Our top choice this week is:

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: A LEFT COAST – Tyler Duncan and Erika Switzer  (Bridge Records)

What do you know about classical music from British Columbia? Exactly as much as I do. Which is why this album featuring baritone Duncan and pianist Switzer is such a wonderful discovery.

The music they perform comes from those they met at the School of Music at the University of British Columbia. This includes Stephen Chatman, Jean Coulthard, Iman Habibi, Melissa Hui, Jocelyn Morlock, Jeffrey Ryan and Leslie Uyeda.

The last four tracks truly stand out to me. They are from Ryan’s Everything Already Lost. With titles like Bill Evans: Alone, Autumn Again, Night Music and Schumann: Fantasie, Op. 17 meant I skipped ahead to her them first. And I was richly rewarded with thoughtful works beautifully performed. Then I went back and listened to the entire 64 minutes and realized there are treasures all the way through.

Here are the rest of what’s New In Music This Week: June 23^rd that I particularly liked:

CLASSICAL: FLORENCE PRICE – Chineke! Orchestra – (Decca Classics)

In 2015 Chi-chi Nwanoku founded the Chineke! Orchestra. The mission was the assemble an orchestra comprised of Black and ethnically diverse musicians from the UK and Europe. 

In celebration of the 70^th anniversary of composer Florence Price’s death, the orchestra has released a recording filled with two more familiar works with a final composition that was only rediscovered in 2009. 

The album opens with Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement with Jeneba Kanneh-Mason on piano and conducted by Leslie Suganandarajah. That is followed by Price’s Symphony No. 1 in E Minor which is conducted by Roderick Cox. The discovery is His Resignation and Faith from Prce’s Ethiopia’s Shadow in America.

On September 30^th the Chineke! Orchestra will release an album of works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

CLASSICAL: MOZART: SONATAS FOR PIANO & VIOLIN – Renaud Capuçon & Kit Armstrong (Deutsche Grammophon)

If you love Mozart, the piano and the violin, you’ll love this collection of performances of his sonatas for the two instruments. With 92 tracks lasting 4 hours and 15 minutes, this is nirvana for those who love this work. There are 16 sonatas on this recording available digitally or in a 4-CD set. 

Pianist Armstrong has been in the public eye for 20 years. Capuçon is a passionate advocate of chamber music and has performed with the likes of Martha Argerich, Daniel Trifonov and Yuja Wang.

In Los Angeles our classical music station, KUSC,  plays Mozart in the Morning. This fine collection will get you through half your day!

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: SHATTER – Verona Quartet  (Bright Shiny Things)

Cellist Jonathan Dormand, violinists Jonathan Ong and Dorothy Ro and violist Abigail Rojansky make up this fine quartet. Shatter is their second album and it offers three incredible compositions by contemporary American composers.

The album opens with the first-ever recording of Reena Esmail’s String Quartet (Ragamala). Joining the quartet for this work is Hundustani vocalist Saili Oak. Julia Adolphe’s Star-Crossed Signals follows and the album concludes with Michael Gilbertson’s Quartet.

Verona Quartet commissions Gilbertson’s work which was a 2018 Pulitzer Prize finalist.

JAZZ:  STANDARDS – Noah Haidu (Sunnyside Records)

Pianist Keith Jarrett collaborated with drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Gary Peacock for the 1983 album Standards, Vol. 1. At the same sessions for that album enough music was recorded to release Changes in 1984 and Standards, Vol. 2 in 1985.

Pianist Haidu celebrates the 40^th anniversary of that first album with his own standards album. Wisely he’s not re-recording the tracks from those albums, though the selections are part of Jarrett/Peacock/DeJohnette repertoire. He has his own combination of songs that are performed with drummer Lewis Nash, bassists Peter Washington and Buster Williams. Saxophonist Steve Wilson is a guest on the album as well.

The album concludes with the originals Last Dance I and Last Dance II. Don’t expect Donna Summer. This is a beautiful conclusion to this beautiful album.

JAZZ: THE ANCESTRAL CALL – José Soto

This fascinating album from pianist/composer Soto combines a jazz ensemble with a string quartet to explore Costa Rica’s Bribri community, its survival of colonization and its resilience in still being around.

Amongst the artists joining Soto on this album are Milena Cassado, George Garzone and Francisco Mela. 

You think you know what to expect with a strong quartet and with a jazz ensemble. But by throwing them together and including improvisation in the music, Soto has come up with an album that deserves multiple listenings.

JAZZ: GO WEST!: THE CONTEMPORARY RECORDS ALBUMS – Sonny Rollins (Craft Recordings)

Saxophonist Sonny Rollins was only 26 when he recorded Way Out West. The album found him recording six tracks with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne. 

One year later he released Sonny Rollins and The Contemporary Leaders which featured 8 tracks recorded with Hampton Hawes on piano, Manne on drums, Leroy Vinnegar on bass and Barney Wessel on guitar. 

This three LP box set (plus digital and CD release) combines both these albums along with a third album of six alternate takes from both recording sessions.

This is early Rollins and such great music to listen to. If I had the vinyl set it would be played repeatedly!

MUSICALS: OPERATION MINCEMEAT – Original Cast Recording  (Sony Masterworks Broadway)

What began as a show at a fringe festival four years ago has turned into the smash hit musical comedy on the West End in London right now. The musical takes place in 1943 and centers on the role a stolen corpse plays in turning the tide during World War II.

It sounds like a Monty Python skit, but this really took place in April of 1943. The British fooled Hitler’s army into believing that the Allies would be invading Greece and Sardinia. The end result was the liberation of Sicily.

The team of David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts are responsible for the Book, Music and Lyrics. Starring in the musical are Geri Allan, Christian Andrews, Seán Carey, David Cumming, Claire-Marie Hall, Hodgson, Jak Malone, Roberts and Holly Sumpton.

Listening to this album made me want to book a trip to London to see this show.

That’s all I have for you of New In Music This Week: June 23rd.

Enjoy the music and enjoy the weekend.

Main Photo: Art from Chineke! Orchestra’s Florence Price album

The post New In Music This Week: June 23rd appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

This Sunday the Los Angeles Master Chorale will give the world premiere of Malhaar: A Requiem for Water at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It’s a work that combines, as much of her music does, Hindustani and Western classical music styles.

I know what you are thinking, a requiem for water when Los Angeles is getting more rainfall this year than it has in decades. Of course there is an irony to that. But the composition of music doesn’t happen overnight. Any more than one season of rain makes up for multiple years of drought.

Born in Los Angeles, Esmail’s music has been performed Kronos Quartet, the Seattle Symphony (where she was composer-in-residence 2020-2021), Imani Winds, Brooklyn Rider and more. She is currently the Swan Family Artist-in-Residence at the LA Master Chorale where many of her works have been performed.

Earlier this month I spoke with Esmail about Malhaar: A Requiem for Water, finding emotionality in environmental issues and, yes, the irony of finishing the requiem during a deluge of rain. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

In your TEDx Skid Row talk 9 years ago you said, “I’m at the beginning stages of this journey. I might always be at the beginning stages of this journey.” Where do you feel you are today and what step in that journey does Malhaar: A Requiem for Water represent?

I still feel like I’m at the beginning stages of this journey. When I had given that [talk] I had just come back from India and I was trying to figure out how do I bring these two cultures, these two worlds, these two musical languages together? I was asking that question for the first time in many ways. I was really just kind of throwing things at the wall to see what stuck. And I would take a certain element from Indian classical music, a certain element from Western classical music, and try to see what would happen when I put them in dialogue with one another.

