A chamber Music Crowd on South Beach Needs Work

The highlight of my Sleepless Night, the cultural Miami Beach potluck Saturday, was a brain-slurping Mexican horror flick. So the next day I wandered over to the Miami Beach Botanical Garden, a lush enclave amid the concrete-mania of the Miami Beach Convention Center. The garden hosted a free South Beach Chamber Ensemble concert celebrating the group’s 10 years in existence. While amber flashes of the setting sun filtered through the trees and the cellist, Michael Andrews, and the pianist, Ciro Foderé, played through Beethoven’s Sonata for Piano and Cello in A Major, the moment seemed to fall into harmony.

Then, a cell phone rang. Around the Adagio Cantabile movement, a second man banged into his folding chair as he got up to leave. They kept playing. A woman then stood until she grabbed the attention of a little girl. Mid-piece, they walked out together. They kept playing. An older woman cracked her gum in the back as the baby on her lap jingled keys.

Sunday in the garden with chamber music: superb. The price: perfect. A chamber music crowd on South Beach: needs practice. Hopefully, the audience at their 8 p.m. concert tonight at Barry University’s Cor Jesu Chapel, 11300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami Shores, falls into place more harmoniously. This one will cost you $15 (adults), $10 (students and seniors), or if you're Barry faculty or a student, free with ID. --Janine Zeitlin