New York (AFP)

In the depths of the catacombs of Brooklyn, New York, at the end of a narrow and dark corridor, come the chords of a music which, in this place, seems unreal: a concerto for strings.

Andrew Ousley, who created this regular meeting, impertinently called "The Death of the Classical", explains that he simply wants to ward off fate: it is too early to write the obituaries of the genre.

"Classical music can always be relevant, it can have an impact on people who are not necessarily the audience that we expect," says the 36-year-old man at AFP during a rehearsal in the catacombs from Green-Wood Cemetery, West Brooklyn.

"This music is not dead," he says, "I think it's important to dress it up with a wider experience, especially for people who are not used to classical music. and its rituals, and who wonder nervously + Do I do the right thing, do I applaud at the right time? + "

After launching in 2015 his "Sessions of the Crypt" program, intimate concerts held at a church in Harlem, Andrew Ousley started organizing performances in the catacombs - nearly 150 years old closed to the public - from the Green-Wood Cemetery, which is home to almost half a million souls, including those of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat or composer Leonard Bernstein.

This dismal den offers "extraordinary acoustics" with "incredibly generous sound and optimizing for acoustic and classical music, strings, voice and piano", he enthuses.

- Projection on the arches -

According to a study by the National Fund for the Arts, a US federal agency, in 2017, only 8.6% of adult Americans attended a classical music event. In 2002, they were 11.6%.

Another 2012 study showed that one-third of the public was over 65 years old.

His performances in the Harlem Crypt or the Brooklyn Catacombs attract a diverse audience, says Andrew Ousley.

His challenge: to combine the quality expected from his performance "someone who has already seen 1000 performances" and "to be welcoming and as unpretentious as possible for someone who never came".

This week's program, a performance of the "Stabat Mater", a religious work composed by the Italian Giovanni Battista Pergolesi in 1736, is performed by the Brooklyn String Orchestra.

Eli Spindel, its artistic director, recognizes that classical music institutions sometimes tend to be "too conservative".

"But what they manage to achieve is incredible and could not be accomplished by managers with small budgets or small rooms," he added.

"For a performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 9, you want top-level orchestras in a big hall."

For the genre to survive, he sums it up, there needs to be a mix of traditional venues and more eccentric performances.

In addition to the "Stabat Mater", this week will be presented in Green-Wood the "Adagio for Strings" melancholy work of the American composer Samuel Barber, and the "Fratres" of the Estonian "Arvo Part". The whole, decorated with visual projections on the arches of the catacombs.

The program of the moment therefore focuses on mourning, "catharsis and how to find meaning to the loss of life", explains Andrew Ousley.

"We are in a room that is very appropriate for this music," says Eli Spindel with a smile.

© 2019 AFP