It’s almost a decade later and I feel like I’m just asking that question in really new ways. But I think over time what tends to happen is the more you do that, the more you’re almost creating this third space where certain combinations exist and then become kind of fused together in a dialogue that is, I guess, in its own language.

This piece feels like a step in a new direction because it’s one of the first times that I’ve written a piece that involves Indian and Western classical musicians together that isn’t necessarily on the theme of that involvement. I’m trying to move into that space where I’m using these two styles of music to tell a story that is so far beyond just what that connection is between those styles of music. 

As you ask that question in new ways are you finding that you are getting different answers now?

I’m in different places because these cultures have people in them, right? They’re not just disembodied cultures. Every time I come into dialogue with new people there are new questions. Since that time, I’ve come into dialogue with some of the most famous Indian artists of our time. I’ve been so privileged to write for and work with them. They bring their own context because they’ve had decades and decades of experience in a particular tradition and some of them have even had experience crossing over. So you can do really interesting and different things.

You posted on Facebook last week that “My 2022 is finally over. This is the last barline of my Requiem – two months and two days late, but mercifully, I am done.” What were the biggest challenges for you in writing Malhaar: A Requiem for Water?

The first biggest challenge was just time because 2022 for me, and I think probably for many composers, was that crazy year where everything that was rescheduled was rescheduled into that year from the past couple of years of COVID. Then everything that was in 2022 didn’t get moved. So basically we were writing three years of music on top of one another. And so that was the 16th of 16 commissions that I wrote in 2022. So you can tell my 2022 ended on March 2nd, 2023.

I think the other musical challenges were I realize I have never written a piece originally for choir and Indian voice at the same time. We all have certain ranges that our voice can sing in. I don’t know why I didn’t quite realize this before, but the fact that the Hindustani tessitura lies about a fifth below the Western female tessitura creates a lot of interesting challenges. What key do you set something and how do you make everyone feel comfortable in their own range? 

[Tessitura is Italian for texture and refers to a range of pitches within vocal lines of music]

The other thing that I ran up against, after over a decade of working in this field, I didn’t quite realize that a lot of times I set Indian classical ragas into Western settings and in instrumental music. But I realize that when you’re speaking in English or even in Latin, it’s very hard to set raga in a way that sounds authentic. If you look back through the tradition, you’ll see it’s rarely done. It’s mostly people singing in Indian languages and there is a reason for that. 

[In Hindustani music a raga is a pattern of notes with uniquely characteristic intervals, rhythms and embellishments that serve as the foundation for improvisation.]

A malhaar is usually associated with torrential rains. It seems appropriate that you finished this work as Los Angeles was being pelted with torrential rain. Did it strike you as ironic or was that in any way also inspirational for you?

[Malhaar is a raga named after the “giver of rains.”]

Writing this requiem that had to do with water and the disappearance of water is something that goes back to my childhood. It’s not just something that is happening now in context of climate change. But what was really interesting is the minute I started writing in January, I took a month off just to really work on the scaffolding of the requiem. The other thing I was doing was hiking. My hikes would just constantly get canceled because it was raining. Then I’m working on this requiem about the disappearance of water.

It’s funny because if you see it through traditional Indian eyes, malhaars are the ragas that are designed to beckon rain. So you’re singing this raga hoping that rain will come. On the spiritual level I’m thinking am I somehow beckoning the thing that I am trying to write about the disappearance of? It messed with me in all kinds of ways. But at the same time, it is inspiring to me because growing up in LA rain is so special. 

Since the onslaught of the pandemic we’ve been surrounded by loss of all kinds. Loss is part of any requiem. We’ve been challenged and continue to be challenged by water supply issues. How do you go about addressing these issues vis-á-vis your music in a way that is both emotional and intellectual?

I think grief and loss and those emotions are things that we experience viscerally. I’m looking at the L.A. Times every day and I’m seeing now water is being lost in this way. Here are the facts, here are the statistics. All of this is very important. But none of those things make you feel like this is actually something that is deeply emotional. I think that we are incentivized to act when we feel that emotional response.

So I thought to myself, what is a way to bring some kind of esthetic around this that is more than just these are the facts. To actually connect into our heart space when we’re thinking about what to do about this water crisis. That was largely why I decided to write this requiem about water. That’s in front of us as people who live in Los Angeles every single day. And yet it’s a thing that we just have to tune out because maybe it feels like it’s too big to deal with or we can’t do anything about it. It’s also a thing that’s really scary, right? 

What I wanted to do is actually connect some of those feelings that I know other Angelenos share about how terrifying it is to lose water; how much we maybe need to grieve. All these places we see that are just completely empty that we know used to have water in them. Just the terror of seeing that and the grief of that.

The end of the requiem is essentially making the point water is going on to its next life. Water is not just being destroyed. It will find the place that is the best for it. If we are not making a place that’s conducive to it, it will find somewhere else.

Water is going to be fine. It’s us that are going to be mourning its loss. So what do we do to actually not have to completely mourn the loss and preserve what we have left?

I went back to the first interview that I posted to our YouTube channel because the person I interviewed, a musician, said the following, “Hopefully what any creative endeavor accomplishes is the ability to create a portal, that mirror or lens of one’s attention in time, to be able to give oneself a glimpse to say, you know what, I have the right to create something, too. I have a voice. I have something to say. Whether we’re going to sit ourselves down and apply ourselves to the craft of creating, manifesting something from that capacity is the work before us.” Do you agree and what resonates with you today on your journey as the work before you?

It’s funny because as you were saying that, I was like, I think I know the person who said that. I’ve had many discussions like that in the context of my own home, in fact.

It was your husband, Vijay Gupta, who said that.

This idea of art as a portal, and the fact that that anyone should be able to express themselves through art, I absolutely agree with that. Those were the values that we very much first connected on. In my case I see that there’s this portal that exists between different musical cultures and we think of them as so separate because the surface of them might seem really different.

Say someone’s performing a string orchestra piece of mine that uses Indian classical music. There will be someone who is like, I’m getting kind of a taste of this through my own lens. I’m getting maybe one version of this improvisation kind of frozen for me so that I can actually learn it in my own instrument the same way that you would transcribe a jazz solo or something like that.

But then there will always be those musicians in every group who think, let me go further, let me actually go into Indian classical music itself and vice versa from Hindustani into Western classical music. That is the joy – to see someone actually take the ball and go through that portal and just run with it until they’re on the other side and can make their own connections.

I think about that a lot and how to facilitate those connections between people so that it’s not just me in there all the time. Being that conduit is important and just feels amazing.

To watch the full interview with Reena Esmail, please go here.

Main Photo: Composer Reena Esmail (Photo by Martin-Jamie Pham/Courtesy LA Master Chorale)

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To call Los Angeles Master Chorale’s Artistic Director Grant Gershon a busy man would be a serious understatement. The LAMC has a concert this Sunday where 48 members of the ensemble will be performing Dixit Dominus by George Frideric Handel and Te Deum by Arvo Pärt with a chamber orchestra.

He is the Chorus Director for Los Angeles Opera’s presentation of St. Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach in conjunction with Hamburg Ballet. Bach’s monumental work runs over 3 hours and will be performed through March 27th.

On Wednesday, March 23rd, Gershon will celebrate his 20th anniversary with the LA Master Chorale in a gala that will feature the world premiere of a new work by composer Michael Abels and also the world premiere of a new arrangement of Morten Laurisden’s O Magnum Mysterium which will feature violinist Anne Akiko Meyers who commissioned the work.

