As the uproar around CBC Radio 2 proved, highbrow music-lovers are deadly serious about their traditional fare. Unfortunately, a lot of orchestral elitists are also rather narrow-minded when it comes to what constitutes “classical” as a genre. Sorry, but you can’t convince me that Pablo Casals’ Muzak versions of the Bach cello suites have any more artistic value than, say, The Weakerthans.

So this weekend’s innovative festival at Harbourfront, dubbed What Is Classical?, is a daring step in the right direction. Curators Dalton Higgins and Kerri MacDonald are attempting to expand our limited view of classical forms, by programming acts from a broader range of cultural backgrounds and incorporating performers engaged with the rarefied world of modern classical and contemporary experimental music.

An example of the latter camp is local trio Toca Loca, a free-spirited ensemble led by pianist Greg Oh (who moonlights as a member of Friendly Rich and the Lollipop People and teaches at U of T and beyond). Recent recipients of a glowing shout-out from The New Yorker, Toca Loca’s performance Friday (July 25) stands to be an explosive, brain-busting highlight of the fest. Oh, who’s not shy when it comes speaking frankly about the weird artistic sphere he orbits, took the time to discuss his ideas about What Classical Is.

How does one come to perform the genre-defying contemporary work that Toca Loca favours?
There are three of us, and I think, really, we got bored. I think it’s important to be open to fooling around and willing to risk sounding like ass. We don’t actually have an agenda. To some extent, we play more hardcore European [composers’] stuff — if you will, stars of the contemporary music scene — but that can be boring too... If you’re not playing a dud of a concert every so often, you’re not branching out enough.

But are you meeting with a lot of resistance by the classical establishment?
I just came back from teaching with the National Youth Orchestra, and I find myself in conflict with a lot of my colleagues. What I’m trying to preach is that classical music is stuck in this weird place. It’s like being in a really bad relationship, with dire prospects of getting out or finding a way to solve it without being like, ‘Let’s break up.’ Nobody knows what needs to be done. Let’s take the CBC situation: people are saying, ‘Don’t cut classical music,’ but by all means, cut the fucking Beethoven Fifth! Classical music shouldn’t be comfort music or nostalgia music.
 
So is this festival the first step in the right direction?
I think it’s a really good curatorial concept, and I think it’s a great… [Pauses.] As a way to think about programming a festival, it’s really interesting. I’m a really big subscriber to the idea that any act of art, regardless of what it is, does not take place in a vacuum, and so even if I just play a piece for a friend, it has an effect on the communities we live in. I do think it’s important to be mishmashing this stuff and trying to expand the public’s awareness of different forms of classical music, but it can go too far.

There’s a danger in being so invested in creating an open environment and saying everything is good that we don’t say, ‘This is amazing and this is crap.’ I have this conceit that, if I really felt like it, I could put together a fairly decent [pop] album that people would like, with really good marketing and a good producer and help with lyrics. It might not be that great, but it would be good enough. On the other hand, I don’t think I could pick up a tabla without studying it for 20 years — or at least five years of serious practice — there are differences in terms of technical skill and understanding.