Beethoven ignited a fire of emotion in a way people had never before connected to any form of music, and we haven’t been the same since. New West Symphony accompanied by the Grammy-nominated Eroica Trio prove his music is as exciting and vibrant as ever during Happy 250th, Ludwig! Under the direction of guest conductor Stefan Sanderling the performance will feature Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 “Eroica” and Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello, Piano and Orchestra. Those interested in learning more about Beethoven and the presentation are invited to join an informative 30-minute pre-concert lecture one hour before each performance.

Concerts at 2:00pm & 8:00pm

Bach: The Goldberg Variations for strings
Reena Esmail: Teen Murti
Albinoni: Oboe Concerto transcribed for trumpet
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
Piazzolla: “Prima Porteña” (Spring) from The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires

David Lockington, conductor
Marissa Benedict, trumpet
Simone Porter, violin

Esmail’s Teen Murti draws inspiration from Hindi traditional raag melodies combined with Western techniques – the result is a sonorously magical experience. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons heralds the return of local violinist Simone Porter, whose career is now in full international stride with a command of technical chops, elegant vibrato and the expressive panache to bring Vivaldi’s most cherished concertos to life. Principal Trumpet Marisa Benedict takes center stage with Albioni's Oboe Concerto.

For more info and tickets, visit:
https://pasadenasymphony-pops.org/concert/vivaldi-four-seasons/

Beethoven ignited a fire of emotion in a way people had never before connected to any form of music, and we haven’t been the same since. New West Symphony accompanied by the Grammy-nominated Eroica Trio prove his music is as exciting and vibrant as ever during Happy 250th, Ludwig! Under the direction of guest conductor Stefan Sanderling the performance will feature Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 “Eroica” and Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello, Piano and Orchestra. Those interested in learning more about Beethoven and the presentation are invited to join an informative 30-minute pre-concert lecture one hour before each performance.

FREE ADMISSION

Called “outstanding” by the San Francisco Chronicle, “transcendent” by the Charleston City Paper, and “a fully distorted perpetual motion of awesome” by I Care If You Listen, The Living Earth Show (guitarist Travis Andrews and percussionist Andy Meyerson) is a megaphone and canvas for some of the world’s most progressive artists. One of the premiere contemporary chamber arts ensembles in the United States, The Living Earth Show received the grand prize in the SAVVY Chamber Arts Competition and runner-up in the open division of the M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition, has
commissioned and premiered over 60 new works by some of the most vital composers in the world, and released two critically acclaimed albums, and has performed, lectured, and given masterclasses across the country.

The 28th annual Ussachevsky Memorial Festival of Electro Acoustic Music this year features special guest composer, American Christopher Cerrone. The two-day event welcomes faculty and guest performers in two evening concerts, along with an afternoon lecture/demonstration by Cerrone.

Cerrone is acclaimed for compositions characterized by a subtle handling of timbre and resonance, and a flair for multimedia collaborations, Cerrone’s works have been called utterly compelling and uniquely his own.

2020 Festival performers include faculty: Rachel Rudich, flute Cynthia Fogg, viola Maggie Parkins and Tom Flaherty, celli Joti Rockwell, electric guitar and Genevieve Feiwen Lee, piano plus guests: Sara Andon, flute Brian Walsh, clarinet Adrianne Pope and Jeff Gauthier, violins Yuri Inoo, percussion and Nadia Shpachenko, piano.

Festival Schedule - Day one

Friday, January 31 - 8 p.m. Concert - Free and open to the public

Program (with performers)
Cerrone: Double Happiness (Rockwell, Inoo)
Liach: N.N. (Parkins)
Van Zandt: Sí an Bhrú (Shpachenko)
Hansen: It’s Like the Nothing Never Was (Flaherty)
Cerrone: Liminal Highway: (Rudich)

FMI: https://www.pomona.edu/events/ussachevsky-memorial-festival-electro-acoustic-music-day-1

The 28th annual Ussachevsky Memorial Festival of Electro Acoustic Music this year features special guest composer, American Christopher Cerrone. The two-day event welcomes faculty and guest performers in two evening concerts, along with an afternoon lecture/demonstration by Cerrone. Cerrone is acclaimed for compositions characterized by a subtle handling of timbre and resonance, and a flair for multimedia collaborations, Cerrone’s works have been called utterly compelling and uniquely his own.

