Los Angeles Philharmonic Archives - Cultural Attaché https://culturalattache.co/tag/los-angeles-philharmonic/ The Guide to Arts and Culture events in and around Los Angeles Mon, 02 Dec 2024 04:44:57 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 BEST BETS: DECEMBER 2nd – DECEMBER 8th https://culturalattache.co/2024/12/01/best-bets-december-2nd-december-8th/ https://culturalattache.co/2024/12/01/best-bets-december-2nd-december-8th/#respond Mon, 02 Dec 2024 05:00:00 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=20898 Two streaming events, Czech music, Arnold Schoenberg and a celebration of Nina Simone are on this week's list.

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I hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Now it’s time for Best Bets: December 2nd – December 8th. And here they are:

Gavin Creel (Courtesy Polk PR)

GAVIN CREEL: WALK ON THROUGH – MetLive Arts YouTube Channel 

When I spoke with Gavin Creel last year he was so excited about putting a production of his musical Walk On Through in New York. He performed excerpts from it while in Los Angeles on the Into the Woods tour, but this would be the first full production. He had high hopes for its future.

Unfortunately, his life was cut tragically short this fall. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, who commissioned Walk On Through, has posted an early version of the show performed in 2021. It’s available for all to see and is a great reminder of how bright a star Creel was.

You can find the video HERE.

Also, a memorial service is taking place on December 2nd at 4 PM ET/1 PM PT. MCC Theater, where Walk On Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice, will livestream the service. You can watch it HERE.

Gil Shaham (Photo ©Chris Lee/Courtesy Opus 3 Artists)

2024 YEAR OF CZECH MUSIC – Carnegie Hall – New York, NY – December 2nd – December 7th

Any concert celebrating Czech music is certainly going to feature the work of Dvořák and this is no exception. There’s also music by Janáček, Smetana and more to be seen and heard.

The festival kicks off with a free concert at Bohemian National Hall featuring Young International Stars from the Czech Philharmonic Orchestral Academy, National Youth Orchestra of the US, Royal Academy of Music and the Czech Philharmonic. The program features two works by Dvořák plus music by Wynton Marsalis and Elgar.

Tuesday, December 3rd has cellist Yo-Yo-Ma joining the Czech Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall for a performance of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B Minor. Selections from Smetana’s Má vlast are also on the bill. Semyon Bychkov conducts.

On Wednesday, December 4th violinist Gil Shaham performs Dvořák’s Violin Concerto. Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 follows. This is also performed by the Czech Phil with Bychkov.

Thursday, December 5th pianist Daniil Trifonov is the soloist for Dvořák’s Piano Concerto. That is followed by Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass. Bychkov heads the Czech Philahrmonic for this show.

There are additional concerts as part of this fascinating program. And no performances of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 are on the bill making this an opportunity to hear much more of his music than is usually performed.

For tickets and more information for any or all of these concerts, please go HERE.

Arnold Schoenberg (Courtesy New York Public Library Archives)

SCHOENBERG AT 150 FESTIVAL – Los Angeles Philharmonic – Los Angeles, CA – December 3rd – December 15th

If you know Arnold Schoenberg’s music, it is probable that you know him for his twelve-tone compositions that required the use of each of the 12 notes of the scale equally rather than relying on just one or two notes to drive the composition.

His work was much more than that.

The breadth of his work will be on display in this festival that features an evening of his chamber music on December 3rd.

Verklärte NachtOp. 4 for string sextet opens the concert. His String Quartet No. 1 closes the concert.

Ten members of the LA Phil will be performing this including Bing Wang on violin. For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

December 13th and 15th, Zubin Mehta will conduct the LA Phil performing Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, a three-part oratorio for five soloists, narrator, orchestra and chorus. This is one of Schoenberg’s most impressive compositions and runs approximately 1 hour and 48 minutes.

The soloists are baritone Gabriel Manro, mezzo-soprano Violeta Urmana, soprano Christine Goerke and tenors Brandon Jovanovich and Gerhard Siegel. Dietrich Henschel is the narrator.

They will be joined by the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

Note: Schoenberg at 150 Festival resumes in February

Ingrid Jensen (courtesy SFJazz)

INGRID JENSEN QUARTET – SFJAZZ at Home – December 6th and 7th

This concert by trumpeter Ingrid Jensen originally took place at SFJAZZ on November 9th of this year. Members of their SFJAZZ at Home subscription can watch the concert on Friday, December 6th at 10:30 PM ET/10:30 PM PT and also on December 7th at 2:00 PM ET/11:00 AM PT.

Membership can be purchased either annually for $75 or monthly for $7.50. This gives you access to their library of live recordings from the SFJAZZ archives.

Jensen may be best known as a member of Artemis. She’s also performed with the Maria Schenider Orchestra and Darcy James Orchestra (if you don’t know them, stop what you’re doing an find their music now) and more.

For more information and to explore membership to SFJAZZ at Home, please go HERE.

Amber Iman (Photo by Andrew Shade/Courtesy Amber Man)

REBEL WITH A CAUSE: THE ARTISTRY AND ACTIVISM OF NINA SIMONE – 92nd Street Y – New York, NY – December 7-December 9th

For any fan of legendary singer/songwriter/activist Nina Simone, this is too good to miss. Amber Iman, who was nominated this year for her performance in the musical Lempicka, has teamed up with playwright Jocelyn Bioh (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding) for this show that is part of the 92nd Street Y’s Lyrics & Lyricists series.

Michael O. Mitchell, associate conductor of MJ The Musical, is the music director here for a show that will feature such Simone classics as My Baby Just Cares For Me, Feeling Good and Mississippi Goddam. Reggie D. White directs.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

That’s it for this week’s Best Bets: December 2nd – December 8th. Have a great week and go so a concert or a show!

Main Photo: Conductor Semyon Bychkov (Photo ©PetraHajska/Courtesy Enticott Music Management)

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BEST BETS: NOVEMBER 18th – NOVEMBER 24th https://culturalattache.co/2024/11/18/best-bets-november-18th-november-24th/ https://culturalattache.co/2024/11/18/best-bets-november-18th-november-24th/#respond Mon, 18 Nov 2024 17:00:00 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=20811 Two new Broadway musicals, a revival of a Sondheim classic, farewell to a violinist and more top this week's list

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I have six great options for you this week and you’ll need to act quickly to see one of them. So let’s get right to my Best Bets: November 18th – November 24th.

Gemma Pedersen, Adam Kaokept, Nina Kasuya, Kit DeZolt, Gedde Watanabe, Kerry K. Carnahan, Kavin Panmeechao, and Scott Keiji Takeda in “Pacific Overtures” (Photo by Teolindo/Courtesy East West Players)

PACIFIC OVERTURES – East West Players – Los Angeles, CA – Now – December 8th

This remarkable production of Stephen Sondheim’s challenging musical is not-to-be-missed. IF you can get a ticket. I have heard that the run is entirely sold out. THIS JUST IN: East West Players has added one more week! Get your tickets immediately and/or check the website to get tickets that may suddenly become available.

Set in 1853, Pacific Overtures looks at the arrival of Commodore Matthew C. Perry and how his being there leads to the opening of very isolationist Japan.

Jon Jon BrionesGedde Watanabe (who was in the original production in 1976), Scott Keiji Takeda, Brian Kim McCormick, Adam Kaokept lead an outstanding cast. Tim Dang directs,

Having seen the Roundabout revival in 2004, I can tell you this intimate production is vastly superior.

For tickets (fingers crossed) and more information, please go here

Martin Chalifour (Courtesy LA Philharmonic)

CELEBRATING 30 YEARS WITH MATIN CHALIFOUR – Los Angeles Philharmonic – Los Angeles, CA – November 19th

Violinist and Principal Concertmaster of the orchestra will be featured and celebrated in a chamber music concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

On the program are works by Astor Piazzolla, Amanda Harberg and Beethoven. There is also the world premiere of Duo by Celka Ojakangas.

Joining Chalifour for this concert are Kaelan Decman (bass) Mak Grgić (guitar); Taylor Eiffert (clarinet); Dahae Kim (cello); Evan Kuhlmann (bassoon); Joanne Pearce Martin (piano); Amy Jo Rhine (horn); Jenni Seo (viola) and Ben Ullery (viola.)

