Fireworks aims to spark interest in classical music

The summer's fireworks aren't over quite yet.

On Thursday, the chamber-music ensemble Fireworks will be performing in Park City as part of the Deer Valley Music Festival. Young, cutting-edge and innovative, the group is known for its boundary-crossing style.

Bassist Brian Coughlin said the group plays in classical concert halls to "typical" classical audiences but also in jazz and rock clubs.

"The goal of the group is to create an ensemble that could perform a really wide range of different kinds of repertoire," Coughlin explained. "I was always interested in playing all sorts of different kinds of music. I started off as a rock bass player, and then I got interested in jazz, and then from that, went on to play classical music and do composition, and I've never really been able to keep myself from being interested in all these different genres."

Coughlin said he found that other young musicians had a similar mind-set and background, and five years ago eight of them got together in New York to form a new ensemble with flute, saxophone, violin, cello, guitar, bass, keyboards and percussion.

"Fireworks allows us to do all these kinds of music that we love under one ensemble heading. So that's really the thrill of it for us."

The group primarily uses classical music as a jumping-off point, Coughlin explained, because it's the most open to incorporating other styles. "One of the things that really struck me about classical music is that it seems to be a genre that's in some ways in need of a group like ours."

When he was back in school, Coughlin said he wasn't really interested in classical music until he heard Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring." "This piece basically changed my life. It was a piece that sounded like rock 'n' roll for orchestra. I thought, 'Wow, it's amazing that this music is out there and I haven't really experienced it yet.' "

Now Coughlin is hoping to provide an avenue into classical music for younger audiences, or for audiences that aren't as familiar with it. "Performing something like 'The Rite of Spring' or some of the classical music arrangements that we've been doing is a way for us to try to say that there's all this wonderful music out there that everyone should be listening to, and it's just as interesting and just as accessible as the pop music that most of my colleagues and most of my generation is listening to."