WASHINGTON — Imagine your favorite musicians backed by a live symphony orchestra.
That’s the idea behind the Kennedy Center series “Declassified: Ben Folds Presents,” where the former Ben Folds Five frontman — and new NSO artistic adviser — curates and hosts live crossover concerts between chart-topping stars and the National Symphony Orchestra.
“It’s the Ben Folds 85,” Folds joked. “You always want to bring new audiences to the incredible institution of the symphony orchestra. … Gershwin was doing that in his time. … Music to me has always been about context. If you hear a song and it’s in the context of your life and you can relate to it, it doesn’t matter what the style is or where it’s coming from. What we’ve been able to do in this series is contextualize orchestral music and re-contextualize modern artists.”
This summer, Folds will welcome Jon Batiste from “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
“Jon and I have been talking about this for almost a year,” Folds said. “He may win for being the most enthusiastic in his ideas. He’s got like 20 more ideas that we can possibly accomplish! I really like that about him. He’s a consummate musician. … He’s an utterly incredible piano player. He’s funny and engaged. He’s one of the smartest people I’ve met. This gives him a chance to be more serious about his musicianship. It’s a different niche.”
Last weekend, Folds brought Grammy- and Tony-nominated singer/songwriter Sara Bareilles.
“Sara Bareilles is one of the best musicians I’ve ever played with,” Folds said. “She’s also a composer in her own right — a pop composer, but a composer — so we gave her audience the honor of being treated as such. At the same time, the audience is brought into music they might not have otherwise heard, which I find is becoming the soundtracks to people’s lives.”
On Friday night, Bareilles performed a range of pop hits (“Love Song”) and show tunes (“She Used to Be Mine”) from Broadway’s “Waitress,” which she returns to star in on Tuesday.
“We made sure that we went with two anthems, ‘Love Song’ and ‘Brave,'” Folds said. “‘Love Song’ was re-imagined by Caroline Shaw, [who] turned that one upside down. It was very different from what you’d be used to. … Then, ‘Brave’ as the encore; we gave them what they expected. … Then, we made sure we did one that no one’s heard before; [then], ‘She Used to Be Mine.’ It’s a beautiful song. That one irked me because I wanted to have written it.”
While Bareilles is more well-known, audiences were just as lucky to see Shaw, who, at age [30], won the Pulitzer Prize for Music with her a cappella composition for Roomful of Teeth.
“She may be my favorite modern composer; I just love what she does,” Folds said. “So I’ll bring in my [famous] friends like Sara … but I also want to learn some new artists myself, so I’m listening to new stuff. It doesn’t matter if it sells or not. I don’t care. For the second part of the billing, [most recently] Caroline Shaw, I just want to be introduced to — and introduce my audience to — something that we haven’t heard before. People flip when they see Caroline!”
Danay Suarez earned a similar reaction during the first “Declassified: Ben Folds Presents.”
“She’s a Cuban artist somewhere between hip-hop and straight-up singing,” Folds said. “She has a discernible Cuban tilt to her music, but it’s very unique. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a star-is-born moment. That was so exciting for me. When we started her first tune with the NSO, the room was one way. When we finished, it was a new room. People were blown away. Then she walked right from there to the Latin Grammys, where she had four nominations.”
While he mostly serves as the show’s host, Folds will occasionally perform himself.
“I’m more of an emcee, but I insert myself where we need an extra person,” Folds said. “For Sara, I played percussion and toyed around with some piano. A couple of times I’ve fired myself, like I’ll sit in and play piano, then realize the house piano player can read better than me. … To be honest, I’m just selfish and I want to be involved with my favorite artists.”
Of all of his career work, Folds says the Kennedy Center series has a special place in his heart.
“I have hundreds of gigs a year that I play on, but probably 80 percent of my time is spent on the two or three ‘Declassified’ shows I do,” Folds said. “It’s what means the most to me.”
In addition to the headliners, you’ll also get to see the talented musicians of the NSO.
“It’s not like we’re giving you the ‘dummies’ version of the symphony orchestra; we’re pushing the orchestra to where they are sweating bullets before the performance,” Folds said. “They’re actually being challenged. … You’re turning the orchestra into what it is: 80 individuals who live in the same time period we do, who happen to be exceptional at making music together.”
How long might this unique series continue at the Kennedy Center?
“What is amazing is that we now have artists coming to us to do this,” Folds said. “So I think as we continue to sell them out and artists want to do them, we’ll plan more. I was going to give it three [shows] and see where we were. So far, we’re killing it, so I think we’ll continue. I would say maybe two or three [concerts] a year as long as I’m doing this gig.”
Click here for more on the “Declassified” series. Listen to the full chat with Ben Folds below:
