Three ‘wows’ and ten years of arts leadership from Thor Steingraber 1

Architecture & Design · Dance · Ideas & Opinion · Music
ed. note: This story by arts journalist Debra Levine, commissioned by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is printed with permission. “Three wows” sold Thor Steingraber on The Soraya. Steingraber’s long interview process in the fall of 2013 and winter of 2014 to become top executive of Cal State Northridge’s newish theater ...

REVIEW: A well-heeded call for community: DIAVOLO’s ‘Existencia’

Architecture & Design · Dance · Music · Reviews
We all knew why we were there. We were there to remember and commemorate — most of us having lived through it. We were there to ruminate, and then, to thank our lucky stars. For, in the ashes of the January 17, 1994 Northridge Earthquake, a 6.7-magnitude tumbler that overturned the campus of Cal State ...

Big music by Sánchez/Alexa for big ‘Existencia’ choreography at The Soraya

Dance · Music
Ed. note: This story by Debra Levine was commissioned the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts. The spasms of explosive percussion that jump off the screen of Birdman, the Oscar-winning Best Picture of 2014, are the work of a brilliant and innovative musician: the Mexican-born drummer Antonio Sánchez. In the decade since that ...

Shaken but not deterred, Diavolo dancers to commemorate Northridge earthquake

Dance
jacques heim, artistic director, diavolo dance Ed. note: This story by Debra Levine, commissioned the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is republished with permission. On January 17, 1994, slumberers across the city of Los Angeles were awakened by a heaving jolt. It was 4:31 a.m. (This writer was hurled from bed to ...

Two new ‘now’ ballets in world premieres by Ballet BC at The Soraya

Dance
Ed. note: This story by Debra Levine, commissioned and published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is reprinted with permission. It is a big, hopeful, nervous-making, celebratory event when a ballet has its world premiere.  The preparation is immense, with many moving parts to orchestrate: choreography and rehearsals, of course, but ...

Double Grammy-awardee Samara Joy to front Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra at The Soraya

Music
Best wishes poured in from all around the world. But a special frisson of joy came from The Soraya Stage in Los Angeles. That’s because Sunday March 26 at 7 pm, the 23-year-old Wonder Woman Samara Joy, @samarajoysings), who (how can we put this calmly?) killed at the GRAMMY® Awards a month ago 🎉 will ...

Composer Inon Zur: symphonic scores for video games

Film · Music
noreen green, inon zur, emily bear (at piano)photo courtesy los angeles jewish symphony When The Grammys™ added a brand-new category earlier this year—‘Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media’—it was in acknowledgment of musical excellence. But it also had to do with business. Big business. In 2022, video gaming is primed to ...

A ‘Titan’ic debut for the Israel Philharmonic at The Soraya

Music
Ed. note: This story by arts journalist and artsmeme founder Debra Levine, commissioned and originally published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is reprinted with permission. An invitation to perform at the Berlin Festival is an unassailable honor for a symphony orchestra. But in 1971, it caused heated internal debate at ...

Martha Graham’s ode to nature, ‘Canticle,’ re-imagined for 21st-C

Dance · Music
jacob larsen, so young an, martha graham ‘moon’ ed. note: This story by dance critic Debra Levine, commissioned and published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is reprinted with permission. When Martha Graham premiered a new, full-company work with a poetic title, “Canticle for Innocent Comedians,” it was the Spring of ...

REVIEW: Count Basie Orchestra swingin’ at The Soraya 2

Music
by 
count basie orchestraphoto: luis luque for the soraya When the Count Basie Orchestra concert at the Younes and  Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts was cancelled for the COVID shutdown in March 2020, it was a bitter pill. When the cloud lifted, Soraya director Thor Steingraber declared that the match would no longer be ...