"Absolutely nothing," responds Adrian Spence. Spence is the founder and director of the group, and is somewhat of a maverick in the local arts scene. Impulsive, provocative, loquacious, irritating - he has led Camerata Pacifica to the point where it is recognized across the country.

"What is the point?" I ask.

"Well," says Spence, "the stereotypical image of a classical musician is not the most flattering, and is mostly incorrect. A skydiving flute-player explodes that image. It just doesn't fit, and with the condition the industry is now in that's point enough to do it."

Suddenly the adjectives I use to describe him seem more appropriate. "But," Spence adds, "while anything goes offstage, it must not affect the quality of the performance which remains paramount."

I am not a classical music expert, but when I go to a Camerata Pacifica concert I don't feel I have to be. They play a mix of well-known and unknown music, the musicians are warm and real and, led by the ever-present Spence of course, they talk to us. To me. They prepare me for pieces of music I haven't heard before (that's a long list) and after every concert I go home feeling I now know something I didn't know before. It works because I, and many others, keep returning.

Spence again: "It's a large part of our raison d'etre. I think too many groups patronize their audience. I'm not going to do that. I think you are an intelligent person who is interested in hearing something other than the same old, poorly played tunes again and again. It may be that you haven't had the musical education that my musicians have; therefore it's their, our, job to help you understand what you're about to hear. That to me is true outreach."

Ah, outreach. The cry of the politically correct. Camerata Pacifica has some interesting "outreach" programs. They send musicians into schools. They are the "Ensemble in Residence" at Santa Barbara City College, and they are one of the few groups that I know that "reach out" to adults.

A popular event takes place on the occasional Sunday afternoon. "The Coffeehouse Series" they call it. Apparently based on concerts J.S. Bach used to hold in a Leipzig coffeehouse. Here two to four musicians get together to read baroque music in the most informal manner - like a classical music jam session. The $5 a ticket audience gets to ask questions — all the questions you've got at a real concert but can't ask — and they get answered without you feeling stupid! Also, if you can bear to hear Spence talk some more, a few times a year he hosts a lecture series at Borders on State Street: "A Hitchhiker's Guide to Classical Music; or When to Clap and Other Mysteries Revealed." At these, topics range from musical biographies to "Where notes come from" to "The Schoenberg School." Even with something as foreign and hated as Schoenberg's music Spence manages to comfortably educate with his particular brand of humor always lurking in the background.

He's right however, when he says, "If you go to a concert to snooze to tunes you've heard a million times before, then the Camerata's not for you." That's for sure — there are no sleepers at Camerata Pacifica concerts. No, a Camerata Pacifica audience is expected to be involved. It is. They're wide awake and happy to feel part of the music.