Gershon has a lot on his plate. So what is he thinking in our post-pandemic world? What are his plans moving forward? Trying to pin him down is difficult, but he remains steadfast in his passion for music and for the LA Master Chorale. What follows are excerpts from my conversation with Gershon that have been edited for length and clarity.

During these horrible two years with Covid have you had time to consider who is it that you want to be moving forward and what is it you want to express? How are those thoughts influencing the choices that you’re making moving forward?

One of the things that came out of it was the idea of really focusing more on collaboration. It was in the early days of the pandemic that we decided to create the position of Associate Artistic Director for Jenny Wong, who was our fantastically gifted Associate Conductor. She, along with Reena Esmail, who’s a brilliant composer and is our Swan Family Artist-In- Residence, the three of us together would be kind of the artistic trio of leadership at at the Master Chorale. The whole idea of choral music is that you’re singing together, that you’re raising up and celebrating this multiplicity of voices and viewpoints. I’m just one person with one viewpoint and I think it’s really important for an organization to be more responsive and more reflective. That to me was one of the things that we had the opportunity to enact during this time.

As someone looking from the outside in at LAMC it might appear as though you are lining Jenny Wong up for succession once you decide to move on. Is that part of your consideration presently?

I think about that a lot. And I have to say Jenny is one of the most brilliant musicians that I’ve worked with. She came to us through a search process and did auditions with several other very talented emerging conductors. So she came to us as assistant conductor and then grew into the role of associate conductor and then into this leadership role. Let’s just say Jenny will be leading an organization very soon. If we can keep her in L.A. for as long as possible that’s fantastic. I do think about my own success and my own legacy really and just wanted to make sure that whoever eventually steps into this position is somebody who can can take the chorale in new directions and can really continue to grow the organization.

When we last spoke nine years ago you told me you felt the LA Master Chorale was a great, well-kept secret and that you hoped more people would learn about it in the future. You’ve traveled the world with Lagrime di San Pietro. I assume you believe that the secret is out now.

Lagrime was a great calling card for us. It’s really the first time that the Master Chorale has toured as an ensemble. So that’s now baked in to our post-pandemic profile. The other thing that we’re focusing on is obviously recording and that’s both commercial recordings and and also filming every concert that we do in Disney Hall so that we can do digital releases; either a full concert or individual pieces or sections of pieces on social media and on other platforms.

During the pandemic our social media presence really exploded. And the digital releases that we were able to put out there actually reached exponentially larger audiences than we could ever fit into the concert hall. I don’t feel like we’re a well-kept secret anymore. We’re well kept and we’re out in the world much more.

The situation in Ukraine is horrific and the performing arts and some artists have been caught in the middle of that for not denouncing Putin. Do you think artists can and should be separated from their art? Or are these political statements and affiliations something that are going to be looked at more closely moving forward?

I don’t think art can be divorced from society and politics. You go back to Mozart. You go back to Monteverdi. Every composer that I respond to has always been engaged in the in the issues of our time. I think with respect to Putin, there are some very clear-cut cases like Valery Gergiev, for instance, who so closely has aligned himself to that regime and to Putin personally. That’s very clear. I do think for some Russian artists it’s a real challenge and I sympathize or empathize with somebody who does not agree at all with what’s happening. The Ukrainian situation is so horrific and the aggression on the part of Russia is so clear-cut and unprovoked that I think that most Russian artists will have to come down on one side or the other and accept the results.

What is your biggest priority for yourself moving forward after twenty years with Los Angeles Master Chorale?

What I’m most focused on right now is our education programs. Specifically having grown up in Los Angeles I’m very aware that we don’t currently have a youth choir program that creates access for any young person that wants to sing in a choir. If we can, as the largest professional choral organization in the country, spearhead an effort to create a holistic and organic community-based youth choir initiative, that’s where I want to see us putting our energy going forward. Just helping to ensure that the art form stays strong and healthy, but also that as many people as possible have access to to the just immeasurable benefits of singing together.

I appreciate that you answered as it relates to the LA Master Chorale. But what about for you personally?

Oh gosh. I mean I want to see us doing more crazy projects and doing more touring, more singing around the world, more collaborations, more amazing projects with Gustavo [Dudamel] and the L.A. Phil, more recording. More, more and more is, I think, the bottom line.

To see the full interview with Grant Gershon, please go to our YouTube channel here.

Main Photo: Grant Gershon at an LA Master Chorale rehearsal (Photo courtesy Cadenza Artists)

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The title comes from a poem by 14th-century Sufi poet Hafiz. The full phrase is:

When
The violin
Can forgive the past

It starts singing.

Gupta, whom I first got to know when he was a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, certainly makes his instrument sing. He joined the orchestra as its youngest member when he was 19. In 2018 he received a MacArthur Fellowship.

In addition to being a gifted musician he’s also the founder and Artistic Director of Street Symphony, an organization that works with members of Los Angeles’s community that are often pushed to the margins of society: the homeless, the addicted and the incarcerated.

When we spoke last week via Zoom, I asked Gupta about the album, the art of listening and about music as an act of giving and receiving. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. (If you want to see and hear the complete interview, please go to Cultural Attaché’s YouTube channel here.)

In the liner notes you wrote “In the music of my childhood, I found a key to reinvention.” You’re obviously referring to the work by Bach. At the time that you found that key to reinvention was that something you were looking for? 

As a musician, as a violinist, I feel that every day I pick up the instrument is an opportunity to reinvent myself better. Better in the image of the instrument, which will always be better than me, better in the image of the composer’s living or recently dead or long dead, who are often also humbling figures in in one’s psyche. 

I’m currently reading halfway through Paul Elie’s book Reinventing Bach, which is an incredible, incredible book about how Bach was constantly reinventing himself and how the players, the musicians who found themselves making Bach’s music, especially recording Bach’s music, found keys to reinvention for themselves and for the technology that they were using. So Albert Schweitzer for the LP and [Pablo] Casals and Glenn Gould and Yo-Yo [Ma] and so on and so forth. So I was particularly interested in reinventing myself in the image of Bach, who was reinventing himself three hundred years ago to the year in seventeen twenty when he wrote these six pieces for unaccompanied violin.

If you look at this album I would assume that there would be a lot of people who would have said this isn’t a path to success. So how important was it for you to take a risk and to define yourself by following your instincts as opposed to following the traditional path to success?

I think that for much of my life I have been incredibly lucky to have lived many different iterations of the traditional pathways of success. I won my first audition that I ever took for the Philharmonic when I was 19. I still don’t know how that happened. I was incredibly lucky to also see what traditional success looked like from the perspective of being in a Harvard neuroscience lab and seeing what the top scientists were studying. I think that whether we’re looking at neuroscience or traditional classical music and looking at the greatest soloists of the time, there is a sort of externally imposed assumption that that person has kind of fit into a niche and has risen exponentially because the niche exists. 

I had to make this album because I had to make this album. And that is an incredibly vulnerable act, because as an artist, immediately one asks oneself, what is this just inherently narcissistic? Am I being selfish by imposing my will upon the most precious resource that any human being has, which is their time? But hopefully what any creative endeavor accomplishes is the ability to create a portal that mirrors, or a lens of one’s attention in time, to be able to give oneself a glimpse to say, you know what, I have the right to create something, too. I have a voice. I have something to say. We all have something to say. Whether we’re going to sit ourselves down and apply ourselves to the craft of creating, manifesting something from that capacity, is the work before us.

