Exclusively for the upper crust - until now, that was the feeling one got at the Jerusalem Music Center. Just descending the stairs in the picturesque Mishkenot Sha'ananim neighborhood emphasized the JMC's unique quality. One entered the hushed lobby to find a recording studio blessed with the last word in technology, designed for the use of a few dozen artists and a few on-site concerts. This clearly appeared to be an elitist institution that served the very few musicians at the peak of the talent pyramid.

But no longer. The JMC staff is signaling a shift in direction, and one can see proof of this Saturday night (8:30 P.M.), when the Jerusalem Quartet takes center stage. For the first time, JMC musicians will abandon the safety of their lofty haven and descend to the level of the man in the street, at the nearby YMCA auditorium. There, for a reasonable price, they will perform their superb New Chamber Concert Series, entitled "YMCAMERI" in honor of the venue.

They have retained their quality and content, and audiences will be treated to big names like Andreas Scholl, who is singing Vivaldi's "Stabat Mater"; clarinetist Antony Pay and the Aviv Quartet, who are playing Mozart; and other engaging, international ensembles and soloists.

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"Everything remains at a high level, except the price," new JMC director Hed Sella promises. But the spirit of the JMC has changed. "From now on, there will be a separation between the studio, the center and the concert hall," he says. For him, this is only one sign of the JMC's exciting renewal.

Sella himself symbolizes the JMC's new spirit. He lacks any semblance of snobbery and rejects hints that the JMC is off-limits to the masses. He says his unbuttoned treatment of musicians and businessmen alike comes from his origins in the management world, rather than the performance world. Sella is also very familiar with the JMC: He served as its program director in the 1990s and directed one of its workshops. Yad Hanadiv, the Rothschild family charity, is the center's main owner and sponsor. When it decided to appoint Sella to replace outgoing director Benny Gal-Ed, it was clearly declaring that the JMC would be abandoning its ivory tower.

Open invitation

"I hope this institution will extend an open invitation to all, define itself by its activity and gain strength," said violinist Isaac Stern upon the institution's founding in the 1970s. The JMC started as a one-of-a-kind musical institution and sort of a strange bird in the local music scene. It has no curriculum, teachers or students. It is an enrichment institution rather than a conservatory. The building is small and serves mainly as a headquarters for summer meetings between young musicians and artists, projects, collaborations with teaching institutions, live broadcasts on the Kol Hamusica radio station, master classes and concerts.

Major artists like Pablo Casals, Leonard Bernstein, Yehuda Menuhin, Alfred Brendel, Luciano Berio, Christa Ludwig, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Gustav Leonhardt have participated in JMC activities. Stern made the JMC an international center and thanks to his help, the Rothschild Foundation, Jerusalem Foundation, Rich Foundation and America-Israel Cultural Foundation granted the JMC its exclusive character.

"There will be continuity, but there will also be other things," Sella says. "For example, wind instrumentalists have joined string players, who were always the majority here. For many years violin was central, because the JMC was created in the image of Isaac Stern. Now, we are investing in wind instruments because their 'sociology' is different from that of string instruments. Wind instruments in orchestras and urban conservatories are unlike strings in a chamber orchestra, and they draw our new target audience. In keeping with that, we adopted the Young Philharmonic Orchestra, a national symphony orchestra comprised of high school students."

What new directions do you offer the center of the country?

"I constantly ask myself that question. Our advantage is that we are an independent body. We can be somewhat more experimental, avoid dependence on ratings, strive to reach a different population - we don't have to fill a concert hall with 2,700 seats every night. It's a shame to waste that on more Beethoven and Brahms, and only on them. My predecessor concentrated on the mainstream - and mainstream is fine, because it defines the margins - but it's a shame to devote everything to that. Now our plans are slightly less structured: more contemporary, more folk music, more Arabic music. It's a certain change in emphasis.

"The second direction somewhat avoids classic concert ritual. The aging bourgeoisie audience is vanishing. We are losing them. I have no answer as to how to preserve quality, which is the most important thing, and at the same time, to break through in new, young directions. In the last 200 years, music became ornamental, and I think it has to be moving and more relevant - to disturb, to arouse, to provoke. All of that is not happening in concert halls. Performance becomes the source of interest. Let's say a symphony is being played slowly and it lasts four seconds longer than usual. What does that mean to the guy sitting in the 83rd row? I have nothing against a pleasing melody or identification with a social class, but I am trying to use my influence to return some of music's cultural and social relevance. Rock music doesn't need that - its relevance is clear - but classical concerts do."

People over technology

"I prefer to work with people rather than technology. I believe in live music," says Sella in explaining his decision to halt the JMC's recording operation, the jewel in the center's crown during Gal-Ed's term. He also ended his predecessor's production activities. They were too expensive, even for this well-endowed institution.

"They expect me to tighten my belt and raise funds, despite the center's major benefactors," Sella says. "Not tens of thousands but hundreds of thousands of dollars - preferably millions."

He directed the money he saved toward shifts in style: classical Arabic music concerts performed by Jerusalem Academy graduates, the Adi a capella choir, early Baroque music, and an Israeli music series including Eretz Yisrael classics, folk music and pop, "from Alterman and Argov to Mizrahi songs." Names like Din Din Aviv, Ilana Eliya and Yair Dalal will appear in the program.

"We hope to include many types of music - not just broad pop," Sella says. "Who promotes contemporary music if not us?" He proudly points to performances by the 21st Century Ensemble, which the center has sponsored for years, and others who joined JMC concerts this year: the Chamber Society for Israeli Music Club (Michal Tal and brothers Hilel and Nithai Zori) and the Caprisma contemporary music ensemble.

What about excellence? Wasn't that always the center's motto?

"We can't ignore the fact that the center cannot serve each and every child in Israel. Our mandate was always to invest in the upper echelon of talent - and we won't neglect it. The center is keeping that motto in mind. But excellence has levels. We must expand the definition [of excellence] and be more democratic. There is something very anti-democratic about excellence and achievement, but there is a golden path between excellence and democracy, and we will find it. That is also why we began working with children in the nation's periphery. That is not our primary mandate, but we knew that if we did not help create infrastructure, we would not have excellence.

"Once it was natural for an adult to say, 'I played piano for six years.' That was standard. Now, that's diminishing. There is no supportive environment for children who play instruments. Parents do not understand the difference between extra-curricular activities, when kids learn karate for a year and later fly model planes, and music education. It's not the same thing. If music education does not become part of a healthy social system, that understanding will not increase.

"The world of classical music looks bombastic, conservative, thickheaded and insular to kids - and gimmicks to attract them are short-sighted and inefficient. There may be fewer musicians in the future, and fewer musicians of the first caliber. But for now, I refuse to accept this. Our programs specifically address these phenomena and try to dispel the elitist image.

"The world is rushing forward," Sella continues. "I now know I must ask more questions, be perturbed, permit myself to provide answers. We are stuck between a gimmick and something real. We doubt it will be possible to continue the magnificent tradition of music that existed for hundreds of years. The Jerusalem Music Center is focusing its questions and that is important, in itself."