2020 Festival performers include faculty: Rachel Rudich, flute Cynthia Fogg, viola Maggie Parkins and Tom Flaherty, celli Joti Rockwell, electric guitar and Genevieve Feiwen Lee, piano plus guests: Sara Andon, flute Brian Walsh, clarinet Adrianne Pope and Jeff Gauthier, violins Yuri Inoo, percussion and Nadia Shpachenko, piano.

Saturday, February 1 – 8 p.m. Concert – Free and open to the public
Program (with performers)
Cerrone: On Being Wrong (Parkins)
Grossmann: Dois Aforismos com Interlu´dio (Lee)
Flaherty: Release (The Smudges: Gauthier, Parkins)
Alves: Night Refuge (Brightwork: Andon, Walsh, Pope, Parkins, Inoo, Kallay)
Cerrone: The Night Mare (Brightwork: Andon, Walsh, Pope, Fogg, Parkins, Inoo, Kallay)

FMI: https://www.pomona.edu/events/ussachevsky-memorial-festival-electro-acoustic-music-day-2

wasteLAnd presents music driven by collective action and creation, both in the act of composition and in community-based realization. The program features world premieres by Richard Barrett and Nicholas Deyoe in addition to radical works by Raven Chacon, George Lewis, Pauline Oliveros, Sarah Belle Reid, and Wilfrido Terrazas. These works explore degrees of improvisation, highlighting the necessity of communal action and negotiation in these collective creations while also reflecting on grassroots political collectivism.

Richard Barrett Codex (world premiere)
Raven Chacon Round
Nicholas Deyoe Everyday-Life Human Efforts (world premiere)
George Lewis Artificial Life
Pauline Oliveros Heart of Tones
Sarah Belle Reid Disonillium
Wilfrido Terrazas Torre del Norte

Free with RSVP
7:00 PM Museum Tour + Reception
8:00 PM Concert

On February 11, 2020, the Department of Music at California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) will present a program called Black Voices by visiting amplified piano trio Warp Trio, an ensemble that lies at the intersection of a chamber music ensemble, rock band, and art project. Their program Black Voices integrates Classical, Jazz, Hip-Hop, and Spoken Word, presenting works all created by African-American artists. Presented with award-winning emcee LiKWuiD, the program consists of poetry by Langston Hughes, Ntozake Shange, Maya Angelou, as well as original spoken word material, complemented with music by Duke Ellington, William Grant Still, Harry Burleigh, and original compositions by Warp Trio. This program is suitable and encouraged for all ages. The concert is February 11, 2020, 7:30 pm at the Music Hall at California State University, Los Angeles’s Department of Music. The show is free to attend, and parking for a fee is available on the top floor of Parking Structure C. For more information about Warp Trio, visit http://www.warptrio.com/.

Conrad Tao, piano
Caleb Teicher, dancer/choreographer
Caleb Teicher & Company

CONRAD TAO: More Forever

“One of the brightest lights in tap today” (The New Yorker), Caleb Teicher and Lincoln Center Emerging Artist and innovative pianist-composer Conrad Tao collaborate in a new evening-length work. Premiered in January 2019 at The Guggenheim, and set to Tao’s new contemporary score for piano and electronics, More Forever explores American dance traditions such as vernacular jazz, tap and Lindy Hop. This sonic journey will brush away the fine line between movement and music and expand the expressive capacity of American music and dance.

Tickets start at $28

Tickets available at https://tickets.philharmonicsociety.org/single/eventDetail.aspx?p=20313 or at 949-553-2422

Concerts at 2:00pm & 8:00pm

PROGRAM
Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man
Michael Giacchino: Voyage
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess, Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Debussy: La Mer

ARTISTS
David Lockington, conductor
Nick Kendall, violin

Oscar-winning Giacchino honors NASA and the interstellar with Voyage. Nick Kendall, a member of the genre-bending trio Time for Three brings his unique brand of virtuosity and infectious enthusiasm to a fanciful violin concerto based on Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Our largest work of the season, Debussy’s La Mer paints a majestic picture of the sea with a mosaic of orchestral colors, climaxing waves of sounds and emotional imagery that will run through you.