It feels like listening is an art form that is that is fast fading into a dying art form. And I’m wondering, as a musician who relies on people to listen, what your thoughts are or hopes that I’m wrong. 

For me, listening is an act of love. And I am taught this every time I visit the community of people who have become a family to me in Skid Row. In fact, several years ago, there was a man named Brian Palmer, who I became quite close with. He was a member of a choir in Skid Row, and he was the one who said, “One act of love I know for sure is to listen.” Where we listen, how we place our attention in the world, is really where we direct the most precious resource we have: our time, our focus, our attention. You know, it’s not only that music and art are being commodified, but our very attention itself is the greatest commodity that everyone seems to be bidding for. And so listening to music, to even a track of the album, is something that I know I can never take for granted. Anyone who has taken the time to listen to this album has has given the most precious thing that they can possibly give. And I am incredibly honored and grateful that that has happened. 

Hafiz wrote that “The heart is a thousand stringed instrument that can only be tuned with love.” How does your four-stringed instrument allow you not to just express love, but to receive it and through that have an impact on the world in which you live?

I recorded this album in a very special sanctuary here in Pasadena, where I live, at All Saints Church. Even though the church was empty I knew that I was in communion with something more than myself. When I entered that space, it wasn’t just about the acoustics, it was a kind of spiritual acoustic. When I played a note, it was not just an act of putting a note into the space, but using my ears to listen to how that space was giving something back to me. And in that moment of exchange and reciprocity is created in a mutual way such that I relax. I open. I’m more able to be vulnerable. And I kind of allow that heart to open up just wide enough so that it’s exposed six feet to the microphone that’s receiving what happens to be coming out of my instrument. So that point of mutual reciprocity and exchange makes playing music both an act of giving, but more importantly, an act of receiving, just as you’ve put it so beautifully.

All photos of Vijay Gupta by Kat Bawden (Courtesy Shuman Associates)

To see the complete interview with Vijay Gupta, please go to Cultural Attaché’s YouTube channel here.

The post Vijay Gupta Reinvents Himself Better appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Throughout the pandemic, they have created nine original music videos that have been released throughout the year. During this event they will revisit those videos, explore their significance to Tonality and how they came into being. This concert marks the culmination of their 2020 virtual season.

What We Will Be will feature the world premiere of a new work by composer Shawn Kirchner. He collaborated with Tonality on a new composition that at first is set to the words of America the Beautiful. But he soon moves onto lyrics that explore our country’s history through a different, and more accurate, lens.

Social justice issues are front and center with Tonality. They have collaborated with composers Reena Esmail, Moira Smiley and Alex Wurman in addition to Kirchner. They have also performed with a wide range of other artists including Laura Downes, Taylor Mac and Pete Townsend.

None of this would matter if the music wasn’t good. And it is. Very. That’s why people like Kristy Edmunds of CAP UCLA is on their Board of Directors and included the ensemble in their Tune-In Festival in October.

Tickets for What We Will Be: A Benefit Concert for Tonality are $20 and can be purchased here. The event begins at 10:00PM EST/7:00PM PST.

Update: This post has been updated with the correct start time of 7:00 PM PST/10:00 PM EST. Cultural Attaché regrets the error.

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If you love Broadway, we’ve got several stars appearing in readings, live concerts and more.

If you love jazz, we have an advance screening of a documentary about one of jazz’s most legendary singers and a great concert from 2017 that introduced a new tentet to the world.

Classical music fans have everything from Baroque music to contemporary music to watch and hear.

If you love Verdi and opera, we’ve got that for you, too.

Theater fans have a new translation of a classic play and a documentary born out of a highly-acclaimed show from 2013. There’s also our featured selection: The Gaze, a 12-part series from playwright Larry Powell.

Here are your Best Bets at Home: November 20th – November 22nd.

Uncle Vanya – Spotlight on Plays – Now – November 23rd

Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya gets a new translation by playwright Neil LaBute in this Spotlight on Plays reading from Broadway’s Best Shows.

Vanya and Sonya manage the property owned by an old professor and his second wife, Yelena. Vanya is the professor’s late first wife’s brother. Sonya is his daughter with his first wife.

Sonya has romantic feelings for Dr. Astrov, a local doctor, who is smitten with Yelena. Vanya, too, has become enamored with Yelena. With unrequited love ensnaring the characters, Vanya and Sonya are shocked when the professor announces he plans to sell the home they have been managing for him. They are appalled when the old man announces why he’s selling the house Vanya and Sonya have called home for so long.

Starring as the title character is Tony Award-winner Alan Cumming (Cabaret). Joining him for this reading are Constance Wu, Samira Wiley, K. Todd Freeman, Anson Mount, Mia Katigbak, Manik Choksi and Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn (Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore). Narration is by Gabriel Ebert. Overseeing the production is director Danya Taymor.

For me, this reading had me at Ellen Burstyn. Add Alan Cummig to the mix and what’s not to love?

Tickets are only $5 to watch Uncle Vanya. Proceeds will benefit The Actors Fund.

Citizen Detective – Geffen Stayhouse – Now – February 7th

In their continuing series of newly-produced Zoom shows, Los Angeles’ Geffen Playhouse offers up a brand new virtual murder mystery called Citizen Detective.

Written and directed by Chelsea Marcantel, Citizen Detective finds best-selling crime author Mickie McKittrick (Mike Ostroski) enlisting the audience’s help in trying to solve a mysterious Hollywood murder from the 1920s.

Either as one large group or broken out into smaller rooms, audience members while have to find evidence and see where that might lead them. No two shows are going to be the same.

Also in the cast is Paloma Nozica as Andrea. The show runs 85 minutes without an intermission.

Citizen Detective‘s original announced run sold out. The show has been extended through February 7th with those tickets going on sale on November 27th. There are only 24 tickets available for each performance. Tickets are $65 per household.

Finales – LA Philharmonic Sound/Stage – November 20th – continuing

Earlier this week the Los Angeles Philharmonic announced that there will be a second season of Sound/Stage starting in February. For anyone who has seen the previous eight episodes of the inaugural season, you’ll know this is good news.

Like any season, it has to wrap up with a grand finale. This week the final episode of Sound/Stage will do just that.

This new show finds Gustavo Dudamel back on the podium leading the LA Phil. On the program are the Finale of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7; Ritual Mind – Corporeous Pulse from Gabriela Ortiz’s Corpórea and Maurice Ravel’s The Fairy Garden from Mother Goose.

If you have missed some of the previous eight shows, they are still available and will remain so for one year. The only exception is the episode Solitude which will only be available through December 15th. They are all worth checking out.

All episodes of Sound/Stage are free. (Not that a donation to the LA Philharmonic would go amiss.)

TaReKiTa – Los Angeles Master Chorale – November 20th – 1:00 PM EST/10:00 AM PST

Composer Reena Esmail composed TaReKiTa in 2016 for Los Angeles-based Urban Voices Project. She has revised the work and it will have its premiere in this video performance from the Los Angeles Master Chorale. 24 singers will be joined by choreographer and dancer Shalini Haupt.

The piece does not use words, but rather sounds.

Esmail explains it on her website as “based on sounds the Indian drum, the tabla, makes, called ‘bols’ — they are onomatopoeic sounds that imitate the sound of the drum. The result is something like a scat would be in jazz – ecstatic, energetic, rhythmic music that feels good on the tongue.”

I’ve heard the original version and can’t wait to hear it expanded for so many more voices. Esmail’s composition is short and the entire performance runs two minutes.

