Gramophone Magazine. June, 2009

Given the rise of classical music in alternative venues, it will be no surprise that one of the newest takes place in a church that isn’t a church. It’s Felix Wurman’s Church of Beethoven in Albuquerque, New Mexico, now in its second season in a custom‑ designed warehouse with vaulted ceilings and seating for 150. There, Wurman says, “we plan to produce more music, more poetry and move into other areas of the humanities and health‑related fields.” One programme in March was Debussy’s String Quartet, percussion music performed by Hovey Corbin and Steve Chavez, and poetry read by Zachary Kluckman. “Come at 9.30am for coffee,” the announcement read. “Music begins at 10.30 sharp.”

By Brigid McCarthy, NPR Washington correspondent.

Originally broadcast on NPR, Saturday November 15, 2008

"Albuquerque, N.M., is no different from any other American city, in terms of its religious life; you've got churches, synagogues, a couple of Unitarian congregations and a mosque. But an abandoned gas station along old Route 66 is the unlikely home for another kind of Sunday-morning service, and it's one that you won't find anywhere else. It's called the Church of Beethoven.

Felix Wurman isn't a rabbi, priest or preacher. He plays the cello. He didn't feel at home in church, because he's not religious. But he says he also felt that there was something missing in formal concert halls where he performs.

"One of the things you do as a professional classical musician is play 'church jobs,' " Wurman says, "and I always felt that this is so wonderful, all this music, the collection of people, this beautiful room. But there was something lacking."

Wurman is a member of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. Before that, he studied with the legendary British cellist Jacqueline du Pre, toured with Andrew Lloyd Webber and performed with Chicago's Lyric Opera Orchestra.

Beyond Entertainment

"All the time I was doing all those things," Wurman says, "I was searching for a form of entertainment that went beyond entertainment, and went beyond the concert."

Last February, he created it. It's sort of like a variety show, with poetry readings, group singing, silence and music. But he's trying to make it more than that: a community, a spiritual place, like a church for people who don't go to church.

"Really, the idea is to find spirituality through culture, through the cultural gifts that so many people have suffered for and created over so many generations," Wurman says. "There's so much information there that's useful."

On a typical Sunday morning, a crowd gathers at the Filling Station, an old gas station that's been converted into a theater. It's in one of Albuquerque's oldest neighborhoods, surrounded by small brown adobe houses, a few blocks from the hulking shell of the old Santa Fe rail yards.

Coffee is a major part of the liturgy here — good coffee. Two cheerful baristas serve everyone free espresso in brightly colored ceramic cups. Laura Motter and her husband Nathaniel, who rode to the church on their tandem bike, have been attending faithfully since last spring.

"The first time I came, I heard about it from a friend who was reading poetry here, and we were just kind of blown away by what you can hear in a gas station in Albuquerque," Motter says.

An Atypical Church

At the Church of Beethoven, the audience sits on plain wooden risers. The cement floor has been scrubbed clean of oil stains, but the exposed brick and cinderblock walls still look as if they were blackened by exhaust. Wurman doesn't always program classical music, but on this particular morning, the church lives up to its name, with a Beethoven string quartet.

"His music is probably the most important reason I selected him as figurehead," Wurman says of Beethoven. "Because he really took a lot of chances with his music, in terms of the emotional content of it, he just doesn't give you any notion of what's coming. And then, all of a sudden, he's in a different mood altogether. I just think that's just so human."

Wurman adds that, unlike Bach, Beethoven didn't write that much church music. In fact, he rarely, if ever, went to church.

"He poured all that spirituality that he couldn't find a place for in the traditional church, he poured it straight into his art," Wurman says. "And that's what most of the great creators did. And so I can just go and grab that incredible crystallized piece of beauty and present it to people."

Feeling The Music

Dwayne Longabaugh has a subscription to the symphony, but he comes to the Church of Beethoven for a different musical experience.

"You're sitting three feet from the musicians, and you can actually feel the music, instead of just hearing it," Longabaugh says. "The lower notes of the music actually reverberate in your chest."