For more info and tickets, visit:
https://pasadenasymphony-pops.org/concert/gershwin-porgy-and-bess/

CAP UCLA presents Four Quartets February 15th & 16th at Royce Hall. T. S. Eliot’s mysterious and beautiful masterpiece, is a rumination on time and timelessness and is now prized as one of the 20th century’s most stunning literary achievements. Seventy-five years after its publication, Eliot’s poetry cycle has inspired three astonishing contemporary artists to join forces in a ravishing union of dance, music, painting and poetry. American choreographer Pam Tanowitz, legendary Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, and American modernist painter Brice Marden have created a vast and thrilling performance from Eliot’s meditations on past and present, time and space, movement and stillness. Joining them is Tony Award-nominated actress Kathleen Chalfant (Angels in America, Wit) performing Eliot’s text live. This unprecedented collaboration, the first authorized performance based on Four Quartets, promises to be one of the must-see events of the season. Visit http://bit.ly/2Q366Qk for more info, and use promo code FRQT15 for 15% off tickets!

FREE ADMISSION

~Nois is a Chicago-based saxophone quartet that defies categorization by working between the boundary of contemporary classical music and experimental improvisation. Founded in 2016 by graduate students at Northwestern University, ~Nois (pronounced “noise”) has quickly emerged as one of the premier young ensembles dedicated to innovative and engaging performances. Known for their “masterclass-level demonstrations of precise articulations and glowing legatos” (I Care if You Listen), “truly innovative musicianship,” and “raw creativity” (Cacophony Magazine), ~Nois has been awarded prizes at prestigious chamber music competitions including the Second Prize in the Open Division of the 2018 M- Prize International Chamber Arts Competition, the Silver Medal at the 2017 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Second Prize at the 2018 North American Saxophone Alliance Quartet Competition, and First Prize at the 2016 Chicago Woodwind Ensemble Competition. ~Nois was invited to be an Ensemble Fellow to the 2018 Blackbird Creative Lab, where they worked closely with fellow Chicago- based ensemble, Eighth Blackbird.

It’s not well known that Charlie Chaplin, the unmistakable and endearing character in his bowler hat and mustache, composed almost all of the music in his films. He called himself "a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow…" and he said he wanted everything to be "a contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and the shoes large…"

Those contradictions appear in his music, too, and the effect is of a sweetness streaked with melancholy. Philippe Quint's newest project is a lovingly chosen collection of eleven of Chaplin’s love songs, arranged for piano and violin. Quint was thrilled to discover these pieces; his uncanny understanding of each piece makes it so every song is bursting with the hilarity and heartbreak that Chaplin brought so touchingly to the big screen.

This unique program will juxtapose the music of Charlie Chaplin with those great composers he was influenced by, including Debussy, Stravinsky, Brahms, and Gershwin. The relationships Chaplin had with these compositional masters will be explored through music and story, including screen clips of Chaplin’s silent era films with musical accompaniment by Philippe Quint, and rare video footage of Chaplin conducting his orchestras in recording sessions!

Tickets start at $32

Tickets available at https://tickets.philharmonicsociety.org/single/eventDetail.aspx?p=21317

FREE ADMISSION

Panic Duo is a Los-Angeles based ensemble dedicated to the performance of music of our time. Featuring violinist Pasha Tseitlin and pianist Nic Gerpe, the Duo’s performances of contemporary music have been described as “exciting”, “virtuosic”, and “irresistible”. Engaging audiences into unfamiliar music through a combination of dialogue and uncompromising musicality, Panic Duo has brought a variety of repertoire to audiences since 2009.

Commissioned by Stephanie Aston, wasteLAnd is proud to present the world premiere of David Brynjar Franzson's evening-length work for soprano and 8-channel live electronics.

Davíð Brynjar Franzson New Work (world premiere)

Parking is free in the lot across Hewitt St. from ArtshareLA

Concerts at 2:00pm & 8:00pm

PROGRAM
Caroline Shaw: Red, Red Rose
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20
Mozart: Symphony No. 39

ARTISTS
Nicholas McGegan, conductor
Yerin Yang, piano
Eliza Bagg, soprano

Hailed as “in fact the sunniest conductor in classical music!” (Los Angeles Times), Nic McGegan brings his expert performance practice paired with a joyously effervescent conducting style. Personally written for McGegan, Caroline Shaw’s Red, Red Rose blooms with sought-after vocalist Eliza Bagg. It’s a Mozart spectacular with Symphony No. 39 and the melodic perfection found in his Piano Concerto No. 20, performed by 2017 Steinway/Colburn Festival Competition winner Yerin Yang.