Virtual Halston – Cast Party YouTube Channel – November 20th – 5:00 PM EST/2:00 PM PST

I’ve written several times about the delightful Julie Halston and her Friday happy hour virtual salons. The reason for writing again is that her guest this week is the phenomenally talented Gideon Glick.

Glick made his Broadway debut in the original production of Spring Awakening in 2006 after launching the show off-Broadway. He survived Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark when his role was cut during previews of the troubled musical. He played the lead role of Jordan Berman in Joshua Harmon’s Significant Others both off-Broadway and on. His most recent Broadway appearance was in the Aaron Sorkin adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. He received a Tony Award nomination for his performance. Last year he appeared in the off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors as Seymour.

At 32, Glick is an actor to watch. You should follow him on Twitter where his pithy comments make it abundantly clear he’ll make a great guest with Halston.

There is no charge to watch the show, but donations are encouraged with proceeds going to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation

Angela Hewitt Performs Bach – 92 Street Y – November 20th – 7:30 PM EST/4:30 PM PST – December 4th

In 2018 pianist Angela Hewitt culminated a four-year journey through the works of Johann Sebastian Bach at New York’s 92 Street Y with performances of the Goldberg Variations, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I and The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II. All three performances will be available for streaming starting on Friday and continuing through Friday, December 4th.

Hewitt has recorded all three works twice. With the Goldberg Variations she recorded them first in 2002 (in a recording that started around 11 PM at night and was captured live with just a few retakes the next day) and she revisited the work in 2015.

BBC Music Magazine raved about the later recording by saying, “Sixteen years on, the fingers are as formidably on the ball as ever—capable of the most tender translucency, of staccato leaps that ‘ping’, and able to differentiate and characterise several voices simultaneously with jaw-dropping felicity.”

She recorded The Well-Tempered Clavier (both books) in 1998-1999 and again in 2008. The earlier recording was named by BBC Music Magazine as Best of the Year. The later recordings were named a Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice.

All three performances become available simultaneously. There is a $15 fee to watch each performance. You can also purchase all three performances for $35. Links to each performance can be found in the opening paragraph of this preview.

Laura Osnes & Tony Yazbeck – Caramoor – November 20th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

The music of composer George Gershwin will be celebrated by Broadway stars Laura Osnes (Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Anything Goes) and Tony Yazbeck (On the Town, Finding Neverland) in this live-streamed benefit concert for the Caramoor Center for Music & the Arts in Katonah, New York. Fred Lassen serves as accompanist and music director.

In 2017, Osnes and Yazbeck worked together on a concert version (with dance) of the musical Crazy for You at Lincoln Center. That 1992 musical featured Gershwin’s songs and won the Tony Award for Best Musical.

They have also performed Gershwin together in cabaret settings since Crazy For You. In other words, they know their way around a Gershwin tune.

Two very talented Broadway stars, great Gershwin music, who could ask for anything more?

Tickets range from $50 – $125 and are tax-deductible. The two-hour show will remain available for 24 hours after its conclusion.

Anat Cohen Tentet – SFJAZZ – November 20th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

This week’s Fridays at Five concert from SFJAZZ features clarinetest Anat Cohen in a concert from December 2017.

The concert was in support of the first release by the Anat Cohen Tentet called Happy Song. Amongst the members of the ensemble are guitarist Sheryl Bailey, pianist/accordionist Vitor Gonçalves, trumpeter Nadja Noordhuis and vibraphonist James Shipp.

The music director/arranger is Oded Lev-Ari.

Last year the Anat Cohen Tentet released a follow-up album called Triple Helix.

Watching this concert requires the purchase of either a one-month digital membership ($5) or an annual membership ($60). The show streams only once at 5:00 PM PST (thus the program’s name Fridays at Five).

The Gaze…No Homo – Fountain Theatre – November 20th – December 31st

Actor and playwright Larry Powell (The Christians, The Legend of Georgia McBride) has adapted his Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference finalist play THE GAZE…(NO HOMO: PART ONE) into a twelve-episode series that begins streaming this week.

Powell has created stories that examine the lives and stories of queer people of color within what are traditionally white spaces.

The Gaze stars Eugene Byrd (Star Wars, 8 Mile), TC Carson (God of War, Star Wars:The Clone Wars), Yvette Cason (Dreamgirls, A Wrinkle in Time), Jason Green (The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo), Sharon Lawrence (NYPD Blue, Shameless), Devere Rogers (Will & Grace, My Spy) and Galen J. Williams (Pose, Motown The Musical).

Each week three of the episodes will be released on the Fountain Theatre’s website.

Powell directed three of the episodes. The other directors of The Gaze…No Homo are Satya Bhabha, Reginald L. Douglas, Amber A. Harris, Bianca Laverne Jones, Zhailon Levingston, Jonathan McCrory, Joanna Strapp and Leland Durond Thompson.

This digital series should be both thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining.

If I Should Wake – Greenway Court Theatre – November 20th – December 10th

As long as we’re on the topic of playwright Larry Powell, let’s take a look at another project in which he’s involved.

If I Should Wake is a play in two-parts featuring eight different monologues that explore the impact of the upheaval we’re experiencing in the world today and how that might alter our existence in the afterlife.

It’s a continuation of a program that launched Greenway Arts Alliance back in 2000. That series of monologues was written by José Rivera and was centered around the millennium.

There are eight different playwrights involved with If I Should Wake. In addition to Powell, they include Alex Alpharaoh, Boni B. Alvarez, Arianna Basco, Diana Burbano, Inda Craig-Galván, Yehuda Hyman and Grace McLeod.

The first part begins streaming on November 20th at 10:00 PM EST/7:00 PM PST. Part one includes The Waiting Room by McLeod, Body Quakes by Basco, The Reclamation of my Black Ass Imagination: An Awakening by Powell and Francis by Alvarez.

Part one will be available from November 20th – November 27th. It will be available again December 4th – December 10th.

The second part will feature Quicksand: A Bardo Monologue by Burbano; They Say My Name by Craig-Galván; Cassandra by Alpharaoh and The Let Go by Hyman.

Part two will be available from November 27th at 10:00 PM EST/7:00 PM PST and will remain available through December 10th.

Both parts of If I Should Wake will be available on Greenway Theatre’s Twitch.TV page. There is no charge to watch the play.

Gershwin & Dvořák– Pasadena Symphony – November 20th

The final concert in the Pasadena Symphony’s Pasadena Presents series finds a performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12 “American” on the program.

The soloist for Rhapsody in Blue is pianist Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner. The musicians performing the Dvořák are Carrie Kennedy and Joel Pargman on violin; Aaron Oltman on viola; Ryan Sweeney on cello and James Lent on piano.

Music Director David Lockington conducts.

Tickets are $25 to watch the concert.

Border Crossings Continued – Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra – November 20th – 9:30 PM EST/6:30 PM PST

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra continues their Border Crossings series with Close Quarters Episode 2. Once again, Patricia Mabee leads the performance from the harpsichord.

On the program are Joseph Pla’s Sonata III; Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Assobio a Jato, Gaspar Sanz’s Jácaras and Pastoreta Ychepe Flauta by an anonymous composer.

As these films combine performance and visuals (under the curation and supervision of James Darrah), the artists whose work appear in Close Quarters Episode 2 are Yuki Izumihara and Yee Eun Nam. Choreography is by Chris Emile and the dancer is Rosalynd LeBlanc.

The musicians are Josefina Vergara and Susan Rishik on violin; Armen Ksajikian on cello; Ben Smolen on flute; Jason Yoshida on theorbo/baroque guitar and Peter Corpela on percussion.