Wurman refuses to charge admission, because churches don't do that. But he does have expenses to cover, so he asks for donations. Sometimes he comes out ahead; sometimes he doesn't. But in just nine months, he has built a devoted Sunday-morning following, as well as a community. Wurman says he's determined to see his church survive and prosper.

"I have struggled so long in the arts," he says. "It's like you're crying in the wilderness. You're saying, 'Look at all this incredible music that really isn't getting out there to the extent that it should.' "

Wurman says he doesn't want the Church of Beethoven to grow into a megachurch, because that would destroy the intimacy that makes it meaningful. But he'd like the idea to get big, and spread, with churches of Bach, Schubert, Mahler and Bernstein sprouting up.

"My goal is to disseminate all of this wonderful art," Wurman says, "because people don't know that much about it. I know there's an audience for it."

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2008 fron Tom Paine's Ghost, a freethinker's cove

Art Church
The Church of Beethoven in Albuquerque, New Mexico is described by NPR here.

"I have struggled so long in the arts. It's like you're crying in the wilderness. You're saying, 'Look at all this incredible music that really isn't getting out there to the extent that it should.'"
-Felix Wurman
He says he wants this idea to spread with Churches of Mozart, Chopin, Bach, Schubert, and Rachmaninoff. But why limit the idea to music and why call it a church. Gatherings celebrating music, writing, and visual arts of secular content could be the next step in the interconnectedness of the web manifesting in the real world.

This story reminded me of an article I read in Time magazine entitled "Sunday school for atheists." My favorite tidbit from this story was the description of the children singing songs like "I'm Unique and Unrepeatable, set to the tune of Ten Little Indians." Though I don't think organizations like these should be advertised as "for atheists only." Thomas Paine believed in one God just not any of the stories written about God over human history. A forum for people who want to socialize their children without having to sign up and take oaths to a code of beliefs should be more widely available in our United States under its metaphorical banner of FREEDOM.

From the travel Journal of D.R. Thorsrud 6/15/08

Day 183: Evangelizing for the Church of Beethoven

Felix, the founder of the Church of Beethoven, knows of no other city which has this same Sunday morning format. I had to ask him. If other cities where I've lived had this to offer every Sunday and I was sleeping in or going for a bike ride, that would have been a great disappointment.

This morning's service had a harpist from the local symphony and an accomplished violinist. They each did a solo piece which was then followed by a poetry reading. The poets included a local professor of literature and a slam poet. As usual, the audience participated in a solemn, two minute moment of silence to appreciate all things good. The service was finished with Camille Saint-Saens' Fantaisie, a plump, golden duet for harp and violin.

Every city needs a Church of Beethoven. Every city.

I'm going to help fix this. I decided that the Church of Beethoven needs a missionary; not that the church is lacking in attendance in Albuquerque. Each week, the Filling Station is filled to capacity. But this idea is so rich, it should be shared. It needs to go viral.

I sat four feet from the nimble fingers of the violinist giving life to a breathtaking Bela Bartok piece; only eight feet from the symphony harpist who, with just two hands, elevated the entire room of cinder blocks and transfixed listeners to a place of bliss.

Posted by zoodeb on Duke City Fix June 16, 2008.

Yesterday, I attended my favorite Sunday morning service - the effervescent and always engaging Church of Beethoven. I think of it as a church of art. It celebrates not only the richness of music and language, but honors in a sense the art of living itself. Waiting for that first cup of espresso or cappucino - each served with a graceful leaf design floating on the creamy surface - is in itself part of the rhythm and beauty of the morning. People arrive in good cheer, anticipating the events of the hour. Everyone is friendly, almost eager. It is evolving into a small community, where all are welcome and received with joy. People have the time to chat, to be interested - to loiter amid the spare tires and potted plants and relax for awhile .

