunes, theory and improv, and acoustic guitar for those with a singer/songwriter bent.
Larry Brown teaches acoustic guitar at BMC, and he will be participating in its upcoming Faculty Showcase Concert on Sunday, Feb. 27, from 7 to 9 p.m., at Centre Congregational Church on Main Street.
This concert celebrates both the wide interests and backgrounds of the faculty, as well as the life of long time faculty member David Tasgal who died unexpectedly last fall.
For many years, this showcase format has offered BMC colleagues opportunities to collaborate in both familiar and new ways. Colleagues who have performed together many times over the years will be performing with other musicians who are coming together for the first time.
This concert brings together 16 faculty who will perform works from the baroque to the present. Included are not only a string trio, a vocal duet, a brass trio and a clarinet concertino, but also original works by Brown for his folk chamber ensemble, the Acoustic Earth Orchestra.
”The faculty concert is really a great opportunity to show off what we at BMC can do,” says Brown. “It displays for the parents the talents of the teachers, and is a good way to attract new students to the school.”
Brown has been performing for more than 40 years and, for the past 35 years, has taught the guitar in such diverse locations as Virginia, Alabama, Chicago, and New England.
“I have been living in Brattleboro for five years, and have taught at BMC for the past three,” he says. “I am very happy at BMC teaching acoustic finger-style guitar. It's a fantastic school.”
Brown released his first CD, Cobb Lane, in 2000, followed by Music for the High Country - The Soundtrack of Blowing Rock, which has been endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce of Blowing Rock, N.C., as its official soundtrack.
In 2011, he released Stories that We Wrote, which was produced by Windham Hill Records' founder and producer Will Ackerman.
“Larry Allen Brown is the real deal,” says Ackerman. “This man sings songs of startling intelligence in a voice you know is telling the truth. These are songs with some serious miles on the tires, born of a life deeply and passionately lived.”
Brown has also released an instructional video, “Playing the Guitar in Open D Tuning,” and is the author of two books, Political Logic and Growing Up White in Racist America.
Born and raised in Chicago, Brown developed his passion for music when he was quite young.
“I took up the acoustic guitar as a kid,” he says. “I was very much into the folk revival with people like Dave von Ronk, John Fahey, Martin Simpson, and Bob Dylan. But then the Beatles came along, and everyone went electric. I figured that learning the electric guitar would be a great way to meet girls.”
Whatever his motivation might have been, Brown took his music seriously, and attended Berklee College of Music. He initially pursued a long career as lead guitarist for a variety of groups.
“I began playing in all kinds of bands: jazz, rock, and electric,” he says.
However, 15 years ago, he returned to his initial love and embarked upon a solo career as a composer and performer on the acoustic guitar.
Then, after 10 years solo, Brown looked for a larger sound to back him up, and he established an ensemble to play his music, the Acoustic Earth Orchestra. This group consists of violin/viola, upright bass, piano, and the Irish whistle and the bodhran, a hand-held Irish drum.
“The band is great blend of instruments, and my players are very sensitive to my music,” says Brown.
The style of music this group plays may not be what you would expect from an acoustic ensemble.
The album notes to Blowing Rock say, “No bluegrass here. What you'll experience is heartfelt solo acoustic guitar and a small chamber group that is more classical in its approach. Back Porch Classical might be the best description.”
“Our music has very organic non-electric sound,” adds Brown. “I would classify the music as chamber folk.”
While the current incarnation in Brattleboro of Acoustic Earth Orchestra is new, there was an earlier version of the group.
“I put something together similar in Alabama,” says Brown. “Like now, they played all of my original music. But there is a difference, because what I wrote then was very Celtic-driven music, which isn't the case anymore.”
The Acoustic Earth Orchestra has performed little in the area, and the BMC concert will be one of the first chances local audiences will get a chance to hear Brown and his band. A concert at the Hooker Dunham in Brattleboro is now being planned.
“The first time we performed was at Pleasant Valley Brewing in Saxtons River,” says Brown. “We went over so well that we immediately were asked back for four or five times.”
From that gig, Brown and the Acoustic Earth Orchestra have been invited to be the closing act for the next Roots on the River festival in Bellows Falls.
Brown says with pride, “That festival is something we were shooting for, so we feel it is a great honor to be asked.”