The performance lasts approximately 30 minutes. If you missed Episode 1, you can find it on LACO’s YouTube channel.

Rigoletto – San Francisco Opera – November 21st – November 22nd

Conducted by Nicola Luisotti; starring Željko Lučić, Aleksandra Kurzak and Francesco Demuro. This revival of the 1997 Mark Lamos production is from the 2012-2013 season and was directed by Harry Silverstein.

Victor Hugo, the author of Les Míserables, was also a playwright and it was his play, Le roi s’amuse, that served as the inspiration for Giuseppe Verdi’s opera. Francesco Maria Piave, who regularly collaborated with the composer, wrote the libretto. The opera had its world premiere in Venice, Italy in 1851.

The title character is a jester who serves the Duke of Mantua. The Duke is a seductive man who, upon learning that the woman with whom Rigoletto lives is his daughter and not his wife, makes the young woman, Gilda, his next target. Curses, assassination plots and more leave this clown without much to smile about.

For this production, San Francisco Opera had two casts in the three lead roles and Rigoletto was performed on back-to-back nights its opening weekend.

In Joshua Kosman‘s review for the San Francisco Chronicle he said there was one definitive revelation: “Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak, whose company debut Friday night as Gilda was nothing short of remarkable. In a role that is often sung with silvery, laser-like precision and naivete, Kurzak opted instead for a full-throated sound and an air of emotional assurance that made her plight all the more poignant.”

There is no charge to watch Rigoletto. The opera becomes available at 1:00 PM EST/10:00 AM PST and remains available until just before midnight PST on Sunday, November 22nd.

Circus Kid – Center Theatre Group Digital Stage – November 21st – 10:00 PM EST/7:00 PM PST

Seven years ago Lorenzo Pisoni brought his show, Humor Abuse, to the Mark Taper Forum. The play explored his life growing up in the circus. Filled with humor, pathos and some daring maneuvers, it was a thoroughly entertaining evening of theatre.

Pisoni has now taken that story further with a film called Circus Kid. This 2016 documentary finds him in search of the man behind the clown make-up who was his father. Pisoni grew up in and around the Pickle Family Circus. From a young age, he was made a regular performer as part of the circus.

Center Theatre Group will stream the documentary just this one time.

Following the documentary there will be a conversation between Pisoni and one of our finest actors and clowns: Bill Irwin (more about him later.)

The film runs 1 hour and 47 minutes. There is no charge to watch Circus Kid.

Jeremy Denk Recital – Philharmonic Society of Orange County- November 22nd – 10:00 PM EST/7:00 PM PST

If you’ve been reading Cultural Attaché for some time, you know how strongly I feel about pianist Jeremy Denk. I’m not alone in that assessment. He’s the recipient of MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, he’s had his recordings top the classical music charts and critics regularly try to find new superlatives to describe his playing.

On Saturday, he’ll be performing a recital live from the stage of the Irvine Barclay Theatre. The program includes Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K. 457; Clara Schumann’s Three Romances, Op. 22; Rzewski’s Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues and Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111.

Tickets are $20 and allow for viewing through November 28th.

Billie – 92 Street Y – November 22nd – 1:00 PM EST/10:00 AM PST

In advance of its release theatrical and online release, the 92 Street Y is hosting a free screening of James Erskine’s documentary Billie. His subject is, of course, the legendary Billie Holiday.

If what you know about Holiday can be summed up in one or two sentences, or is based on the film Lady Sings the Blues, this documentary sheds new light on all the factors that lead to Holiday’s trouble with drugs and the law. This includes battles with racism, the exploitation of her as an artist, how politics factored into her daily life and, of course, her addiction.

The film makes use of interviews with Count Basie, Tony Bennett, Charles Mingus and others that were conducted in the 1970s.

You need to register in advance to watch the screening.

Jarrod Spector & Kelli Barrett: Funny How It Happens – Adelphi Theatre – November 22nd – 5:00 PM EST/2:00 PM PST

Tony Award-nominated actor Jarrod Spector made his Broadway debut at the age of 9 in the long-running original production of Les Misérables as Gavroche. He joined another long-running musical, Jersey Boys, as Frankie Valli. He originated the role of Barry Mann in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and received his Tony nomination. He also originated the role of Sonny Bono in The Cher Show.

As an adult he’s taken on some pretty iconic men in music. He’s also taken on a more important role as husband to another Broadway star, Kelli Barrett.

Barrett first appeared on Broadway in the 2009 production of The Royal Family. She followed that by playing two different roles in the musical Baby It’s You. Next up was a turn as Nessarose in Wicked in 2014. The short-lived musical adaptation of Dr. Zhivago followed. Her most recent Broadway role was as Dani Franco in Gettin’ the Band Back Together.

With their show Funny How It Happens, Spector and Barrett will explore, through stories and song, how two people can fall in love, get married, keep busy performing and filming schedules and still remain the best of friends.

Tickets are $20.

Adam Pascal with Seth Rudetsky – November 22nd – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST – POSTPONED DUE TO TECHNICAL ISSUES. RESCHEDULED FOR DECEMBER 20th.

Broadway fans, and particularly Rent-heads, know Adam Pascal from his role as Roger in the original production of Jonathan Larson’s Rent. His other Broadway credits include the Elton John and Tim Rice musical, Aida, Cabaret, Chicago, Memphis, Something Rotten! and most recently, Pretty Woman.

He’s Seth Rudetsky’s guest for this week’s concert and conversation.

Pascal knows Rudetsky well. He appeared in his musical, Disaster!

If Sunday’s live stream doesn’t work for you, they will re-stream the concert on Monday, November 23rd at 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST.

Tickets are $25.

Those are my Best Bets at Home: November 20th – November 22nd. But it wouldn’t be one of my weekly columns if I didn’t offer up a reminder or two.

Earlier I mentioned Bill Irwin. Don’t forget that there are four more opportunities to stream his show, On Beckett/In Screen from the Irish Repertory Theatre.

Metropolitan Opera‘s celebration of Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin continues with Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites on Friday (very strongly recommended); Puccini’s Turandot on Saturday and Berg’s Wozzeck on Sunday.

Long Beach Opera’s 2020 Songbook remains available through Sunday for viewing. (See last week’s Best Best at Home for details.)

I suppose if you add these four reminders, you actually have almost as many options from which to choose as you have hours in a day. Luckily you have three days to watch them all.

That’s the complete list of Best Bets at Home: November 20th – November 22nd.

Enjoy your weekend!

Photo: Galen J. Williams in The Gaze (Photo courtesy Tell Me a Story Productions)

Update: This post has been updated to include the Sunday morning announcement that the Adam Pascal concert with Seth Rudetsky is postponed until December 20th due to technical issues.

The post Best Bets at Home: November 20th – November 22nd – UPDATED appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

This weekend’s choices range from several jazz performances to a topical one-woman show to a powerful dance performance and some great classical music.

If you’re looking for Halloween-themed events in our Best Bets, I want to point you to our special column dedicated to all things spooky you and your family can enjoy this weekend.

Here are our selection of the Best Bets at Home: October 30th – November 1st:

Reena Esmail’s Piano Trio – The Wallis – Now – November 19th

The world premiere of composer Reena Esmail’s Piano Trio took place last November in Seattle. It is a work that finds both Indian and Western classical music combined. As Esmail said about the work, “Imagine if you could say a single sentence, but it could be understood simultaneously in two different languages – that is what I aim to create through my music.”