This Sunday, the program opened with a complex and subtle violin solo played by Ikuko Kanda, a member of the NMSO. I was transfixed by the music her dancing fingers created on that small wooden instrument. At first it sounded like a swarm of bees leaving the hive - then moved on to all sorts of elegant and unanticipated flows and swoops of sound. She was joined later by Lynn DeVelder playing the harp - a gorgeous piece of sculpture in itself. Lynn's hands were like ballet dancers, moving over that waterfall of strings with such grace and confidence. It was just amazingly beautiful. Such a thing to hear, sitting in a disused Filling Station in Barelas! I thought of all the people asleep in their beds, hung over or bored, missing this, and felt sad for them.

Interspersed between the music, poet regulars Tony and Frank explored the lyrics of songs - treating them like the poetry they often are. Their joint reading of Cat Steven's "Father and Son" - that classic anguished ballad of separation and identity - felt so genuine that I wanted to comfort them afterwards....

These Sunday mornings have become my touchstone - a way to get back to what is beautiful and kind in this deteriorating world. After a long week of effort, perhaps frustration, perhaps accomplishment - after a week of continuing bad news in the world - I find renewal and rest in the company of strangers at the improbable, generous Church of Beethoven.

reprinted from The Albuquerque Journal April 28, 2008

A New Church: Weekly event held at The Filling Station features music, poetry and readings

by David Steinberg (Journal Staff Writer)

Traveling south on Fourth Street from Albuquerque's Central Avenue, you'll encounter the Episcopal Church of St. John, the First United Methodist Church, the Sacred House Catholic Church and the Potter's House-Christian Fellowship Ministries. At Fourth and Pacific SW add a new "church" to the list. It's the "Church of Beethoven," the idea of entrepreneur and cellist Felix Wurman. Wurman has been producing an hourlong mix of music, poetry and readings for the past twelve Sunday mornings at the arts venue called the Filling Station. More than 90 people filled the seats at Sunday's performance.

The event featured four musicians, Wurman among them, playing a Ludwig van Beethoven string quartet, Scott Vehill's reading from Jack Kerouac's book "On the Road," accordionists Carlosaur and Eva Ave (their stage names) leading patrons in a singalong of the old rock song "Down on the Corner" and violinist Carmelo de los Santos, who teaches at the University of New Mexico, soloing on Francisco Tarrega's "Recuerdos de la Alahambra." Most audience members sat in the tiered seats surrounding the performers in a space that was once a two-bay auto repair garage.

"The music is amazing. It's as good as it gets in Albuquerque," said Tina Carlson, who attended Sunday's presentation with her husband, Tim Sleigh, and their eleven-year-old daughter Mia Lin.

Carlson likes the fact that the the events are no more than one hour. "It's like eating a bite of really good dessert," she said. Scott Alley, who was in the audience with her neighbor Pat Hess, thinks the event "is a great start to the week. You come out feeling great."

In the middle of the performance, two minutes of silence were observed and Wurman passed a hat to raise money to help pay the musicians, to cover the cost of the coffee and tea (provided by EspressoArtists) served free before the 10:30 a.m. start and, of course, to pay the rent on the space.

"We're committed to keeping going," Wurman said. "We're like a church. You expect it to be there every Sunday morning without fail."

David Felberg, associate concertmaster of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and a violinist in the Beethoven quartet, said, "I love the format, the variety."

Next Sunday, Wurman has pans to have Metropolitan Opera bass LeRoy Lehr singing opera and Broadway and Anthony Hunt reading love poems.

reprinted from the Duke City Fix April 27,2008

Beethoven in Barelas!

by Teresa Blankmeyer Burke

On Sunday morning I woke up late, threw on jeans and a sweater, and dashed down 4th Street to check out one of the newest happenings in Barelas – the Church of Beethoven. Last week I stumbled upon this story in the Daily Lobo, and promised myself the next time I was in town I’d check it out.

