Classical music isn’t a genre with terribly deep roots in DIY culture. Composers old and new rely on wealthy benefactors and grants to fund their work, and putting on a concert or festival usually requires a fair amount of institutional support from foundations, donors, or sponsors.
That’s just one reason why the upcoming Spontaneous Combustion New Music Festival is such a standout on this year’s classical music calendar: The entire event was conceived, booked, organized, and funded by one person, musician/composer Scott Anthony Shell.
A bookkeeper by day, Shell has been pouring all of his time and rapidly dwindling spare cash into bringing a gaggle of artists—including New York’s Sandbox Percussion and Boston-based ensemble Hub New Music, who specialize in contemporary classical—to the West Coast to perform.
“There are grants for this sort of thing, but they are very limited and require you to have a track record of one to three years,” Shell says. “So, basically, I’m having to fund it with what little funds I have, working full-time. My partner is chipping in, too. I’m hoping that we’ll get enough ticket sales to pay everybody that we need to pay.”