Harmonix Co-Founder Juggles "Rock Band" and Chamber Music

Last month, I was chatting about music with Eran Egozy, the co-founder of Harmonix Music Systems; they make a little video game called "Rock Band," and earlier they created "Guitar Hero."

Egozy handed me a business card with a great color photo on it. It wasn't a card for Harmonix, the Cambridge company that is now owned by MTV Networks, but for the Radius Ensemble.

I knew that Egozy plays the clarinet, and I asked whether everyone in the chamber music group also has day jobs. Nope, Egozy told me, he's the only one. (That's the Radius Ensemble at right, with Egozy in the blue shirt on the right side.)

They've got an incredible Web site -- a real model of how performing artists can spark an interest in their work and build up a fan base. There's an e-mail list, a Facebook fan group, and a podcast where you can hear the group in action. They also sell tickets online (you get a $2 discount for buying that way) -- and take donations via PayPal.

This week, they're playing two concerts, one on Thursday at Rivera Hall in Weston, and another on Saturday at MIT. (Their next public performances aren't until March 2010.)

You can get a sense for how Egozy's clarinet playing connects to his work at Harmonix from this great "Office Invasion" video by Ann Silvio, D.C. Denison, and Carolyn Johnson.