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Alias members Zeneba Bowers, Jeremy Williams and Matt Walker rehearse

Countless musicians come to Nashville hoping to record a track on a major label written by someone who’s on a hot streak. Alias Chamber Ensemble is having that kind of moment.

But while it’s generally safe to assume musicians on the verge of a big break are dreaming of fame and fortune, the classical instrumentalists in Alias have a somewhat unique set of goals.

Music as a Labor of Love

It’s ten o’clock on a weekday morning, and a group of professional string players are gathered in a cozy East Nashville living room. One at a time, they begin to draw bows across their instruments.

They’re preparing for a concert that won’t bring a paycheck.

Everyone in Alias earns their money by making music somewhere else. Most of the group’s twelve musicians are in the Nashville Symphony. A few teach at local universities.

Violinist Zeneba Bowers says the chamber ensemble gives them a degree of musical independence and allows them to be small-scale philanthropists. “It really was this simple idea that we would choose our own music, we would have ownership and control over it, and at the same time that we would be doing something socially positive by benefiting local nonprofits.”

“With each new season we adopt three non-profit partners,” says Laura Alabed. She has served on the ensemble’s board of directors since its inception. “We just hand them a box of money at the end of the night. We give them 100% of the proceeds from ticket sales.” At most concerts so far, that’s been about a thousand dollars or so.

It would be a stretch to say the musicians in Alias think music can save the world, but they certainly think it can help.

Cellist Matt Walker says they feel like they can help music, too. In the eight years since it began, Alias has already presented ten world premieres.

“That’s what most people in the group feel like we should be doing to perpetuate this art form,” says Walker. “Finding pieces that maybe don’t get a lot of attention or new composers that people haven’t necessarily heard of that really are creating some great stuff.”

A Big Step Forward

Most of those premieres were pieces they were able to get for free from composers as hungry for performances as the ensemble is for new music. Now they’re taking a bigger step in that direction, commissioning a piece for the first time. It was written by Grammy winner and Guggenheim Fellow Gabriella Lena Frank.

Later this fall, they’ll perform the piece with Frank at the Schubert Club in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a museum and concert venue known for launching the American careers of classical stars like Vladimir Horowitz and Mstilav Rostropovich. Alias has also recorded it for an album Franklin-based Naxos plans to release next year.

“We’re doing what we want to do right now,” says violinist Jeremy Williams. “That’s great for us for playing and it also helps us raise a little more money for the charities we choose.”

The scope of those new projects hit home recently, when Alabed says the ensemble’s board compared the financial statements for this year and the next.

“There was a very sudden leap in the bottom line. I noticed there was a moment of silence and then there was a ‘wow.’ It’s definitely upped the ante a little bit for us all.”

“It’s grown into a much, much bigger thing I think than any of us expected in 2002 or 3 or 4 or 7 or 8.” Bowers says she already sees the impact of a brighter spotlight. “When we now make a call or an email to a composer or to a record company, people will answer our call now.”

The Next Set of Goals

If Alias were to follow the usual model of success, the next step would be a tour, but they plan to mostly stay in town.

Alias may try to commission and record on a regular basis. Alabed hopes they may even export their unusual way of doing business.

“I’d love it if groups like Alias would develop in other parts of the country and kind of follow our model. This idea of encouraging the creation of new music and the presentation of rarely heard music but for the benefit of the local community I think is an amazing thing.”

Alias will perform the world premiere of Gabriella Lena Frank’s “Hilos” October 1, 2010 in Turner Hall on the Vanderbilt Campus.

The first musical clip used in the story was taken from a rehearsal of “String Circle for viola quintet,” composed by Kenji Bunch. The other two clips come from a rehearsal of “Hilos,” by Gabriella Lena Frank.

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