Being Judy Collins ~ at Levitt Pavilion Los Angeles
Jul
7
2015
Elizabeth Levitt Hirsch and her amazing team at Levitt Pavilions have outdone themselves. We so look forward to the free concert by folk-rock warbler Judy Collins in the shadow of the Los Angeles skyline. Bringing high-quality, family-friendly musical fare to our city park – Levitt Pavilion Los Angeles. Judy Collins | Levitt Pavilion Los Angeles ...
Hold onto your hats ~ here comes VPAC’s new season!
A new season at a performing arts center arrives as a list, perhaps just like any list. But if you pause to peruse the rich offerings on tap at Valley Performing Arts Center in the coming season, 2015-16, you’ll feel the fun. Arts energy that is fun, youthful, excellent and diverse will emanate from Cal ...
Jacaranda’s summer party supreme 2
The architectural space of Rachlin Partners in Culver City provided the backdrop for the annual summer party of contemporary classical music society, Jacaranda, on a splendid Sunday afternoon in June. Filling the airspace was the music of Prokofiev and Philip Glass delivered in a blazing mini-concert by string ensemble, Lyris Quartet. Following the concert, the ...
Review: Lucinda Childs’ “Available Light” @ Disney Hall 6
It was the silver-mesh curtain draped across Disney Hall’s “McFries” pipe organ that gave the performance its first “wow” moment. Almost as though architect/set designer Frank Gehry tossed a throw-rug over a messy sofa to ‘red up for the guests. But Gehry’s living room is none other than L.A.’s stellar fantastic transformational concert hall named ...
Bass-ic instinct
May
24
2015
How low can you go? Woodwind players Yoon-Hee Jung and Eric Jacobs gave that question a resonant response on bass flute and bass clarinet, respectively, with their sonorous underpinnings at “Fits & Starts.” The concert of stimulating contemporary classical music, much of it avant-garde, was presented by Jacaranda at the Villa Aurora on May 16. ...
Bill Graham, Ziegfeld of Aquarius 1
We pay over a hundred dollars for a decent seat at a Staples Center rock show without thinking twice, but it wasn’t always so. There had been rock events here and there as early as the late 1950s—Elvis at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium and the Beatles at Dodger Stadium—but they were occasional. Bill Graham (1931-1991) made ...
Jazz cooking at the Bakery, all ’round town
While the Jazz Bakery’s next, new home is being prepared in Culver City, Ruth Price books her floating concert series in some of the best listening venues around town. One of them is the Moss Theatre on the campus of the Herb Alpert Educational Village in Santa Monica. A horseshoe-shaped stage with wrap-around seating, fine ...
Herb Alpert’s twenty-one years of generous giving to artists
Herb Alpert, center, with the 2015 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts winners, from left, Maria Hassabi, Taylor Mac, Herb Alpert, Sharon Lockhart and Julia Wolfe. Absent because detained in Cuba: Tania Brugeura. On May 1, The Herb Alpert Foundation and California Institute of the Arts awarded the 21st annual Herb Alpert Award in the ...
Gloria Cheng’s solo flight @ Piano Spheres
Apr
17
2015
photo credit: Los Angeles Times We’ve cruised through many chamber-music concerts spellbound by the exceptional artistry of pianist Gloria Cheng whose nearly demonic devotion to contemporary classical music invariably ramps up the entire evening … and she only plays with the best. But we’ve never enjoyed the pleasure of the Great Gloria in solo concert. ...
Billie Holiday in Los Angeles: the blues were brewing 2
Billie Holiday and her dog Mister, New York, c. June 1946, William P. Gottleib One of the greatest jazz singers who ever lived had a small voice, never more than 15 notes at her disposal, and recorded many throwaway tunes. But Billie Holiday (1915-1959) was great by virtue of her sure-footed musical gifts: behind-the-beat phrasing, ...