musimelange. My Deep Apologies.

As I sat through musimelange this week, and drank in the experience, I realized I had done a terrible disservice by not publicizing this.  The room was not full, and it very much should have been.

Musimelange is the concept of Anne Chicheportiche.  Anne is a professional violinist, a sometimes member of the Miami Symphony Orchestra, and the wife of MiSO's concertmaster, Daniel Andai.  This is my third year attending musimelange offerings.  They are musical events, and they occur on about four Monday evenings per year.  When I started attending, the musicians or soloists were often whoever was the guest soloist from the MiSO concert the immediately preceding weekend.  At this point, the soloists are often enough unconnected to the MiSO concert.

Musimelange occurs at a venue called the M Building.  It's at the corner of NW 2nd Avenue and 30th Street, within the Wynwood district.  I have no idea what the purpose of this building is supposed to be, but it appears it's likely a function hall of some sort.  There is an ongoing art display there, but the pieces are very unusual, there is no information about them, and they are not for sale.  The building appears to be set up like a house, with various rooms that correspond almost to those of a residence.  There is also a nice size, well-landscaped, and enclosed yard to the side of the property.

The musimelange event is an evening of food and music.  Anne puts together the program for each evening.  Generally, there is a selection of wines, and sometimes beers, of which you can have as much as you like.  A gourmet caterer Anne engages provides food, and the food is presented in individual servings.  Again, you take as much/many as you like.  None of the dishes constitutes a full meal, but all of them together are filling enough.

Events are called for 7:30, which is when you can come from the anterooms to the main event room.  The latter appears to be a salon-like room letting out to the garden.  An extension of that room is set up as a small kitchen, which is where the food service is.  Wine is served on the outside patio, which also features many pieces of outdoor furniture, in case you want to sit out for a while.

Once everyone has had his and her fill of food, the music begins.  This is a very intimate setting.  Guests mingle with each other, with Anne and other program organizers and helpers, and even with musicians and performers.  The performance room is set with chairs and couches, and it looks like there's room for maybe 30 or so people.  That's it.  It's a very small chamber arrangement, and the concert is just for you.  It has a feel as if someone performed a concert for you at your house.

The music is top, top shelf.  I have seen many performers there over the past three years.  This past Monday, the most featured performer was a guy named Corky Siegel.  This was the third time I've seen him: twice at musimelange, and once as the guest soloist at MiSO.  Corky plays two instruments, sometimes simultaneously.  He plays harmonica and blues style piano.  He's amazing.  Not to lapse into adulation of MiSO, but what symphony orchestra creates a program to feature a harmonica and blues piano player?  And in chamber concert, Corky is total entertainment.  He's 71, energetic, and he has a great way with his audience.  Everything he and the group did on Monday was blues-inspired.  His musical partners included Matthew Santos, whose guitar-playing and singing style are reminiscent to me of the better known of the modern young performers, like Ben Harper, Jason Mraz, and some others.  He has a gorgeous voice, and his song-writing is entrancing.  This was my second time hearing Matthew, also at musimelange.  Joining them was Chihsuan Yang.  I've heard her at musimelange, too.  She plays classical violin, as well as a single-stringed Chinese instrument of which I don't know the name.  And she provides back-up vocals.  Spectacular.  Three performers were advertised, but four people played.  Dani Andai joined, and he was as amazing as he always is.  He had done a magnificent solo at the MiSO concert the night before, too.  The musimelange concert was perfect, and a better musical time could not have been had.  The food and wine were great as well.  Dessert, served after the music, was chocolate mousse.

So we're talking about a decent amount of wonderful food (a lot of food, if you keep taking more), essentially all the wine you want (the wine was very, very good, and all French this time), and a concert you would never have a chance to experience in regular life.  Unless you have very rich friends who like to put on very special events.  If you buy your ticket at the door, it costs $65.  If you have a little bit of foresight, you can buy it online for $55.  If you sign up, as I did, for all four offerings this year, it's $50 per ticket.  This is money extremely well spent.  And for a souvenir, I got one CD of Matthew Santos and one of Chihsuan Yang, for $10 each.

If this interests you, and it should, you can find musimelange at musimelange.com.  You'll see what the rest of this year's calendar looks like, and you can buy tickets.  I will tell you that I have attended all or almost all of these concerts for two years (this makes my third year), and I have never heard one that was less than perfect.  The food and alcohol are also always terrific.  Do yourself a favor.