Chalifour is retiring at the end of the 2024/2025 season. This should be a great send-off for a very talented musician.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

LIFE & TIMES OF MICHAEL K – The Wallis – Bevelry Hills, CA – November 21st – November 24th

If you fell in love with the puppet horses in War Horse or were enraptured with Little Amal, you’ll want to check out Life & Times of Michael K. It is based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by JM Coetzee and features the incredible work from the artists at Handspring Puppet Company and Cape Town’s Baxter Theater.

Lara Foot adapted the novel and directed the show which is centered on one man’s efforts to bring his mother back to her hometown in South African before she dies. Critics have stumbled over themselves trying to find new superlatives to describe the magic of this production.

I haven’t seen it yet, but have seen numerous excerpts from it and it is truly incredible. Please go HERE to read my interview with Foot.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

SCAT!…THE COMPLEX LIVES OF AL & DOT, DOT & ALZOLLAR – Mark Taper Forum – Los Angeles, CA – November 22nd – November 24th

Dance company Urban Bush Women celebrates its 40th anniversary with this show inspired by director/creator/co-choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s experiences growing up in Kansas City’s Black neighborhoods. Vincent Thomas is co-choreographer.

Urban Bush Women’s main focus is on the stories of Black women. The work goes backwards and forwards in time. The story has its roots in the Great Migration and is not fully autobiographical. Scat! had its world premiere in June at Bard SummerScape.

This 90-minute work is having its West Coast premiere and features live music composed by Craig Harris. The website describes it as a “dance-driven jazz club experience,” so music will be key here. Zollar told the New York Times this would be her final work for Urban Bush Women.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Scat! will be performed at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York February 5th – February 8th.

Urban Bush Women will also be at the 92nd Street Y in New York City for two performances showcasing the company’s 40-year history. For tickets and more information for those two events on December 6th and 7th, please go here.

BROADWAY OPENINGS: SWEPT AWAY – Longacre Theatre – New York, NY- November 19th AND DEATH BECOMES HER  – Lunt-Fontanne Theatre – November 21st

John Gallagher, Jr. and the company of “Swept Away” (Photo by Emilio Madrid)

Two new musicals open this week starting with Swept Away, a musical written by The Avett Brothers and starring John Gallagher, Jr. (Spring Awakening), Stark Sands (Kinky Boots) and more. The show is directed by Michael Mayer and has a book by John Logan (Red).

This is a rarity for Broadway: a musical that is not based on a pre-existing work, but is wholly original.

The show is currently booked to run through May 25, 2025.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Jennifer Simard and Christopher Sieber in “Death Becomes Her” (Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

The 1992 movie Death Becomes Her is the inspiration for this musical with Megan Hilty (9 To 5), Jennifer Simard (Company) and Christopher Sieber (Company) in the roles played on screen by Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis.

Julia Mattison and Noel Carey wrote the  music and lyrics. The book is by Marco Pennette and the show is directed and choreographed by Christopher Gatteli. 

The show is also currently booked to run through May 25, 2025.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

That’s my list of the Best Bets: November 18th – November 24th. Have a great week!

Main Photo: Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard in Death Becomes Her (Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

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BEST BETS: NOVEMBER 11th – NOVEMBER 17th https://culturalattache.co/2024/11/10/best-bets-november-11th-november-17th/ https://culturalattache.co/2024/11/10/best-bets-november-11th-november-17th/#respond Mon, 11 Nov 2024 05:00:00 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=20722 Two new musicals open on Broadway, a film composer’s string quartets are showcased, a jazz legend celebrates his 80th and new music is presented over 12 hours in Los Angeles. These are the events selected for this week’s BEST BETS: November 11th – November 17th. You will also be able to livestream two of these […]

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Two new musicals open on Broadway, a film composer’s string quartets are showcased, a jazz legend celebrates his 80th and new music is presented over 12 hours in Los Angeles. These are the events selected for this week’s BEST BETS: November 11th – November 17th. You will also be able to livestream two of these events from wherever you live.

Here are this week’s BEST BETS: November 11th – November 17th:

James Monroe Iglehart and company in “What a Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical” (Photo ©Jeremy Daniel)

A WONDERFUL WORLD: THE LOUIS ARMSTRONG MUSICAL – Studio 54 – New York, NY – Opening Night November 11th – May 4th

James Monroe Iglehart, who won a Tony Award for his performance as the Genie in Aladdin The Musical, takes on the role of legendary musician/singer/actor Louis Armstrong. He’s also the co-director (along with Christopher Renshaw and Christina Sajous) of this musical.

Armstrong’s life and career is certainly worthy of a musical.

He was a truly groundbreaking artist on so many levels. I hope this musical does him justice.

Aurin Squire wrote the book. Branford Marsalis and Daryl Waters did the arrangements and orchestrations of the music.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Calidore String Quartet (Photo by Kevin Condon/ Courtesy Calidore String Quartet and Death of Classical)

CALIDORE STRING QUARTET: KORNGOLD’S COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS  – Zipper Hall/Colburn School – Los Angeles, CA – November 12th Livestream Available                

Composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold is perhaps best known for some of Hollywood’s greatest film scores. This includes The Adventures of Robin HoodThe Sea HawkKings Row and Captain Blood.

But like many an early immigrant film composer, classical music was also part of his writing.

At this concert audiences will get a chance to hear all three of the string quartets composed by Korngold.

Calidore String Quartet began its life at the Colburn School 14 years ago. They are: Jeremy Berry on viola; Estelle Choi on cello; Ryan Meehan on violin and Jeffrey Myers on violin.

For more information and in-person tickets, please go here. For livestream tickets, please go here.

George Cables (Photo © Roberto Cifarelli/Courtesy George Cables)

GEORGE CABLES QUARTET “80th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION” – Smoke Jazz Club – New York, NY – November 13th – November 17th Livestream Available

Pianist George Cables, who was Art Pepper’s favorite pianist, performed with Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Sonny Rollins, Sarah Vaughn and so many more, celebrates his 80th birthday with 12 sets at Smoke Jazz Club.

Joining Cables are Essiet Essiet on bass, Craig Handy on tenor saxophone and Jerome Jennings on drums.

Cables remains an active artist and has two new singles released recently: Echo of a Scream and You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To. For those who don’t know Cables, I strongly suggest you check out these shows and his recordings.

Both the 7 PM EST and 9 PM EST sets on Friday, November 15th, will be available for livestreaming. They will remain accessible for 48 hours after the performance.

For more information and in-person tickets, please go here. For livestream tickets for the 7 PM set, please go here. For livestream tickets for the 9 PM set, please go here.

Katie Brayden and Christian Boyle in “Tammy Faye” (Photo by Matthew Murphy)

TAMMY FAYE – Palace Theatre – New York, NY – Opening Night November 14th – March 30th

If you’re like me, you wonder who wants to see a musical about Tammy Faye Bakker. You then wonder who would write a musical about her.

Then you read a little further down and realize Elton John and Jakes Shears (Scissor Sisters) have written this new musical which prompted Matt Wolf, writing in the New York Times after the show debuted in London to rave, “Praise the lord for Tammy Faye…the show has a heart as big as the title character’s bouffant hairdo.” If anyone can put an entertaining spin on the late evangelist, it would be Elton and Shears.

Katie Brayben once again plays Tammy Faye. Christian Borle plays Jim Bakker and Michael Cerveris plays Jerry Falwell. Rupert Goold directs and the book is by James Graham.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

“Ellen Reid Soundwalk” (Photo by Erin Baiano/Courtesy EllenReidMusic.com)

NOON TO MIDNIGHT: FIELD RECORDINGS – Walt Disney Concert Hall – Los Angeles, CA – November 16th

The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s  annual festival of new music does live up to its name – it runs for 12 hours. Within those twelve hours is a full day of contemporary music performed by a wide range of artists.

