Amos brings modern nuance to classical music

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Tori Amos is touring behind “Night of Hunters,” an album that delves deep into mythology and classical music.

Updated: January 11, 2012 8:00AM

Tori Amos is a fearless explorer, having previously examined such dark topics as adultery, rape, homophobia and death in her rich aural tapestry of rock, electronica, country and Celtic influences. Her acclaimed 12th studio album, “Night of Hunters,” released in September, delves deep into mythology and classical music.

Why classical?

“I wanted to bring a modern energy to classical music,” says Amos, the first woman to simultaneously land in the top 10 of Billboard’s classical (No. 1), alternative (No. 5) and rock album (No. 7) charts. Backing her up on tour are Polish string quartet Apollon Musagete and Berlin Philharmonic principal clarinetist Andreas Ottensamer.

“I’m the bus mom,” says the 48-year-old singer. “They’re all so young and talented, they’re inspiring. This is the first tour for some of them.”

Before each show, Amos goes unplugged. “I need an hour with no phone, no contact with anyone,” she says. “I focus on the energy of the songs that are coming that night and the stories they’re telling. Songs are sonic beings of consciousness and I’m a container — they’re alive to me. When I go out on stage, I’m bringing their spirits with me.”

For this album, Amos headed to ancient Ireland, where she delves into Celtic mythology.

“The heroine finds herself in a dying relationship. We go on a journey with her as she discovers the end of her relationship and reinvents herself,” she says. “I wanted to show how she was both the hunter and the hunted, and how those two sides exist in all of us.” For her whole life, “I’ve been fascinated with mythology. I can’t do math, I can’t count, but I can find structure in stories.”

Amos showed mastery over the piano by age 3. When she was 6, she was accepted at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. To her parents, it seemed that she was born to be a classical pianist. But by 11, it became clear that was not to be.

“My father was heartbroken when I got kicked out. The only place that would let me play was this gay bar in Georgetown [in Washington, D.C.],” she says. “And that was the beginning of my professional career. Sometimes, you don’t know why certain paths close and others open, but if it feels right, take them.”

The singer has been onstage more times than her terrible math skills can count. But there are a few performances she’ll always remember. “The night after Kurt Cobain died, I was playing in a church in Berlin. The emotion was palpable. I sang ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit,’” she recalls. “The next night, in Ireland, everyone started singing along just a few bars into it. I was so amazed, I had difficulty finishing the song. But they all carried on for me, singing in perfect reverence of his memory.”

Gannett News Service