In case you’ve missed the local press coverage on the Church of Beethoven, the 'church' was founded about twelve weeks ago by Felix Wurman, a cellist with the NMSO. People like to describe it as "not church, not Beethoven”, but a mélange of classical music, spoken word/poetry, and a little silence - with complimentary coffee and tea service before the show. The first thing I noticed upon approaching the Filling Station was this was a different sort of crowd than usually frequents Barelas – more Anglo, more middle class, more arts patrons than starving working artists, though there were undoubtedly several attendees who rely on at least one of the nine muses for a living.

Scanning the crowd, I didn’t see anyone that I recognized from the neighborhood, which isn’t too unusual with Barelas arts events – be they at the Petting Zoo, the Rio Grande Zoo, or Out‘chYonda, each draws a different sort of crowd to the ‘hood, which is fine by me. I queued up at the free tea and coffee line, striking up a conversation with a couple in line who had traveled south from Santa Fe to attend the service. We talked about looking forward to the Rail Runner extension from Albuquerque to Santa Fe and our hopes for weekend trains. I have to admit this was the first time I’d considered folks in Santa Fe might be trekking south with Barelas as their destination After getting my java fix in an eco-friendly ceramic cup, I ventured into the performance space. With matte black paint on the walls, structural posts wrapped in burlap and mesh, a hodgepodge of risers and chairs ordered in rows - including a few upholstered seats that looked as if they’d been pulled from an old Chevy, the place didn’t look much different from the performance space up the street Once the music started, though, I knew I was in a different place.
Music and Barelas have been kissing cousins for a long time. Over the past century, Barelas has produced more than its share of local musicians specializing in New Mexican music – you can tune in these classic NM sounds at 89.1 KANW on weekday afternoons. And more recently, there are the NMSO performances at the National Hispanic Culture Center, and Zoo Music at the RG Zoo.

Since we’ve been in Barelas, we’ve heard everything from the strains of live mariachi music wafting over the backyard fence, to electric jazz and blues, to something best described as garage band Christian rock on a flatbed semi-truck at the Potter’s House Church. (Imagine the lyrics of “Proud Mary” amended to “Proud Jesus” playing loud enough to set your windows to vibrating and you get the picture It is not too often that Bareleños get the kind of music featured at the Church of Beethoven – I usually venture north on 4th Street a few blocks to the Cathedral of St John to get these kinds of classical tunes on a Sunday morning, but my attendance has fallen by the wayside since organist Bruce Barber left for greener pastures in Chicago.

Once upon a time, I considered majoring in music. I studied classical piano for 14 years, finally concluding that a progressive hearing loss was not compatible with studying music in college. (I had enough smarts to recognize that the oft-cited example of late-deafened Beethoven did not apply to yours truly!) Since my ears are not what they once were, it would be unfair for me to comment in detail on the musical offerings at the Church of Beethoven, save to say that the music was superb -- even with my limited hearing mediated by high-end digital hearing aids. Enthusiastic audience reaction at the end of each piece cemented these impressions, reinforced by the snippets of musician shoptalk overheard after the performance/service.

In addition to music, the morning show included Scott Vehill of Chicago’s Prop Thtr channeling Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (you can catch his performance next weekend at the Filling Station) and two minutes of silence, which you can use as you see fit. (I spent the time generating random thoughts prompted by the Rorschach-like grease spots on the floor – as anyone with a hearing loss knows, closing one’s eyes during group silence is risky business.) The silence and the offering were the most “church-y” components, in case you have an aversion to this kind of ritual, but this didn’t last long, just a few minutes. Founder Felix Wurman keeps things moving along at an energetic pace and the length of the ‘service’ at about an hour is just right, in my opinion If you are the kind of person who likes the idea of eclectic Sunday morning sounds, you may want to check out the Church of Beethoven in the heart of Barelas (at the NE corner of 4th Street and Pacific Avenue SW
View Larger Map"">). Coffee and tea are served at 10:00AM and the show begins at 10:30AM. For those of you who are fellow opera geeks, next week promises to be especially good – LeRoy Lehr, of the Metropolitan Opera (yup, that’s the one in NYC), will be performing selections from the Magic Flute and the Fantastiks.
Get there early – this is likely to draw a considerable crowd!