Curated by Ellen Reid, this year’s festival will include performances of music by Doug Aitken (sold out), Raven Chacon, Ted Hearne, Annea Lockwood, Marc Lowenstein, Missy Mazzoli, Andrew McIntosh, Angélica Negron, Andrew Norman, Tomeka Reid, Gabriella Smith and dozens more. There will also be a tribute to composer Sarah Gibson who passed away in July.

All events take place in and around the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

That’s all for Best Bets: November 11th – November 17th. Enjoy your week and go out and see a concert or a show!

Main Photo: George Cables (Photo ©Roberto Cifarelli/Courtesy George Cables)

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BEST BETS: OCTOBER 28th – NOVEMBER 3rd https://culturalattache.co/2024/10/28/best-bets-october-28th-november-3rd/ https://culturalattache.co/2024/10/28/best-bets-october-28th-november-3rd/#respond Mon, 28 Oct 2024 07:01:00 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=20676 MasterVoices opens their season with a concert version of the Gershwin's Strike Up the Band

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Welcome back to Cultural Attaché and to our Best Bets: October 28th – November 3rd. For this week’s Best Bets I have for you two plays (one of which is a world premiere), a concert presentation of a Gershwin musical, a celebration of Día de los Muertos and a documentary about the making of a John Adams opera.

Here are my Best Bets: October 28th – November 3rd:

South Coast Repertory’s “Joan” (Courtesy South Coast Repertory)

JOAN – South Coast Repertory – Costa Mesa, CA – Now – November 24th

Playwright Daniel Goldstein’s play, having its world premiere at SCR, is about Joan Rivers. The play looks at both the professional and personal life of the woman who made outrageous jokes and suffered enormous tragedies.

Tessa Auberjonois, who has appeared in nearly a dozen other productions at South Coast Rep, takes on the dual roles of Joan and Mrs. Molinsky. Andrew Borba plays multiple roles including Dr. Molinsky, Edgar Rosenberg and Johnny Carson. Elinor Gunn plays Melissa (her daughter) and Young Joan. Zachary Prince plays at least five roles including Jimmy, Blake, Harold and Chet.

David Ivers directs. Opening night is November 1st. The show is recommended for audiences age 16 and older.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Brad Koed in “A Streetcar Named Desire” (Photo by WallsTrimble)

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE – Frogtown area of Los Angeles – October 28th – October 30th/Venice, CA – November 1st – November 3rd

Tennessee Williams’ classic play has been performed more times around the world than one could possibly calculate. So there must be something unique about this production to warrant inclusion in our best bets. And there is.

Four actors, without a set or props, perform the unabridged text of A Streetcar Named Desire in unique locations. These are fully realized performances, not a reading. By all accounts of previous performances on the East Coast, this is a production not-to-be-missed.

Williams’ poetic language will be front and center in this production. Might it lead to a new understanding of Streetcar? There’s only one way to find out. 

Co-creator Lucy Owen plays Blanche DuBois. Brad Koed is Stanley Kowalski. Mallory Portnoy is Stella DuBois. James Russell plays Harold Mitchell. Co-creator Nick Westrate directs.

For tickets and more information for the Frogtown dates, please go here. For the Venice dates, please go here.

Gordon Smith and Doris Carson in a scene from the 1930 Broadway production of “Strike Up the Band” (Courtesy New York Public Library Archives)

STRIKE UP THE BAND – MasterVoices – Carnegie Hall – New York, NY –  October 29th

George and Ira Gershwin’s 1927 musical had a rocky start. It played in Philadelphia but didn’t make it to Broadway until 1930 when the original book, by George S. Kaufman, was revised by Morrie Ryskind. Many songs appear in both versions, but there are differences.

MasterVoices Artistic Director Ted Sperling has collaborated with writer Laurence Maslon to create a new version which combines “the best of the 1927 and 1930 version for the show.”

Joining MasterVoices are Shereen Ahmed, Phillip Attmore, Victoria Clark, Lissa deGuzman, Claybourne Elder, Christopher Fitzgerald, Bryce Pinkham and David Pittu.

This is precisely the kind of one night only events in New York that makes any serious fan of musical theater and/or the Gershwins wished they lived there.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Tambuco Percussion Ensemble (Courtesy Los Angeles Philharmonic)

DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS WITH DUDAMEL – Walt Disney Concert Hall – Los Angeles, CA –  November 1st – November 3rd

Latin American music is on the program for these three concerts celebrating Día de Muertos. 

Brazilian composer Villa-Lobos’ Chôros No. 10, “Rasga o Coração” opens the concert. That is followed by Yanga by Gabriela Ortiz – a work that was commissioned by the LA Phil and had its world premiere performance in 2019.

The second half of the program, and my personal favorite, is La noche de los Mayas by Silvestre Revueltas.

Joining Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic are the Tambuco Percussion Ensemble and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Paul Appleby and J’Nai Bridges in rehearsal with Peter Sellars (courtesy PBS)

LAND OF GOLD – PBS Great Performances – November 1st (check local listings)

This is a behind-the-scenes documentary into the premiere of John Adams’ opera Girls of the Golden West which has a libretto by Peter Sellars. The premiere took place at San Francisco Opera in November 2017.

Appearing in this 90-minute documentary are Adams, Sellars and singers Paul Appleby, J’Nai Bridges and Julia Bullock.

The world premiere of any opera is a daunting task. This documentary allows viewers to get a sense of how demanding it is, particularly when you are putting a more honest spin on a part of history.

Check your local listings or go to PBS.org to watch Land of Gold.

That completes my Best Bets: October 28th – November 3rd. Enjoy your week!

Main Photo: Concept art for MasterVoices’ Strike Up the Band (Courtesy MasterVoices)

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Do You Know Silvestre Revueltas and His Music? https://culturalattache.co/2024/10/25/do-you-know-silvestre-revueltas-and-his-music/ https://culturalattache.co/2024/10/25/do-you-know-silvestre-revueltas-and-his-music/#respond Fri, 25 Oct 2024 21:35:59 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=20671 "La noche de los Mayos" and "Redes" are two of Revueltas' major works and film scores.

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Just in time for Día de Muertos, the Los Angeles Philharmonic is offering up two concerts that will showcase the work of Mexican composer/film composer Silvestre Revueltas.

Beginning tonight, the LA Phil is performing An Evening of Film & Music: From Mexico to Hollywood. The program, curated by John Williams and Gustavo Dudamel, features primarily Mexican composers in the first half. The lone exception is the Tribute to Mario Moreno (Cantiflas) composed by Maurice Ravel (Bolero as it was used in the film El Bolero de Raquel).

The Revueltas music includes music from two film scores that rank amongst his most popular compositions: La noche de los Mayos which is from a 1939 film of the same name and Music from Redes, a 1935 film co-directed by Fred Zinnemann and Emilio Gómez Muriel. Zinnemann is best known for such films as From Here to Eternity and High Noon.

When listening to the music of Revueltas you hear, in my opinion, the future and the past of Mexico. You can hear references to the earliest people there, but also a reaching forward to something new. In both the orchestration and the composition itself, Revueltas offers a soundscape that is wholly original and unlike anything being used for film at the time.

In 1999, the Los Angeles Philharmonic released a recording of Revueltas’ music. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted. This is well-worth checking out as an introduction to Revueltas’ utterly compelling and fascinating music. Amongst the highlights are Sensemayá and Ventanas for Large Orchestra.

The second half features more familiar scores by George Gershwin (An American in Paris), Maurice Jarre (Dr. Zhivago), Leonard Roseman (East of Eden), Miklós Rózsa (Double Indemnity) and Max Steiner (Now Voyager, Casablanca).

If you find yourself at one of this weekend’s concerts and want to hear more of La noche de los Mayos, the entire composition will be performed by the LA Phil with Dudamel in Día de Los Muertos with Dudamel beginning on November 1st.

Also on the program is Villa-Lobos’ Chôros No. 10, “Rasga o Coração, a work for chorus and orchestra by the Brazilian composer. Immediately following that will be Gabriela Ortiz‘s Yanga which the LA Phil premiered in 2019.

Revueltas did not live a long life (he passed away at the age of 40). In addition to being a composer, he was an acclaimed violinist, he fought in Spain during the Spanish Civil War and he was a conductor. He composed over 40 significant works (much of which should still be recorded) ranging from piano solos, orchestral work, ballet scores and songs.

I hope this is the beginning of a greater exploration of Silvestre Revueltas and his music. There is so much here that is begging to be heard and there’s no better way to hear it than to hear it live.

I’ll be at each of these concerts and encourage you to do the same.

Photo: John Williams and Gustavo Dudamel (Courtesy Los Angeles Philharmonic)

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Maestra Elim Chan and Her Big July https://culturalattache.co/2024/07/03/maestra-elim-chan-and-her-big-july/ https://culturalattache.co/2024/07/03/maestra-elim-chan-and-her-big-july/#respond Wed, 03 Jul 2024 21:05:00 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=20615 "My dream is to find an orchestra, a place where we can do some crazy things and grow together, fly together."

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Conductor Elim Chan has had remarkable success since being named the first woman to win the Donatella Flick Conducting competition ten years ago. This month Chan is realizing two big dreams: to open the classical music season at the Hollywood Bowl and to conduct the First Night of the Proms in London at Royal Albert Hall. Not too bad for a young girl who years ago was inspired by Mickey Mouse in Fantasia.

The July 9th concert at the Hollywood Bowl finds Chan conducting the same piece that led to her winning the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. The July 19th First Night of the Proms concert will open with Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks Overture and close with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.

Earlier this week I spoke with Chan about these two concerts and what they mean to her, her evolving relationship with Scheherazade and what new dreams she has as she moves forward with her career.

What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview with Chan, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: Could the young girl who responded so passionately to the image of Mickey Mouse conducting in Fantasia have ever imagined these two big concerts for herself?

Absolutely not. Even though as a young girl I think I had quite a crazy imagination. Of course I have dreams. But this kind of dream, the Hollywood Bowl, it’s already very cool. And to think I’m going to start the classical season! Then the Proms is basically like a unicorn. To conduct the Proms on the first night – the biggest summer festival in the UK and famous one in the world? It’s more than a dream come true.

What was your first experience conducting the Proms, and how do you think this one will be different? 

The first time that I conducted the Proms was an amazing experience because the Royal Albert Hall, it’s a very different concert hall. You really feel that you’re in sort of like a stadium. You have the audience standing at your feet and you can literally touch them or they can touch you. The feeling of how the audience cheered for you and they really are so involved. That’s really quite something I never experienced anywhere else. That was such a huge honor. I felt like a rock star.

To know that this concert was like one of the first ones to be sold out; the tickets were gone the moment it went out there. I don’t know, I’m going to just stay open and let this just be a surprise.

We often hear about how conductors think about music. What do you think is unique about the way you hear music – whether you’re reading a score or when you’re conducting an orchestra? 

I think that’s a very interesting question. Conducting is so cool in the sense that I have this concept in my head, this story, a narrative or some sort of sound soundscape the moment I start opening a score. It starts. I can hear it. I can play it on the piano and then it builds this world that I’m hearing or envisioning.

When I’m on stage with the orchestra, I have to compare what I’m hearing with this vision in my head and then have to bring it closer. Sometimes, actually, what I’m hearing is nicer than what I thought. It’s like a constant synergy of both worlds. It’s, in a way, like a tango, right? Of course, I’m the conductor and I want to mold it in the end that we arrive at the vision that we’re all happy about.

I interviewed conductor Simone Young four years ago, and she told me that, “Everything comes from the written page. I spend hours and hours studying scores, but also studying manuscripts. References. I want to get as much info about the thought process and the work process.” Do you think there can be a definitive understanding of a composer’s thought process? Or will it always be open to interpretation?

I think the second. I also do the same. I want to really put myself back in the time, in the context. This is really, I feel, like investigative work. There’s like a crime scene. Something happened. Okay, what really happened? You can collect evidence. You can talk to people who think they saw the thing happened. But each perspective is different. Then collecting all these things and then I try to build an interpretation of what exactly happened because no one actually really knows. And I think this is so cool. That’s the beauty of it, that there’s really not one right way. We’re all interpreters in that sense.

At the Proms, you’re going to be conducting probably one of the top five best known compositions in the history of the world: Beethoven’s Fifth. With a work so familiar to audiences and so familiar to the musicians, how do you think your approach to it might be the only one that you, as an individual, could have imagined? 

Well, there’s only one Elim, right? In that sense. It will be my interpretation of it. One thing that came out from this whole crazy time, and we’re still in some crazy times, is that I really want to give this life experience to everyone who is there. That you need to be there to experience that because it only happens once.

Beethoven Five is so familiar. And the audience thinks they know, too. The world is so messed up with wars happening everywhere and we get to make music and to celebrate first night of the Proms. The beginning of Beethoven Five is like a moment to really express something that fuels it to become a Beethoven Five that is fresh and happening now.

How often do you surprise yourself in the middle of a concert?

A lot. I laugh actually when mistakes happen because that shocks everyone. I love those very raw like a minute or two and everyone is like, wait, what? Oh no. And everyone’s awareness is insane, right? I love these waking up moments.

That sounds like a jazz musician, not a classical musician. Because a jazz musician moves past the mistakes and who knows where it leads them? I bring that up because I was very surprised to see a list of the five most important works for you and Bill Evans is on your list. What inspires you most about Bill Evans and do you see a way in which the way Bill Evans created and performed music that inspires the way you create and perform music?

He’s such an immense pianist and musician and it’s not ever the same. This is something I really want to take into a Beethoven Five or a Clara Schumann or Handel, Bruckner. I’m going to just take this opportunity and just really bring in that spirit. I think we can learn so much from all the other genres.

Note: First Night of the Proms includes performances of Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto by Isata Kanneh-Mason and Bruckner’s Psalm.

You’ll be leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. Music director Gustavo Dudamel is set to leave soon. if the L.A. Philharmonic came to you and asked if you would like to be the next music director, what would be the first thing that you would think? 

That’s another unicorn. And then I’ll start doing a happy dance. I will probably be like, unbelievable. You know what? If that happens…thank you and let’s get to work. I want to be as ready as possible They are one of the most adventurous, curious, orchestras institutions in the world. They take chances, they take risks, and they can afford to do it. So yeah. Let’s see.

At the Hollywood Bowl you will be revisiting Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. How was your relationship to this particular composition evolved in the ten years since your winning the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition?

The piece has a very special place in my heart. It’s the piece that jump started my career. Ten years ago I was the first woman to win the competition in London. And now ten years later, I’m still the only woman to have done that. And I’m like, hey girls, where are you guys?

Talking about the piece itself, it’s literally about a woman having to stand up for herself every night telling stories, and if she doesn’t tell a good story, she gets killed. I’ve done this piece again and again and I really feel very like I identify myself with her – Scheherazade. Each time I do the piece I get more brave. I’m more convinced that we really need to be strong. My interpretation is like a steady slow cook. It takes more flavor. Every time I go back to it, I still see something new and I want to try something new so I can tell the story in different ways. I really love the fact that this piece lends itself for that. 

Rimsky-Korsakov is quoted as having said, “I had no idea of the historical evolution of the civilized world’s music, and had not realized that all modern music owes everything to Bach.” Do you agree that all modern music, even today, owes everything to Bach? 

Wow, what a statement! I think a lot of it, yes. I always believe that we all need to actually understand what happened in the past, especially Bach as such a master. To really understand what the traditions [were] that came before. Then you can decide to keep it or break it. All the greats follow Bach. If you look back, Brahms, Beethoven, everyone basically comes from there.

We started the conversation by my asking you if you could have imagined opening the classical season at the Hollywood Bowl and then opening the BBC Proms in London. That seems like a dream come true. But everybody has to have new dreams as well. What dreams do you have beyond what this July is going to offer you?

My dream is to find an orchestra, a place where we can do some crazy things and grow together, fly together. Another dream of mine actually will come true is that I finally can do some opera. I came from voice choirs and so I love theater, I love drama. So what’s better than actually opera to have all these elements coming together? This is like in two years. There are crazy dreams to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, all this stuff. Sometimes I put a dream and then things like the First Night of the Proms comes in. So in a way, I’m like, life – come on, surprise me.

To view the full interview with Elim Chan, please go here.

All Photos: Elim Chan (Photo ©Simon Pauly/Courtesy for artists)

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12 Hollywood Bowl Concerts Not To Miss This Summer https://culturalattache.co/2024/06/26/12-hollywood-bowl-concerts-not-to-miss-this-summer/ https://culturalattache.co/2024/06/26/12-hollywood-bowl-concerts-not-to-miss-this-summer/#respond Wed, 26 Jun 2024 20:12:17 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=20569 From classical music to jazz to show tunes to film scores - this season has it all

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Usually as the summer gets underway, I post the ten Hollywood Bowl Concerts not to miss. But this is quite a good year for concerts at Los Angeles’ beloved outdoor venue. So this year it is 12 Hollywood Bowl Concerts Not to Miss.

Here are the twelve concerts I think warrant a journey to the Hollywood Bowl this summer:

Harry Connick, Jr. (Photo by Erik Kabik Photography/Courtesy HarryConnickJr.com)

JULY FOURTH FIREWORKS SPECTACULAR WITH HARRY CONNICK, JR. – July 2nd – July 4th

If you’ve never experienced a fireworks show at the Hollywood Bowl, you clearly don’t know what you’re missing. This year’s headliner for the annual July 4th concerts is Harry Connick, Jr.

His most recent album centered on songs of faith, but I would expect this concert to focus more on the material he’s best known for which are jazz standards and songs from the Great American Songbook.

Thomas Wilkins leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in these three concerts.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

For those not in the Los Angeles area, he’ll be performing at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park in San Diego on July 6th; Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA on July 9th and 10th and at Chateau Ste. Michelle in Woodinville, WA on July 12th and 13th. These are the only dates on his schedule right now.

George Gershwin (Courtesy New York Public Library Archives)

ALL- GERSHWIN – July 11th

Who could ask for anything more than pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, opera’s Isabel Leonard and Broadway star Tony Yazbeck in an evening of songs and music by George Gershwin?

The program opens with the Cuban Overture and is then followed by Variations on “I Got Rhythm. Leonard and Yazbeck conclude the first half with selections of Gershwin’s songs.

The second act features Thibaudet playined Rhapsody in Blue and closes with An American In Paris.

Lionel Bringuier conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Hollywood Bowl 2022 (Photo by Craig L. Byrd)

MAESTRO OF THE MOVIES: THE MUSIC OF JOHN WILLIAMS AND MORE – July 12th – July 14th

This annual celebration of all things John Williams will be a little different. Yes, Williams curated the program utilizing his own music and many classic scores he loves from the Golden Age, but he will not be appearing this year.

Williams had to cancel all upcoming appearances due to a health issue “from which he is expected to make a full recovery.” Does that mean light sabers won’t be at the ready for the inevitable selections of music from Star Wars? Of course not. 

David Newman, who regularly conducts the first half of these concerts each year, will be conducting the full program.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Maria Schneider (photo by Kyra Kverno/Courtesy Maria Schneider)

BIG BAND NIGHT – July 17th

If you love large ensemble jazz music, this concert is for you. The evening opens with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra (who have made countless appearances at the Hollywood Bowl).

Next up is The Count Basie Orchestra who will feature vocalist Nnenna Freelon. 

The headliner is the Maria Schneider Orchestra which is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Earlier this year Maria Schneider released a 3-lp vinyl box set entitled Decades. You can’t stream that recording, you can only get it here. But you can hear this incredible artist and her musicians live. This is her only US appearance until September.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Kevin John Edusei (Photo by Marco Borggreve)

STRAVINSKY & KHACHATURIAN – July 30th

I’ve written before how Aram Khachaturian’s music isn’t performed often enough. As they did in the Walt Disney Concert Hall this season, the LA Philharmonic is breathing new life into his work in this program that features the composer’s Violin Concerto and the Spartacus Suite No. 2.  Martin Chalifour is the soloist for the concerto.

The concert closes with the 1919 version of Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite. Kevin John Edusei conducts.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Ryan Bancroft (Photo by B. Ealovega/Courtesy Intermusica)

PROKOFIEV & SHOSTAKOVICH – August 6th

One of my top five piano concerti of the entire repertoire is being performed by Denis Kozhukhin in this concert. It is Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26. (My favorite recording of it is by Martha Argerich.)

The second half of the program is Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10. The work was completed the same year that Joseph Stalin died and is widely interpreted as the composer’s commentary on the brutality of the Soviet government during Stalin’s reign. It’s a big and powerful symphony.

Ryan Bancroft leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Head Hunters Album Cover (Courtesy HerbieHancock.com)

HERBIE HANCOCK HEAD HUNTERS 50th – August 14th

Where were you on October 26, 1973? Maybe you remember the release of Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters which is considered amongst the best jazz-fusion/jazz-funk albums of all time.

Watermelon Man may not be a title recognize, but I guarantee you the music has burrowed its way into your soul. 

This is the ONLY reunion of Hancock with the surviving members of that record:  drummer Harvey Mason; saxophonist Bennie Maupin and percussionist Bill Summers.  Playing bass is Marcus Miller as original bassist Paul Jackson passed away in 2021.

The original four-track album runs less than 45 minutes. Which means there will be a whole lot more music performed by Hancock and his bandmates.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Joshua Bell (Photo ©Richard Ascroft/Courtesy Primo Artists)

THE ELEMENTS WITH JOSHUA BELL – August 15th

Joshua Bell commissioned five composers to write individual movements based on the elements: Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Space.  Those composers are Kevin Puts, Edgar Meyer, Jennifer Higdon, Jake Heggie and Jessie Montgomery.

Bell performs the work with Rodolfo Barráez conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Also on the program are Aaron Copland’s El Salón México, which opens the concert and Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story  which closes the concert.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Sara Bareilles in “Into the Woods” (Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)

SARA BAREILLES WITH THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL ORCHESTRA – August 17th

What at one point years ago might have seemed like a pop concert, is now pure heaven for musical theater lovers. Sara Bareilles is a three-time Tony Award nominee having received two nominations for Best Original Score (Waitress in 2016 and SpongeBob SquarePants in 2018) and for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for the 2023 revival of Into the Woods.

Of course, she’ll perform music from throughout her career and this is her only concert on her schedule until late September.

But wait, there’s more. Tony Award winner Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton) will open the show.

Thomas Wilkins conducts the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Igor Stravinsky (Photo courtesy New York Public Library Archives)

THE RITE OF SPRING – August 22nd

The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky is one of classical music’s most important and enduring works. Hearing this monumental work outside is reason enough to see this concert. But fans of Stravinsky’s music are in for a full evening of his genius.

Teddy Abrams, Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra, conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a concert that opens with Stravinsky’s arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner. His Circus Polka follows and the first half closes with Leila Josefowicz performing his Violin Concerto. Then the main attraction is on tap for the second half of the program.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Dashon Burton (Photo by Hunter Hart/Courtesy Colbert Artists)

DUDAMEL LEADS BEETHOVEN 9th – September 10th

Not sure what else anyone needs to know beyond Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. But here goes:

The soloists for this concert are bass Dashon Burton; mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey; tenor Anthony León; countertenor Key’mon Murrah and soprano Hera Kyesang Park. The Los Angeles Master Chorale also performs.

The concert opens with Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Jonas Kaufmann (Photo ©Gregor Hohenberg/Sony Music)

DUDAMEL AND THE STARS OF OPERA – September 12th

I couldn’t tell you the last time tenor Jonas Kaufmann performed in Los Angeles, but I can tell you the next time he will – at this concert where he will be joined by soprano Diana Damrau.

The two will perform selected arias and duets.

The concert opens with Verdi’s Overture to I vespri sicilliani which is followed by the ever-popular Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana by Mascagni. Respighi’s Pines of Rome closes the concert.

Gustavo Dudamel leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Those are the 12 Hollywood Bowl Concerts Not to Miss in my opinion. What concerts are on the top of your list? Let me know in the comments.