Over the course of the next four weeks The Wallis will present a performance of one movement of her Piano Trio combined with insights and observations from Esmail and the three musicians performing the work. They are Vijay Gupta on violin, Peter Myers on cello and Suzana Bartal on piano.

Each movement will be streamed via Zoom. After that initial stream each movement can be found on The Wallis’ YouTube channel. Since the streaming events are on Thursdays, this week we have included a link to the YouTube page. If you want to watch subsequent performances on Zoom, you can go here to register for those.

Esmail is one of our most talented and interesting composers. This is going to be well worth your time if you love chamber music.

Kamasi Washington – Los Angeles Philharmonic – October 30th – November 29th

Jazz musician/composer Kamasi Washington takes to the Hollywood Bowl stage for a performance of the music he wrote for the film Becoming. This concert is part of the LA Phil’s Sound/Stage series and is free and available on their website. Becoming is the documentary about Michelle Obama’s book tour.

Along with the recently released Andra Day concert, this is a performance without the LA Phil.

Washington and his band perform his score. In addition to the performance, Washington will also be seen in an interview.

Of his work for Nadia Hallgren’s film, Washington told Rolling Stone Magazine, “Nadia asked me to write a song that would capture what the movie was saying about Michelle Obama. She’s a down-to-earth, brilliant queen who lives next door. She’s aware of who she is and what she has done, but she’s also aware of the people around her. So I tried to give that song a sense of depth and lightness. I thought, ‘If Michelle was going to write a song, what would it sound like?’”

Washington is one of our most exciting jazz musicians. I wouldn’t miss this.

Trio 3 & Vijay Iyer – Blue Note – October 30th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT – $10 Restream 11:00 PM EDT/8:00 PM PDT

New York’s Blue Note will live stream a concert on Friday featuring the supergroup Trio 3 and they are joined for this performance by pianist/composer Vijay Iyer.

The members of Trio 3 are Oliver Lake on alto sax, Reggie Workman on bass and Andrew Cyrille on drums. Iyer joined them for 2014’s Wiring.

Each musician has a lengthy career as both a leader and as a sideman. It is the combination of the three of them that makes truly unique music.

Nate Chinen, in writing for the New York Times about a 2015 performance at the Village Vanguard, said of Trio 3, “One misperception about the jazz avant-garde is that it’s essentially reactive, a single-minded pushback against conventions of form. Whatever lump of truth or slander you might find in that idea, Trio 3, which is playing at the Village Vanguard, provides scant supporting evidence for it. 

“An alliance of eminent composer-improvisers now in their 70s — the alto saxophonist Oliver Lake, the bassist Reggie Workman and the drummer Andrew Cyrille — Trio 3 belongs squarely to the jazz avant-garde, both in process and pedigree. But there was no rebellious undercurrent in the group’s first set on Wednesday night, which moved briskly through its allotted hour, propelled by cooperative forces.”

Adding Iyer to this trio will make for a truly wonderful concert.

Tickets are $15. There is also a re-streaming of the performance at 11:00 PM EDT/8:00 PM PDT.

Lila Downs – SFJAZZ – October 30th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

This week’s Fridays at Five concert from SFJAZZ features Lila Downs in a concert from May 2019 at the venue in support of her album, Al Chile.

Downs, who is from Oaxaca, rose to fame with her participation in the soundtrack to Julie Taymor’s 2002 film, Frida. She is the winner of one Grammy and three Latin Grammy awards.

As a friend said to me recently in an e-mail, “Hope you are able to watch Lila Downs! I love her and saw her concert in Portugal a couple of years ago!! Lively!!!”

Even though the clip we have from this concert is a ballad, expect lively for much of the performance.

Membership is required to watch the concert. Either a $5 monthly membership or a $60 annual membership. Tips are also encouraged during the streaming of the concert which will be split between the artists and SFJAZZ.

A Swingin’ Sesame Street Celebration – Jazz at Lincoln Center on PBS – October 30th

Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra have played with a veritable who’s who of jazz artists throughout their careers. But this weekend’s show on Jazz at Lincoln Center on PBS finds them sharing the stage with some of the biggest stars in the world.

Elmo, Bert & Ernie, Big Bird, Grover, Oscar the Grouch and more Sesame Street characters join the orchestra to sing songs from the show in A Swingin’ Sesame Street Celebration.

The one-hour concert, which took place October 2019, is scheduled to air on October 30th. As with most PBS programming, best to check your local listings for exact start times.

So if you want to go where the air is sweet….

Kristina Wong for Public Office – Center Theatre Group – October 30th – November 29th

We often wonder why our elected officials seem to lack a sense of humor. Or why they lack any awareness of the absurdity of it all. That isn’t the case with Kristina Wong who both serves in office and is also a performance artist with a wicked sense of humor.

She combines both those seemingly disparate sensibilities in a new one-person show called Kristina Wong for Public Office.

The 75-minute comedy performance becomes available at 11:00 PM EDT/8:00 PM PDT from Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles.

Kristina Wong for Public Office examines the role an artist, who is also a politician, can play in the democratic process. She also examines what that process is like, the history of voting and what it takes to run a campaign – all filtered through Wong’s unique perspective.

Tickets to watch Kristina Wong for Public Office are $10.

Four Quartets: 2018 Premiere – Fisher Center at Bard – October 31st – November 1st

In February of this year choreographer Pam Tanowitz’s Four Quartets was performed at UCLA’s Royce Hall. This work is a collaboration with Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, American painter Brice Marden and actress Kathleen Chalfant.

For two days this weekend Bard College will stream the 2018 premiere of Four Quartets. The work is inspired by T.S. Eliot’s monumental work.

Four Quartets is comprised of four different poems written by Eliot over a period of six years. They are Burnt Norton, Easy Coker, The Dry Salvages and Little Gidding. Thematically Eliot is exploring mankind’s place in the world and our relationships with both time and God.

Four Quartets is comprised of four different poems written by Eliot over a period of six years. They are Burnt Norton, Easy Coker, The Dry Salvages and Little Gidding. Thematically Eliot is exploring mankind’s place in the world and our relationships with both time and God.

The result of this collaboration has earned worldwide acclaim. Rightly so, it is a beautiful and powerful work.

Tickets range from $5 for Bard Students up to $25 to stream Four Quartets. (Pricing is based on your individual ability to afford tickets.)

There is another option as well. On Friday, October 30th at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT, you can join the premiere of a documentary, There the Dance Is (In the steps of Pam Tanowitz’s Four Quartets). The film features interviews with the dancers, Tanowitz and Chalfant.

Prior to the screening there will be a live Q&A between Tanowitz and Alistair Macaulay of the New York Times. You will also gain early access to stream the performance of Four Quartets. Tickets are $100.

Modern Beauty – Pittance Chamber Orchestra – November 1st – 6:00 PM EST/3:00 PM PST

Pittance Chamber Orchestra is comprised of musicians from the LA Opera Orchestra. This weekend they begin rolling out a three-part performance series called Modern Beauty. The performances were all filmed during the pandemic and feature Grammy Award-wining pianist Gloria Cheng.

The first performance finds Cheng and bassoonist Judith Farmer performing Sonata for Bassoon and Piano by Billy Childs. Included in this performance will be comments from Childs.

Part two of the series will stream on November 8th and the third part will stream on November 15th.

There is no charge for the performances, but donations are strongly encouraged.

En 3×4 – Quinteto Astor Piazzolla – November 1st – 6:00 PM EST/3:00 PM PST

One could argue that Astor Piazzolla redefined the tango with his compositions and his playing. Quinteto Astor Piazzolla celebrates his work in this performance filmed live in Buenos Aires for CAP UCLA.

