London

After first hearing about the project nearly two years ago, on Thursday I finally made it out to my first Multi-Story Orchestra concert. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the group, they are best known for performing symphonic repertoire in car parks (ie: parking garages), most regularly in a space in Peckham, London run by the art organization Bold Tendencies. There, in the dark of the garage, surrounded by site-specific sculptures by professionals and school kids alike, accompanied by the screeches and growls of passing trains, the orchestra plays.

“Arschloch!” Not exactly a word you would expect to hear shouted out at an event dedicated to classical music, but MC Mozart’s Classical Smackdown was no normal recital. The event, which took place on October 5 at a bar in Shoreditch (the Williamsburg of London, in terms of hipsterness), featured two violinists from the Royal Academy of Music battling it out for audience affection and eternal glory, or at least a bottle of champagne. The playing was at a high level and the audience was an engaged group of 20- to 40-somethings. But the highlight of the evening’s event was by far MC Mozart herself – with a wig and a precariously handled glass of wine, her witty one-liners ran the gamut from raunchy to political, and were often both at once. To break the ice, she invited the audience to shout out a favorite curse word. Hers? I’ll let you guess.