Main Photo: Hollywood Bowl 2023 (Photo by Craig L. Byrd)

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Thank You, Michael Tilson Thomas https://culturalattache.co/2024/03/28/thank-you-michael-tilson-thomas/ https://culturalattache.co/2024/03/28/thank-you-michael-tilson-thomas/#respond Thu, 28 Mar 2024 18:17:20 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=20246 This evening, I will be attending a concert at the Los Angeles Philharmonic where conductor/composer Michael Tilson Thomas will lead the orchestra in the first of three performances of Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. This would put me on a path to have scene MTT, as he is commonly known, leading an orchestra at least two […]

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Michael Tilson Thomas (Photo by Brigitte Lacombe)

This evening, I will be attending a concert at the Los Angeles Philharmonic where conductor/composer Michael Tilson Thomas will lead the orchestra in the first of three performances of Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.

This would put me on a path to have scene MTT, as he is commonly known, leading an orchestra at least two dozen times. Given that he has been battling brain cancer, I am taking every possible opportunity to see him. Let me explain why.

When I was five-year-old we had an organ in the house. My father apparently played it a bit, but it had become neglected and was occupying space. My mother proclaimed, “Someone is going to learn to play that organ or we’re getting rid of it.”

My sister had just been born, my brother was 3 and I was five. Doing the math, it become painfully obvious that I was the target of that comment. So, to music lessons I went. 

While I enjoyed the positive attention I got whenever a lesson went well or I performed at a recital, I began to grow weary of music and music lessons by the time I was ten.

Enter Michael Tilson Thomas who, beginning in 1971, was hosting the New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts. I was able to see those broadcasts and it gave me renewed purpose in studying music. The generation before me had Leonard Bernstein. I had Michael Tilson Thomas.

I looked forward to each broadcast so I could get more inspiration and to hear more music. Tilson Thomas made me want to study music and do better at the piano. 

Until I didn’t…

It wasn’t that I lost interest in what Tilson Thomas was offering. It was that I realized the dream I was chasing wasn’t my own. 

But that passion for classical music (and frankly music of all genres) has never waned. Have you heard the incredible live recording Tilson Thomas, the Los Angeles Philaharmonic and Sarah Vaughan did of Gershwin’s music? If not, you must check it out.

If anything, by choosing not to make it my career, it has only deepened. It’s one of the reasons I launched Cultural Attaché – to hopefully interest and inspire others to explore all that the performing arts has to offer.

I’ve never had the chance to meet or interview Michael Tilson Thomas. I expect that the opportunity to do so is not likely. 

Whenever I would meet someone who has worked with Tilson Thomas, I would ask for stories about those collaborations. One such friend, Chris Van Ness, was at USC at the same time as MTT. He told me about musicals where MTT was the pianist. 

Through interviews with musicians, I would hear tidbits about him as a conductor. What he is like off-stage. His deep passion for music and more.

That passion has been abundantly clear in every performance I’ve ever seen of his. Whether it was Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra or a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 or some of his own music (notably Meditations on Rilke.)

Michael Tilson Thomas (Photo by Deborah Robison/Courtesy 21C Media Group)

It is my profound hope that Michael Tilson Thomas knowns the incredible impact he’s had, not just on my own life, but on millions of others who found his knowledge and communication skills invaluable throughout the years.

He is quoted as having said, “The world changes when there’s music in it.” My world changed because MTT was in it. For that I will be forever grateful.

Thank you, Michael Tilson Thomas. I’ll see you tonight.

Main Photo: Michael Tilson Thomas (Photo by Deborah Robison/Courtesy 21C Media Group)

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Composer/Pianist Timo Andres Is Having a Week https://culturalattache.co/2024/03/19/composer-pianist-timo-andres-is-having-a-week/ https://culturalattache.co/2024/03/19/composer-pianist-timo-andres-is-having-a-week/#respond Tue, 19 Mar 2024 23:53:26 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=20197 "I've always felt myself to be specifically an American composer."

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Composer/Pianist Timo Andres (Courtesy Colbert Artists Management)

Call it good timing or a lucky alignment of circumstances. But given that very little is just pure luck anymore, I’ll suggest that composer/pianist Timo Andres and his team knew exactly what they were doing when they lined up the release of a new album on Nonesuch Records, the world premiere of his fifth piano concerto, Made of Tunes, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and his perform with five other pianists at Walt Disney Concert Hall of the 20 etudes by Philip Glass. All in one week.

On March 19th, Andres joins fellow pianists Anton Batagov, Lara Downes, Jenny Lin and Maki Namekawa to perform Glass’ Etudes 1-20. On March 22nd, Nonesuch Records releases The Blind Banister. That’s Andres’ recording of his third piano concerto. it also includes his Colorful History and Upstate Obscura. That same day the Los Angeles Philharmonic will give the world premiere of Made of Tunes which Andres composed for pianist Aaron Diehl. John Adams conducts all three performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

That gave me plenty to discuss with Andres when we spoke last week. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To watch the full interview with Timo Andres, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: Made of Tunes was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and you composed it with Aaron Diehl in mind as the soloist. What are the qualities that Aaron Diehl possesses as a pianist that most influenced how and what you composed for him? 

That’s a great question. Whenever I write a piece for anyone, I’m trying to think of their specific qualities as a performer and how I can sort of highlight those and work with those and bring them out. In the case of Aaron, I’ve known him about a decade now. I’ve heard him play many, many times. His sound and his style was very much in my ear. And also his repertoire, because I think the music that he chooses to play and that he engages with has been as much a part of his voice as anything.

That really is kind of a broad history of American piano music going back to the earliest ragtime and the stuff that we would pinpoint as saying, this music sounds American for the first time as opposed to European. That whole tradition is very inspiring to me as well. I’ve always felt myself to be specifically an American composer.

On your website, you wrote that “Aaron’s part includes opportunities for improvisation, sections in which I pass him a tune or rhythm or harmony, and he responds with something I wouldn’t have thought of.” How much freedom does he have to improvise? Which I guess is in the tradition of cadenzas going back to Beethoven’s day.

Aaron Diehl (Photo ©Evelyn Freja/Courtesy Opus 3 Artists)

What I’ve tried to do is a little bit trickier and a little bit, certainly rarer, in that I don’t actually have an improvised cadenza. The section that you would maybe call a cadenza is completely written out. And the improvised sections are actually playing with the orchestra. That, to me, was more interesting in a way, because it’s very much what one hears Aaron do when he’s playing with a singer or a trio or in an ensemble. It’s that responding to the other people. Not just responding to the musical cues, but responding to what else is going on in the room.

The orchestra part is totally written out. I had an idea that I would maybe be able to incorporate some improvised or aleatoric bits in the orchestra part, but it’s really just too risky in terms of portability.

The orchestra is remaining on course with the notated music. Then Aaron, I always pass him something, whether that’s a chord or a series of chords or a melodic motif or literally just verbal instructions. I’m always giving him something to go on and that is very much how improvisation typically works. It’s not this idea of total freedom. You’re using certain frameworks and then replacing the things on top of those frameworks with your own ideas. That’s the skill of a great jazz improviser and that’s what I wanted to give Aaron the opportunity to do. 

As you were composing the piece, were you allowing yourself to play with some improvisations you might come up with if you were the soloist? 

I’m not an improviser. I do improvise as part of my compositional process sometimes, but it’s not a huge part of it. I think that’s one of the things that fascinates me and that I’m slightly in awe of with Aaron and people who can who can really do that on such a high level.

Maybe one day down the road I will end up performing this piece myself. In that case, I’m not quite sure what I’ll do in those sections. I may give myself a little bit more of a written framework; leaving some flexibility for what may happen in performance. But I don’t have that kind of confidence to give myself that total freedom in front of other people.

Do you have the confidence to add sociopolitical statements in your work? The reason I ask is in the description of Made of Tunes on your website you talk about the second movement, American Nocturnal, having six variations of original theme. That was all taken from a mishmash of the notes used in “the hokey patriotic song America the Beautiful.” Is that something that allows you to hold a mirror up to who we are as a country, by taking those notes so closely associated with how we present ourselves patriotically?