On the program are seven different compositions: Verano Porteño, Camorra III, En 3×4, Soledad, Milonga del Ángel, Adios Nonino and Libertango.

The members of Quinteto Astor Piazzolla are Pablo Mainetti on bandoneón, Nicolás Guerschberg on piano, Serdar Geldymuradov on violin, Daniel Falasca on bass and Armando de la Vega on guitar.

There is no charge to watch the performance. However, donations are encouraged.

American Youth Symphony Fall Concert – November 1st – 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

Since its inception in the early 1960s, the American Youth Symphony has afforded Los Angeles-based students the opportunity to perform symphonic works as part of a fully-functioning orchestra. They regularly perform live concerts (commonly at Royce Hall) throughout the year.

Obviously 2020 is a different year. For their Fall Concert, Music Director Carlos Izcaray has assembled a combination of remotely-lead performances and two in-person filmed performances.

On the program is Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments performed by the AYS Virtual Wind & Brass Ensemble, Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst performed by the AYS String Ensemble, the world premiere of Izacary’s Bloom, performed by a Percussion Trio and Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge also performed by the AYS String Ensemble.

Through the performance both Montgomery and Izacary will discuss the creation of their two compositions.

Tickets are free, but require registration. The link in the title will take you to details and provide access to register for the concert.

Beth Malone with Seth Rudetsky – November 1st – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM EST

Tony Award-nominee Beth Malone is best known for her performance as Adult Alison in the musical Fun Home. She recently appeared in the 2018 revival of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. Earlier this year she starred as the title character in the off-Broadway production of The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

She is Seth Rudetsky’s guest this weekend for music and conversation about her life and career.

If you are unable to catch the live performance of Beth Malone‘s appearance, there is a re-stream on Monday, November 2nd at 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST. Tickets are $25 for either date.

They are also making a VIP Upgrade available three hours prior to the live performance that allows a behind-the-scenes look at the sound check and prep for the live show. That’s an additional $25 and is only available on November 1st and requires the purchase of a ticket to the performance.

Those are our selections are your Best Bets at Home: October 30th – November 1st. As always, we offer a few reminders:

This weekend’s operas from the Metropolitan Opera are Boris Godunov on Friday, The Ghosts of Versailles on Saturday (which I strongly recommend) and Satyagraha on Sunday (another strong recommendation).

Table Top Shakespeare At Home features Cymbeline on Friday, Julius Caesar on Saturday and Antony and Cleopatra on Sunday.

You can stream all three plays in the Donmar Warehouse’s Shakespeare Trilogy on Film this weekend. St. Ann’s Warehouse is making Julius Caesar, Henry IV and The Tempest available.

The reading of David Mamet’s Race continues through Sunday.

Have a safe and enjoyable Halloween weekend. I hope you enjoy our Best Bets at Home: October 30th – November 1st.

Photo: Kamasi Washington (Courtesy of the artist)

The post Best Bets at Home: October 30th – November 1st appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

The program features all contemporary classical music – no Mozart here. The evening   includes works by composers Conor Brown, Salina Fisher, Reena Esmail, Juan Pablo Contreras and Spiva is presenting the world premiere of his new work, The Body Overcome.

I recently spoke with Spiva by phone about this upcoming concert, diversity in classical music and his fervent belief in deep breathing as a way of navigating our hectic world.

When you were curating the program, how did you select the composers and the works that would be performed?

I’ve been thinking about this linguistics term, “Code Switching,” the act of speaking in one language and jumping into another conversation and then switching back. This whole thing about linguistics and how it is used to describe how our languages are morphing. There are people in multilingual families and communities and I really wanted to find music that spoke to that. Within each one of these pieces there’s not only traditional Western classical influences, but also influences from  music from other cultures like Mexican classical music or Indian classical music. I call it these other culture’s their classical music because it’s been a part of their culture for a long time.

What will the space at Hauser + Wirth, what are you expecting that environment to offer?

The concert is supposed to occur in the spaces of the gallery that are for the public at that time of the evening. Which is essentially the courtyard, hallway and garden. I like the environment around the concert. I think it is going to be quite unique. There’s a certain approach that is taken and it can get even more personal I guess if there’s a concert outside. We look at other genres like a rock concert or something like that that happens outside and it could even be drizzling and the concert still happens and people enjoy themselves. We just want to have a different access point, add to the multiple access points of classical music, by changing the setting. 

Four Larks is involved with staging and art direction. Three others are credited with movement. I’m assuming this is more than just a concert presentation. What is their role?

The overarching theme is about the mathematics that occur in the natural world. There’s going to be a lot of objects and visual stimulation that are meant to support this idea of the mathematics and architecture of the natural world that comes about naturally. The reason we picked that theme is because that’s also how our language works – which is why I like “code switching.” 

There’s also going to be some movement from dancers to also physicalize these things. My piece has influences from West Africa and India as well as some other various Western music in general. Sometimes the dancers will do movement that starts with something you’d see in a West African dance piece, but then moves to something you’d find in traditional Indian dancing. It starts with the structure of one culture and becomes something of a different culture and becomes a hybrid.

Your piece, The Body Overcome, is having its world premiere. What can you reveal about it?

The piece is really about breathing. There’s a lot of people coming out about mental health these days. And I had to go see a therapist because there’s a lot of stuff I have to deal with in the classical community that’s really frustrating and nobody should take that on themselves. The therapist I had was really into exercises that involved breathing – deep breathing and really filling my body with oxygen. The piece is about letting [breathing] overcome your body so that you are more peaceful in the midst of whatever kind of chaos, trial or tribulation is going on in your life. There’s a lot of joy in that. Both of those cultures that I draw from, when I listen to their traditional music, it fills me with joy and peace. So I felt that I could interpret breathing and the response that I get when I do it – the joy and peace that I feel, to those styles of music that also make me feel that way.

Are you more at peace now?

I don’t find myself more at peace, but better equipped to get to moments of peace when chaos arises. We’re all in this together. It’s best to find ways to equip yourself with the means to get to a moment of peace at any given point than to think you can sustain peace for the rest of your life. That might be too much to ask.

Growing up, I’m assuming you didn’t see too many people of color in classical music that could serve as inspirations for you. Do you feel a responsibility to be that inspiration for others who might think classical music is out of their reach?

Being an American we would hope it would mean when you get somewhere you turn around and put your hand out to pull someone else up so we can all rise together. I didn’t get that when I was a kid. When I was a kid they way I got through it is I looked up to Quincy Jones and a lot of film composers I really liked. But I focused on the music itself and the sound of it more than the composers because the composers didn’t look like me.

The term classical music, if you type it into Google, you get a white male. So when that happens just from typing the term in and you see somebody who looks different, there are questions. When I was growing up, I was a trombone player and whenever somebody would see me they would assume “he’s a jazz guy.” I said, “I don’t improv. I play classical music.” I was lying and I could play all the improv I wanted. I Just lied because if I alluded to being a jazz guy, that would be my category. Wynton Marsalis did a lot of work in classical music, but when they think of him they associate him with jazz. I just didn’t want that to happen to me. I wanted to go classical and then say, “guess what, I’m going to do some rapping.” I’m already in. You already know I can do an orchestra piece. There’s no question there. If I do this other stuff, it’s okay. 

Photos of Derrick Spiva Jr by Hannah Arista

Note: Derrick Spiva Jr. has changed his named to Derrick Skye since this interview was posted.

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