Reprinted from Albuquerque The Magazine, April 2008

by Mel Minter

Music and the Spirit

Felix Wurman, a member of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, used to be a turtle. But that was a long time ago. Now he's a bishop. Of course, he's always been a cellist with a mind of his own, which is exactly how he came to be both. "Ever since I was a kid, I've been thinking about how to program stuff, because to me, putting it in the right context is more than half the job," he says. "I always felt constrained. Every environment I was in-be it theatrical environment, be it a church-{I felt} that there was somehow something uncomfortable."

Back in the '80's, Wurman had the idea of traveling with his own environment, "the whole theater really being part of the show, kind of like a circus," he says. On that idea he founded the successful but now defunct piano quartet Domus, named for the geodesic dome they-turtlelike-carried with them. Large enough to accommodate a couple hundred people, the dome was easily assembled by the musicians anywhere suitable.

"I want to have a scenario in which the music can touch people," Wurman says. "Isn't that what we all want?" Which is how Wurman became a bishop of sorts, founding the Church of Beethoven.It's not really a church, thougfh it does convene on Sunday mornings, and in it's first weeks of existence, no sign of Beethoven has been sent, though that could change. The Church of Beethoven is, however, the newest and certainly the quirkiest weekly concert series in Albuquerque, featuringmusicians from the Symphony and elsewhere, as well as regular poets and possibly other sorts of performers as the series develops.

The proceedings convene at 9:30 am at the Filling Station, a small theater space reclaimed from an old garage, and home to the Mother Road Theater, at 1024 4th St. SW. Excellent free coffees and teas are served which begins at 10:30.(Wurman is a coffee caterer, too, with professional equipment and highly skilled baristas. Music has included works by Bach, Kodaly, Messiaen, Mozart, among others, as well as singalongs tp traditional and popular music. Admission is free, and an offering is taken. Give generously.

For a musical communion, visit www.churchofbeethoven.org or call (505) 307-9647.

Reprinted from The Daily Lobo February 28,2008

Church Minus the Religion

By Eva Dameron

"Beethoven" is painted on a big yellow surfboard that sits on a fence Sunday mornings at 1024 Fourth Street S.W. It's a sign for the Church of Beethoven, where cellist Felix Wurman hosts a free, nonreligious, 45-minute music and spoken word service at 10:30 a.m. every Sunday. "It's a close second to high mass at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris," said Al Pons, who attended Sunday's service.

The Church of Beethoven isn't quite church, and there isn't much Beethoven.
Wurman likes to use a Jerry Seinfeld quote to explain. "I don't understand why they call this product Grape Nuts," he said. "There are no grapes; there are no nuts."

The program has a theme each week. On Sunday, in front of 75 people, the theme was folk music. There was a Bob Dylan sing-along, like a church hymnal, which was preceded by a poet reciting a piece about Bob Dylan in a Dylanesque accent.
Wurman, who performs with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, played a piece with David Felberg by Zoltan Kodaly, a Hungarian composer and philosopher who played folk music. They passed around a collection plate and closed with a riveting performance of "Stars and Stripes."

It's a makeshift setup, with rows of chairs on black wooden slabs that rise up toward the back. Black curtains hang on the walls, and there's a spiderweb-type mesh cloth in front of blue and yellow lights that shine on the performers, who stand in the middle of the dimly lit room. Espresso Artists, Wurman's mobile coffee company, is set up in the corner of the room, and a girl serves espresso in little colorful cups. Behind the floor-stage, there are some tables and chairs.

Carin Holzscheiter took a break from her usual Sunday biking and hiking routine to attend the performance. "We came from Santa Fe to hear this," she said. "It's definitely worth the trip. If it wasn't so far, we'd come every Sunday."