It’s not something that I want to make explicit. I would say that the whole piece sounds very American to me. I think the way that the piece ends, perhaps, says more than I want to say in words about that. When you hear what happens in the end, you can draw your own conclusions. I think the final orchestral gesture basically feels apocalyptic.

I read an article an interview that you gave the L.A. Times in 2009 when the L.A. Philharmonic was giving the premiere of Nightjar. You mentioned that you were obsessed with John Adams. The title for Made of Tunes is derived from a lyric in a Charles Ives song (The Things Our Fathers Loved). Adams, who is conducting the premiere, wrote a piano concerto called Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? Is there a wink and a nod to John Adams built into the title? 

Absolutely. Of course, John has a piece called My Father Knew Charles Ives and I know [him] as an admirer of Ives’ songs. John’s music was, and is, a huge influence on me. We’ve both developed and changed so much as composers even over the past 15 years. I think there is an aspect that we share in this sense of Americanness and this sense of a fluidity between all of these different kinds of music that make up the American identity. I think maintaining that fluidity is very important to both of us. I think you’ll hear a kind of rhythmic drive, especially in the first movement, that I very much think of as being something I learned from John’s music.

As we’ve been working on the piece together he actually told me yesterday that there’s something in it that reminded him of a song of his called I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky. Which is a little bit of what you might call a cult classic among John’s works. 

I that same story in the LA Times you said about the LA Phil’s commission of Nightjar, “If you would ask me what my absolute dream commission would be, I probably would have said something along those lines. I mean, it’s Los Angeles. They’re pretty much where it’s at in terms of good music.” How has your perspective evolved since that time and where you are today with this new commission from the LA Phil?

Composer/Pianist Timo Andres (Courtesy Colbert Artists Management)

It really feels like part of the same journey in a way. That Green Umbrella commission was one of my first commissions period – from anyone. It happened when I was still in grad school which was a vote of confidence in a way.

With everything that’s happened in the past few years, it seems like orchestras might be having a little bit of a tougher time. In general I see a kind of retrenchment into a kind of artistic conservatism.

For someone like me who’s a composer and an enthusiast of anything that’s new, that can be a little bit discouraging. But I do see the commission of this new concerto as kind of bucking that trend.

It’s actually my first subscription series appearance with the Phil. And my first piece that I’ve written for the full orchestra. It’s still a dream ensemble. They’re the the most new music friendly of the major American orchestras by far, and I think the most comfortable with a lot of the more demanding things that new music in general, and my piece particularly, asks of them.

Nonesuch Records is releasing your new album, The Blind Bannister on the same day that this concerto is having its world premiere. That’s a concerto that had its world premiere in 2016. How has your relationship with that piece evolved? How did that influence how you chose to perform it?

The Blind Banister is my third piano concerto and Made of Tunes is my fifth. So it’s kind of a week of piano concertos here. The Blind Banister was also a piece that was written specifically for Jonathan Bis. I think that piece has much more to do with a kind of classical romantic lineage and how I place myself in that as a 21st century American. I just performed the piece last month; four times in Oregon.

It’s still, I think, a piece where I figured out certain things compositionally that I can mark as a tent pole in my catalog in a way. I think formally I tried some things in that piece that I had never tried before. It’s this continuous 20 minute stretch of music, which I think at the time was the longest continuous stretch of music that I had attempted to write. I think, in general, it succeeds at articulating that amount of time in a way that’s compelling and that leads the listener through a kind of journey. It has its particular demands and difficulties and sections that are tricky to put together and balance. But the rhetoric of the piece and the formal journey of it kind of explain themselves.

During your recent NPR Tiny Desk concert of Philip Glass’ Etudes you performed etudes six and five in that order. On March 19th you’re going to be performing at Walt Disney Concert Hall as one of five pianists doing Philip Glass’ Complete Etudes 1 – 20. You edited the published edition that recently came out. When you’re working on something from an editorial perspective are there new discoveries that you were able to make, new understandings, that are separate from what you understand as you’re playing a piece of music?

I’m someone who’s very grounded in notation. I think already that puts me in the minority of musicians in the world. Most music is not made via notation. Notation is not only how I deal with music most of the time, but it’s inescapably how I think about it. Like when I hear music, I’d see notation and vice versa. All the music that I interface with I understand something more of it by seeing the notation. Very often, especially when I’m playing new work, I will actually go and re-notate certain things. Not because it’s notated wrong. It’s just there’s certain opinions that I hold, esthetically or taste wise, or just from a practicality standpoint that are sort of the differential between how a composer might think of a piece, might conceive music and then the ways that a pianist might approach that music. 

With Philip, I think his notation always has a wonderful kind of clarity to it. So it wasn’t so much about clarifying anything in particular. You can read these pieces off his hand-notated manuscripts, pretty much with no problem. This was more about meeting somewhere in the middle between a totally liberalized, typesetting of those manuscripts and then reading from the manuscripts. I think there are aspects of both documents that are useful.

You posted on your website on January 4th of 2023, “Thanks to all the artists and record labels who asked me to write about their recordings. Doing so always teaches me new ways to listen and think about music.” If we fast forward 30 or 40 years and somebody is editing your work or asking to comment on them, what would you like them most to know about who you were at this particular time in your life as a person, a composer and an artist?

I’m not really someone who likes to self-mythologize. I don’t think autobiographically. It’s not really a question I’m prepared to answer. And I don’t think it’s my job to answer it. I think of myself as someone who works very hard. My life is really about all the different aspects of the work that I do. Whether it’s writing a piano concerto or playing the work of another composer, or writing about the work of other musicians, arranging the work of other musicians. All of these different ways that I can get my hands dirty with music, so to speak. I’m up for it and I don’t stop to really interrogate what my project is in a sense for or even who I am. Do any of us really know who we are?

I think when you start to think about that, you’re becoming your own publicist. In a way you’re marketing yourself. Which is a necessity in the modern world of constant pressure to be sharing content and sharing yourself online and simultaneously the complete destruction of any kind of critical apparatus in the mainstream press or any real critical discourse that goes on in the mainstream. In the field that I work in it’s tempting to try to pick up the pieces and try to do it yourself. I have a website. I have Instagram. I have Twitter. I do all these things. But I also don’t know if they truly say anything about who I am as an artist. I think I would rather leave it to the professionals to come to their own conclusions. 

Or let the music speak for itself.

It’s a little bit cliche to say, I guess, but yeah, listen to the music. If you’re curious, it’s all in there. I don’t think it says particularly anything autobiographical. I’m not that kind of composer. But, I think you can connect the dots if you really listen.

To watch the full interview with Timo Andres, please go here.

Main Photo: Composer/Pianist Timo Andres (Courtesy Colbert Artists Management)

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Bing Wang and the LA Phil Celebrate The Year of the Dragon https://culturalattache.co/2024/02/27/bing-wang-and-the-la-phil-celebrate-the-year-of-the-dragon/ https://culturalattache.co/2024/02/27/bing-wang-and-the-la-phil-celebrate-the-year-of-the-dragon/#respond Tue, 27 Feb 2024 21:02:42 +0000 https://culturalattache.co/?p=20082 "You don't only win the job and play the notes and make a salary. Complete musicians means you're devoted. That you are involved in music."

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Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Lunar New Year concert takes place tonight at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The program closes with Mendelssohn’s String Quintet No. 2 in B-flat Major. It opens, as would be appropriate for a Year of the Wood Dragon celebration, with music by Chinese composers. This part of the program was curated by Bing Wang who, as a violinist in the orchestra, serves as Associate Concertmaster.

During the first half of this concert music by Tan Dun (Concerto for Six), Yi-Wen Jiang (Selections from ChinaSong) and Bright Sheng (Four Movements For Piano Trio) will be performed.

Bing Wang

Wang was born in China and joined the LA Phil in 1994. She’s a beautiful musician and audiences may know her best from her on-stage collaborations with composer John Williams. Wang is the featured soloist any year in which the Theme from Schindler’s List is played as part of the Maestro of the Movies concerts.

Wang has performed under music directors Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel. She will soon find her third music director on the podium after Dudamel leaves for the New York Philharmonic.

