There are two questions people continue to ask of Arizona Chamber Orchestra founder Gal Faganel:
• Is your upstart chamber ensemble taking audiences and supporters away from existing arts organizations?
• Why start something this ambitious when the economy is bad?
The 31-year-old cellist has optimistic answers for both.
"I don't think we really compete in that way. We're looking at attracting a new audience," he says to question No. 1. The new audience, he imagines, falls somewhere between those who have been exposed to classical music and those who avoid it like a tooth extraction.
To question No. 2: "Because I just take a longer view. If you start something in the tougher times, it can only get easier."
On Saturday, Faganel's ensemble will make its second appearance in Tucson to play a concert of classical works featured in Hollywood films. When the evening ends, he hopes the audience will be curious enough to return when the group concludes its maiden season here on April 2.
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"We hope to make it exciting and captivating enough that when they do come, they will want to return," he said.
The Arizona Chamber Orchestra is made up of musicians from throughout Arizona and California, including three from Tucson - violinists Diane Zelickman and Emma Noel Votapek, and Votapek's cellist husband, Mark Votapek. Zelickman and Emma Votapek, like many of the players, are moonlighting outside their full-time orchestra gigs; they both play with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Others are members of the Phoenix Symphony and the Arizona Opera Orchestra; they're college professors and freelancers.
Faganel played with the Phoenix Symphony for three years before leaving last spring to take a teaching position with the University of Northern Colorado. It also freed him up to put the final touches on the chamber group, which he had been organizing since 2009 to satisfy his and the members' desires to play chamber music beyond trio and quartet literature.
"This multiplies the energy once it's put on stage," said Faganel, a native of Slovenia who earned his college degrees at the University of Southern California. "The construction of this group, to me, is more intense and more involved than a string quartet. It's more artists bringing that energy."
"We're all coming from different (areas), and it's an opportunity to come on stage and do something different," said Emma Votapek, who won't be performing Saturday due to her TSO commitment. "The idea that it's the Arizona Chamber Orchestra and we have people coming from all over the state. ... It's fun to work with new people or people you have only known socially."
Votapek, who joined the TSO in the 2009-10 season, said the experience allows her and the other musicians to express a different musical voice, one that often gets lost in a large symphony setting.
"I think the neat thing is that so many people can be leaders," she said. "You have a little more musical input."
The ensemble performs at small halls in Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa and Tucson. Faganel hopes to include concerts in Flagstaff, Prescott, Wickenburg, Casa Grande and Payson as early as next season.
If you go
Arizona Chamber Orchestra Goes to Hollywood
• When: 8 p.m. Saturday.
• Where: St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 2331 E. Adams St.
• Tickets: $30, and $15 for students; at the door.
• Program: Works by classical composers including J.S. Bach, Mozart, Mahler and Shostakovich featured in movies including "Titanic," "The Mission," "Cinema Paradiso" and "The Godfather III."
• Details: 1-480-706-2926 or www. arizonachamberorchestra.com
