Music in the spirit of Sunday

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Felix Wurman, founder of the Church of Beethoven

Church of Beethoven

Music by Bach and a spoken word program

Trattoria 225, 225 Harrison St., Oak Park

10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Sunday, July 17

$10 for adults; $5 for children

(708) 355-8555 or visit www.churchofbeethoven-oakpark.com/

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Updated: August 12, 2011 4:32PM

First of all, the Church of Beethoven is not a church, though its format resembles the common practice of setting aside an hour or so at a scheduled time to share a spiritual experience with like-minded people. The idea originated with the late Oak Park native and classical cellist Felix Wurman, who established the unusual concert series in Albuquerque, New Mexico, far from his Chicago-area roots.

“Felix was all about building a spiritual community, the way a church does, but in a non-denominational way,” said his sister Candida, who lives in Durham, North Carolina and will come in for the inaugural program Sunday, July 17.

The morning includes a performance of Bach’s Cello Suite by Katelin von Walterskirchen, a graduate of New Trier High School, who studied with Marc Johnson of the Vermeer Quartet and has done further study in Germany, and Bach’s Sonata in G Minor/Partitas by violinist Scott Daniel, a junior at Oak Park River Forest High School, who is also a member of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Poetic interlude

As in Wurman’s original Church of Beethoven programs, there will be a spoken word portion of about 15 minutes, provided by Tim and Pamela Leeming of Oak Park, as well as their friends Sheila Haennecke and Leisa Marthaler Hoover. “Jean Lotus asked us to arrange that part of the program, because she knew of our interest in poetry,” said Tim Leeming.

Lotus, who has lived in Oak Park for 10 years, is a member of the board of Handel Week, which is presented each winter in the village. “When I first came upon the Church of Beethoven in Albuquerque on Facebook, I thought it would do really well in Oak Park,” she said with obvious enthusiasm. “It would be on an intimate scale and just last one hour on Sunday morning. A lot of people have Sunday morning free.

“There are so many wonderful musicians in this area,” she continued, adding that often people who love classical music are at a place in their lives where going to Chicago for concerts is too costly. “You have to hire a baby sitter, you have to pay for parking,” she declared. “The arts are expensive. This concert is less formal. It only lasts and hour, doesn’t cost much and you can bring your children.”

The short duration and informality, with musicians speaking to the audience, were hallmarks of Wurman’s programs, she observed. “He broke down that fourth wall that separates the audience from the performers.”

Wurman grew up in a musical household and his parents established a chamber music program in Oak Park in the 1950s. His talent surfaced early and the lad soloed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 12. Instead of accepting an invitation to attend the Juilliard School, he went to Europe and studied with the renowned cellist Jacqueline du Pré, who was by then no longer able to concertize due to multiple sclerosis.

He returned home and played from 1980 to 1984 in the orchestra of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, but he also went back and forth to Europe. He finally settled in the Southwest and joined the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. With some of his musical colleagues, he formed the Noisy Neighbors Chamber Orchestra.

Wurman’s sister Candida confirmed the picture of her brother as a musician who was all about breaking down walls. For his Noisy Neighbors he created a 200-seat portable concert hall, called Domus — a geodesic dome, which he would put up and take down himself. “It became a familiar sight wherever he would perform,” she observed.

Filled with the spirit

The idea for the Church of Beethoven arose after Wurman played at a church service and was struck by the spirituality of the music experience, quite apart from the religious aspects of liturgy. Again, he tapped his orchestral colleagues and they began playing chamber music concerts on Sunday morning in an abandoned gas station off old Route 66.

They called it The Filling Station, and its purpose was to give music lovers the same experience of community and spiritual uplift that they might get from church membership and regular Sunday worship.

The Filling Station also had a secret ingredient. “Felix loved cappuccino,” Candida revealed. “He obtained a cappuccino machine for the gas station. He was always in search of the perfect cup of cappuccino.”

The event in Oak Park begins at 10:30 a.m., but the audience is urged to arrive around 10 to enjoy some coffee — at this point regular, not cappuccino. After the concert Trattoria 225 is offering audience members a special price for brunch.

Two more Sunday programs are planned for Aug. 14 and Sept. 18. And don’t worry too much about that “church” designation. The concert is definitely open to persons with regular denominational affiliations.