Last week I spoke with Wang about this concert, the significance of the music she programmed and about her musical partnership with Williams. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview with Wang, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: What does the New Year mean to you personally and do you associate any particular music with the New Year?

All New Years means so much for many of us coming from Asia. I heard a comparison that it is like Thanksgiving and Christmas combined. I have to say it is that combined and much more. There are many traditions. Traditions with foods that we eat for Lunar New Year and of course, music. What I’m going to perform, it’s not really traditional New Year’s music. But certainly, as people will hear, it’s very effective. It’s very colorful. It’s going to be very festive. 

I guess being colorful and festive makes it easier for Western audiences to hear Chinese music. 

In fact, as I was practicing Harvest Celebration [one of the ChinaSongs], it came to my mind this is exactly the drum beats and the percussive rhythm that people would feel at a local dance. I’m going to speak at the beginning of the concert. I will ask people who has seen a Lion Dance. They will really associate that with the rhythm that they will hear in Harvest Celebration.

The concert opens with Yi-Wen Jiang’s adaptations of traditional songs. Then you’ve got music by Bright Sheng and Tan Dun. The second half of the program is Mendelssohn’s string quintet. What’s the conversation that you see taking place between the first half of the concert and the second half of the concert?

I actually wouldn’t be the expert right now to tell you. But I do want to mention that to the audience that viola quintet is a form of chamber music that’s less common than a string quartet and a piano trio. Bright Sheng’s piano trio brings back a lot of familiar memories to me melodically. So I recommended that piece and I suggested Yi-Wen Jiang’s transcription of the three string quartet pieces. In terms of Mendelssohn viola quintet, it’s a master work of the chamber music repertoire. What is the connection? I cannot just ignore that when I introduce the program. In terms of how I see that, it’s as if we give you some beautiful hamburgers on the Chinese banquet table.

Selections from ChinaSongs opens the concert. Those are based on traditional songs. What can you tell me about those songs and their cultural significance? 

The first piece is Yao Dance. It means dances of the Yao People. The Yao People is from the south west of China. They are a minority. They love to sing and dance and they have beautiful music. The second one is Shepherd’s Song, and this is folk music from the Inner Mongolia. [It’s] really about the shepherds in the prairie and has a lot to do with singing. Shepherd Song and Harvest Celebration are both very well known as solo music for violin with piano accompaniment. So these two are the pieces that I played many times when I was growing up in China.

Bing Wang with the LA Philharmonic and John Williams at the Hollywood Bowl

Shepherd Song is slow. It’s beautiful. It’s music originally written for a Chinese instrument, which is called suona, which is a double reed instrument. It sounds like an extremely loud oboe. It’s an instrument that people play in festival settings like weddings and New Years. It’s very loud. A composer transcribed that for violin. It’s really a great piece that always brings down the hall because it’s so lively and loud. It’s exciting. It has syncopation. It has rhythmic changes. It’s always a fantastic piece for a performance.

Where do you believe Tan Dun’s work stands in the world of contemporary classical music in general, and in the music by Chinese-American composers?

I really think Tan Dun is very important, if not the most important, living Chinese composer. I always thought that from the very beginning. He always incorporates a lot of elements from back home and not only the familiar melodies that I grew up listening to. He went into places in China that we’ve never been to. I think he’s so innovative. I feel he’s always ahead of all time.

Tan Dun and Bright Sheng were in the same composition class at the Central Conservatory in Beijing. That’s the first class right after culture revolution ended. We always consider that to be the most important and the greatest composition class period in Chinese history. So they both attended and were in that class, and they both came to Columbia University and had their doctorate at Columbia University. We actually turned out to have two composers from the same background and education.

What does it mean to you to have Chinese music part of the programing at the Los Angeles Philharmonic or any other orchestral institution that chooses to program it?

I feel it’s very important. Not only in L.A. Society is so diverse and it’s important that we understand each other’s music and background. So I’m always thrilled to be the interpreter or to introduce that music to a broader audience. Obviously in L.A., needless to say, we have so many people of Chinese heritage.

Increased exposure to non-traditional music and contemporary classical music began in earnest under Esa-Pekka Salonen. Gustavo Dudamel has done a wonderful job of continuing that tradition. What are your hopes that whomever the new music director is announced to replace Gustavo Dudamel will follow in those footsteps and continue to present music from other cultures and from newer composers that don’t traditionally fit into programing?

I have no doubt whoever our next music director will be will be innovative and will bring their new angle and strength in this following champions of modern music. Gustavo came and look at how much music he brought in. We’ve played so much music of South American composers that we really had not a lot of exposure to before. So I feel whoever will come will bring their unique angle on this.

Is it time for a woman to be the music director?

Maybe. We will see. I think we are trying not to put an expectation to fulfill a certain agenda or a role. Yes, we are looking. We are taking our time. We are hopeful. We’ve had Gustavo for 17 years.

I noticed how carefully you skirted around that question. If Gustavo said, hey, there’s a place for you at the New York Philharmonic, would you join him?

I have to say this, I will not. My home is in LA and my part is here. 

One of the advantages of having your home in Los Angeles is the relationship that you’ve developed off-stage and on-stage with John Williams. What can you tell me about your close musical relationship with him and how that developed? 

Bing Wang as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor/composer John Williams

It all started after I joined the L.A. Phil. My first summer was 1995, and then, in 1998, I remember very clearly when he first programmed a violin solo. On that program it was Sabrina and he was so thrilled. We connected and the rest is history. We have have performed yearly ever since then. So it’s more than 25 years now. I’ve also toured with him. There’s nothing else quite like that.

When I’m asked your favorite conductor, I will bring up John Williams’ name. Who will give you this kind of experience for me?

When you are on stage, immersed in this music and you look up the composer looking down at you – that kind of connection, that kind of gift and experience cannot be replaced.

He has written a violin concerto or two. Maybe you could be a soloist on one of those.

It is my goal. Yes. Someday I will play one of those concertos and not just the three minute solo, which I do love. 

Being a young girl growing up in China, could you ever have imagined this kind of experience with the most beloved film composer of all times, with arguably the greatest orchestra in the United States? What does it mean to you every night when you get on stage, whether you’re a member of of a small ensemble, as you will be Tuesday, or a soloist with the entire Philharmonic?

Thank you for asking me that question, because I feel that every day. I could not have imagined. When I attended the Middle School of Shanghai Conservatory and practiced around the clock. When I came here on a full scholarship to attend Peabody Conservatory. Then when I attended Manhattan’s School of Music and studied under Glen Dicterow, who is a colleague at USC Thornton School of Music. I could not have imagined that my professional path would have taken me this far. Even when I joined the L.A. Phil at age of 26, I could not have imagined how my professional development have evolved and grown.

I have an important part of my career that is teaching now. I already have one former student in the orchestra and I have another incoming former student. This is really the greatest feeling to see the next generation, developing under my guidance.

On your page on USC’s website, you are quoted about your teaching philosophy that, “The intent is always to motivate and to inspire them to become better instrumentalists and complete musicians.” I was intrigued by complete musician. When did you realize you were a complete musician and what does it mean to you? Or how do you define what a complete musician is?

I hope I live by example. You don’t only win the job and play the notes and make a salary. Complete musicians means you’re devoted. That you are involved in music. Your responsibility includes sharing, cultivating, giving, which is so important. I would say at my ripe old age, I feel I’m still changing and hopefully getting better. I’m still hoping to become a better musician, artist and a teacher. That, for me, means you’re complete musician. You are immersed and giving.

Berl Sinofsky [one of Wang’s former teachers] is quoted as saying that, “Music is a higher calling than just a profession or living. It is an effort in understanding something bigger than yourself. It is an effort at striving to be something bigger than you are.” In what ways has music given you that understanding of something bigger and that ability to be something bigger? 

I doubt I can give really a deserving answer to your question. I think that’s a great statement that he gave. I hope to do more is really part of my answer. It’s going to be what I said earlier. I think by really doing good with my music and really becoming more than just a musician by really helping others and be involved and immersed in a community. I think that’s that’s what I’m hoping to do.

To watch the full interview with Bing Wang, please go here.

All photos courtesy of Los Angeles Philharmonic

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