Sandoval Jazz Weekend – The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

January 26-28

Arturo Sandoval plays the trumpet, the piano and composes. This Cuban-American musician has 10 Grammy Awards, a Presidential Medal of Freedom and an Emmy Award…so far. For this weekend he is presenting some of the best young musicians he’s found amongst his world travels. He will also be headlining a sold out concert on Saturday night. If you were at the Hollywood Bowl for last summer’s La La Land in Concert events, he played the solo during the dream ballet sequence at those concerts. For more details, I’ll let Sandoval explain it himself:

Candide – LA Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

January 27 – February 18

This opera/operetta/musical (depending on when composer Leonard Bernstein talked about it) was not amongst his greatest successes. Nonetheless, in it he gave the world the lovely “Glitter and Be Gay” and “Make Your Garden Grow.” Of course, there’s also the overture which you can hear by click on the video just below. Kelsey Grammer and Christine Ebersole star in this production at LA Opera. Francesca Zambello directs and James Conlon conducts the orchestra. This production is part of the worldwide celebration of the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth.

The Operatic American Playwright – Boston Court Performing Arts Center

January 27th

This one night only concert features works from opera that were based on or inspired by the work of American playwrights. There will also be some popular songs reflective of the period as well. The event is timed to coincide with a new production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire that Boston Court will be presenting started February 15th. Soprano Amanda Squitieri, accompanied by Mark Robson on the piano, will explore a range of women created by not just by Williams, but also Lanford Wilson, Arthur Miller and others. A pre-performance chat will take place at 7:15 PM.

Herbie Hancock in Concert – Walt Disney Concert Hall

January 27th

Even though there are absolutely no details about what Herbie Hancock and his quartet will be performing, does it matter? The jazz legend, who serves as the Creative Chair for Jazz at the LA Philharmonic, has 14 Grammy Awards and has worked with such giants as Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson and Chick Corea. He also has an Academy Award for his work on ‘Round Midnight. Joining Hancock are Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, James Genus on bass, Terrace Martin on keyboards and sax and Elena Pinderhughes on flute and vocals.

The post This Weekend in LA (January 26-28) appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

For three nights two-time Tony Award nominee Mary Testa (On the Town and 42nd Street) and Broadway stars David Burnham (The Light in the Piazza) and Jessica Vosk (Fiddler on the Roof) will perform selections from Bernstein’s musicals including Wonderful Town, On the Town, Candide (soon to be performed by LA Opera) and, of course, West Side Story.

John Boswell will accompany on the piano and the cast will be joined by the California State University at Fullerton Chorus.

The post One Hand One Heart 100 Years of Bernstein appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

That experience and insight will come in handy on Friday night when Mauceri takes to the podium with the New West Symphony at the Valley Performing Arts Center in a program entitled Bernstein on Stage. The concert will focus on Bernstein’s music for such musicals as West Side Story, Wonderful Town, Candide, and On the Town. Mauceri, who was the Director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra from 1991-2006, spent 18 years working with the man his friends called “Lenny.”

“When you were with Leonard Bernstein,” Mauceri recalls, “that’s just where you wanted to be because he was a life force. He was fun and interesting and funny. He was one of the funniest people I ever knew. He would spend time as if you were equals. He made that clear when we first met in 1971-1972. He would ask my opinions as if we were equals. That unlocks your sense of security, that you are worthy of having those conversations.”

Much like his lyricist for West Side Story, Stephen Sondheim, Bernstein thrived on collaboration. “One of the reasons why Lenny generally enjoyed and flourished in musical theatre was because it was collaborative,” Mauceri says. “Most people don’t think about it but being a composer is a very solitary job. Lenny had a harder time being alone with himself and being alone from the very public world of conducting. When he wrote with Betty [Comden] & Adolph [Green] (Wonderful Town, On the Town) or with Jerry [Robbins], Arthur [Laurents] and Steve [Sondheim], this was a happy time.”

One show of Bernstein’s that failed spectacularly was the musical 1600 Pennyslvania Avenue. The show only ran for seven performances. Mauceri remembers a conversation just before Bernstein died about wanting to rework it. “He asked me to be the original music director and I was unable to do it. It was one of the rare times I had to say ‘no’ to him. The Thursday night before he passed away he talked about fixing 1600. I have a very personal commitment to it. It does contain some of the best music he ever wrote and some of the best and most interesting lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner.” [Music from this show will be performed at Friday’s concert.]

For all the positivity Mauceri referenced about his mentor, I had to ask about Hershey Felder’s depiction of Bernstein in Maestro as bitterly disappointed that he’d primarily be remembered for the melody to “Somewhere” in West Side Story.

“It’s just part of historical fiction,” Mauceri says. “I didn’t see the show. I never heard Leonard Bernstein say anything like that. I don’t think he was disappointed. He made choices that eliminated other aspects of his time. When he decided to become the New York Philharmonic Music Director just as West Side Story was opening, he made a decision that he would otherwise give to time writing his own music. He became committed to championing other people’s music. For a conductor it is our fundamental job. Part of our service as conductors is to support and perform music of other composers. His influence was a great, if not greater, because of his years with the NY Phil. I don’t think he was bitter about any of them.”

Bernstein once said “The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another…and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world.” What feeling does Bernstein’s music leave Mauceri with after all these years of up close and intimate contact and familiarity with it?

“The underlying goal that Leonard Bernstein had was uplift. It was very much inspired by his love for Beethoven whom he considered the greatest composer of all time. Every work ultimately is about that. Whether it is joyful and simple or complex, its goal is to unite the audience to make a better place. In any piece he may be arguing with God or politics, but all those arguments are lovers’ quarrels. They are not negativity for negativity’s sake. They are about ultimately uplifting an audience.”

Photo Courtesy of Columbia Artists Management Inc. (CAMI)

UPDATE:  Hershey Felder responded to my question about his depiction of Leonard Bernstein in “Maestro.” Here is the response he e-mailed:

My office has the habit of sending me articles that pop up on google alert that could be interesting to me, and I just received your article. Most wonderfully, I had the opportunity to see and then read many more of your wonderful articles, that are beautifully and thoughtfully written. Of course I write because of your mention of MAESTRO in which I suggest, not exactly that Bernstein was disappointed by people only remembering him for “Somewhere,” but really suggesting that he was extremely bitter  that he believed he would only be remembered for West Side Story, with “Somewhere” as an example. As Mr. Mauceri says, there is great importance in recognizing the “uplift” of Maestro Bernstein because of what you write about – what he stood for, and what he instigated and made possible for American musicians, music, and all musicians in general. I must say, I don’t know if the stories I was told about the Maestro’s bitterness at the end were fictional or not, despite having come from sources who claimed to have witnessed such outbursts. I was not present myself, and cannot confirm myself. But I can safely say this idea is not “historical fiction,” but in fact the way a good number of people close to the Maestro report how it was. It may not have been Mr. Mauceri’s experience, but that does not make it a “cultural historical fiction.” – Hershey Felder – November 15, 2017

The post John Mauceri Celebrates Leonard Bernstein’s Centenary appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

No doubt Mauceri will be following Bernstein’s own advice:  “I’m not interested in having the orchestra sound like itself. I want it to sound like the composer.”

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