Felix studied the cello in Europe for 10 years after high school. "I was also in Europe during the explosion of the early music scene, so that was very interesting," Wurman said. "All of the classical music and earlier and even on into Beethoven and Brahms was being reinterpreted from the historical point of view. They were using early instruments, trying to put things back into the way it was when the pieces were composed. But I was blending classical music and street theater."

This Sunday, they will be visited by the spirit of a funerary violinist, channeled through Felberg and his violin. "We're going to be visited by Hieronymous Gratchenfleiss," Wurman said. "He's like the prophet of the Church of Beethoven. He's long dead. During his life, he played at funerals."

The Sunday after that, Matt Haimovitz, an Israeli-born international cello star, will expand upon his Saturday night performance at El Rey for the Church of Beethoven. "I offered my services for his show, and he offered his," Wurman said. "He thought the Church of Beethoven sounded really cool."He anticipates the services will grow and change as more people become involved."It's not a fixed," he said. "The only requirement is a high level of artistry. It's short and it's high-level. That's what we're after."He likened planning each Sunday to putting together a dinner.

"Programming is so important - trying to find the right pieces to go together, what goes with what, what people want to hear," he said. "But the sense of it is like planning a meal. That's the best analogy. What are we going to have for the main course, the wine, the dessert? It's so important to get that right, and I think so many times it's not gotten right. The other thing is it's important that it doesn't cost anything. It's a free-will donation. We need to raise money to do this."

Reprinted from Alibi V.17 No.8 February 21-27, 2008

The Church of Beethoven

Free coffee, intimate space and seat-of-the-pants presentation make for a charming Sunday morning communion

By Mel Minter

Don’t bother looking for a steeple. Keep your eyes peeled, instead, for a yellowish surfboard with hand-lettered block capitals that reads “B E E T H O V E N.”

Stuck atop the iron fence surrounding The Filling Station at the corner of Fourth Street SW and Pacific, the board marks Albuquerque’s newest concert series: the Church of Beethoven, inaugurated on Feb. 10 by Felix Wurman, cellist, “church” founder and member of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra.

The format—complete with free coffee expertly prepared on Wurman’s professional espresso machine by barista and cellist/guitarist Lisa Donald—is about “breaking down barriers” between the performers and the audience, he says. The sing-along to John Lennon’s “Imagine” on the first Sunday, led by Donald, underscored that concept. That day, attendees also heard Debussy’s “Syrinx,” a piece for solo flute, played by Christine Saari from behind a backlit parachute; selections from Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time;” and J.S. Bach’s “Sonata in G Major for Flute, Tenor Cello and Basso Continuo.” The second Sunday offered Mozart, funerary violin music from Hieronymous Gratchenfleiss, the sing-along “I’ll Fly Away,” and on a Kokopelli theme, music by Kathryn Hoover and poetry by Gary Snyder.The doors open every Sunday at 10 a.m., at 1024 Fourth Street SW, with the music starting at approximately 10:30 a.m. Arrive early for coffee or tea. Wurman encourages parents to bring their well-behaved children. As in any church, admission is free, with a free-will offering.

The venue—an old garage converted into a performance space by the resident Mother Road Theatre Company —fits the bill perfectly for Wurman’s intimate, off-center Sunday-morning presentations featuring NMSO members and others.“I’ve been tinkering with the concert format for years,” he says, and he can prove it. In the ’80s, he founded the renowned chamber group Domus, which toured with a geodesic dome that the musicians could set up for concerts just about anywhere—and did. “It’s like cooking a meal. You can’t really leave anything out—the ingredients of the space, the music, the players.” “What is the Church of Beethoven? Let me quote comedian and breakfast cereal enthusiast Jerry Seinfeld when he asks, ‘What’s this stuff Grape Nuts? I mean—no grapes, no nuts.’ Same with Church of Beethoven. No church, no Beethoven. The Church of Beethoven has all the best qualities of 1. a typical Sunday service; 2. an exciting concert; and 3. the best coffee shop in town. In short, the perfect Sunday morning.”

Visit www.churchofbeethoven.org or call 307-9647 to learn more.