Well, Jacaranda. The blossoming bushes that seduce with the color purple reinvented as a cutting-edge contemporary classical music presentation series. On monthly Saturday nights in Santa Monica, there convenes the cognoscenti, a considerable who-is-who of Los Angeles’s serious music universe. They meet, greet, and eat (cookies served during the break). The thirteen-season-running series, a labor of love and expertise from co-directors Patrick Scott and Mark Alan Hilt, provides a welcome respite from ISIS, cellphones, Donald Trump, traffic and other benefits of modern existence. The opportunity to hone in on smartly curated, superbly performed concerts features music by world-leading composers — many still among the living! As delivered by the town’s top instrumentalists, the room’s rarefied sound nearly crackles with stimulation. March’s concert, aptly entitled “Altitude,” augurs a Scandanavian cruise via composers Per Norgard, Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Altitude | Jacaranda | First Presbyterian Church, Santa Monica | March 19
Classical Underground impresario Alexey Steele’s motto (among many, many others when he gets on a tear) is In Art We Trust. Fortunately, Alexey also trusts his faithful followers to contribute generous potluck offerings to his humongous dining table, feeding the masses in the social clamor that precedes his amazing concerts. It all takes place in [painter] Steele’s art-strewn industrial loft in Carsen. You gotta witness it to believe it. So … see you @ CU.
Classical Underground | Chez Olya and Alexey | March 1
Composer/presenter Jane Brockman holds as her mission “love of classical music at an affordable price.” At the upcoming edition of “Music & Conversations,” New York oboist Keve Wilson joins The Lyris Quartet at Jack Rutberg’s LaBrea Avenue art gallery for an hour of intermission-free chamber music at 8 pm. The fun, however, starts when doors open an hour earlier for a 7 pm reception, with grazing amongst the art works and wine hosted by Casa Torelli Imports.
Music & Conversations | Jack Rutberg Fine Arts | March 5