For more information and tickets, visit:
https://pasadenasymphony-pops.org/concert/mozart-mcgegan/

Surrounding the audience, wasteLAnd performs an evening of music about memory, liquid structures, submersion, and bliss. The music retraces its steps, reorders its elements, and delights in nuances. The program includes the premiere of a new work by Silvia Cignoli as well as a recent work for piccolo and electronics by Kimia Koochakzadeh, a participant in wasteLAnd’s inaugural Summer Academy for Composition in 2019.

Silvia Cignoli L'Acqua Non Ricorda
Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi The Starts and Stops
Katharina Rosenberger Modules

Parking is free in the lot across Hewitt St. from ArtshareLA

FREE ADMISSION

The Mivos Quartet, “one of America’s most daring and ferocious new-music ensembles” (The Chicago Reader), is devoted to performing works of contemporary composers and presenting new music to diverse audiences. Since the quartet’s beginnings in 2008 they have performed and closely collaborated with an ever-expanding group of international composers representing
multiple aesthetics of contemporary classical composition. They have appeared on prestigious series such as the New York Phil Biennial, Wien Modern (Austria), the Darmstadt Internationalen Ferienkurse für Neue Musik (Germany), Asphalt Festival (Düsseldorf, Germany), HellHOT! New Music Festival (Hong Kong), Shanghai New Music Week (Shanghai, China), Edgefest (Ann Arbor, MI), Música de Agora na Bahia (Brazil), Aldeburgh Music (UK), and Lo Spririto della musica di Venezia (La Fenice Theater, Italy).

In society, poets and songwriters play the essential role of dreamers, opening up avenues of hope for others. Despite the oppressive regimes which prevailed throughout much of Latin America and Spain in the twentieth century, what persevered from the dreamers was an unending love for beauty and humanity. Mexican-born songstress Magos Herrera and the omnivorous string quartet Brooklyn Rider join forces for an unforgettable musical journey, reinterpreting classics of the era from Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Spain, and celebrating such luminaries as Octavio Paz, Federico García Lorca, and Rubén Darío.

Tickets start at $28

Tickets available at https://tickets.philharmonicsociety.org/single/eventDetail.aspx?p=20333 or 949-553-2422

Concerts at 2:00pm & 8:00pm

PROGRAM
Michael Abels: Russian Overtures - world premiere, Pasadena Symphony commission
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition

ARTISTS
David Lockington, conductor
Inon Barnatan, piano

A world premiere by film composer Michael Abels ("Get Out", "Us") to close the season. Plus, Rachmaninoff’s powerhouse Piano Concerto No. 3 delivers keyboard pyrotechnics, romance and visceral nostalgia, while Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition will transport you to an exotic art show depicted through musical illustrations; the melodies of which have become beloved standards in Classical music.

For more information and tickets, visit:
https://pasadenasymphony-pops.org/concert/rachmaninoff-piano-concerto-3/

Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Sam Green (The Weather Underground), in collaboration with Emmy Award®-winning writer and editor Joe Bini (Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, Grizzly Man), takes the stage with the legendary classical music group Kronos Quartet to create a “live documentary” that chronologically unfolds the quartet’s groundbreaking, continent-spanning, multi-decade career. Wildly creative and experimental in form, A Thousand Thoughts is a meditation on music itself—the act of listening closely to music, the experience of feeling music deeply, and the power that music has to change the world.

Tickets start at $20

Tickets available at https://tickets.philharmonicsociety.org/single/eventDetail.aspx?p=20368 or 949-553-2422

wasteLAnd presents an evening of music inspired by ghosts in the machine. In works by John Cage and Alvin Lucier, drums driven by sound waves seem to play themselves. With microphones as mallets, rhythms emerge in the music of Robert Wannamaker beyond human control and comprehension. Kelley Sheehan’s Talk Circus creates a musical language from the glitch, feedback, and variability of electronic circuitry.

John Cage Variations II
Natacha Diels Strange Attractors
Alvin Lucier Music for Pure Waves, Bass Drums, and Acoustic Pendulums
Kelley Sheehan Talk Circus
Robert Wannamaker Phase Diagram

Parking is free in the lot across Hewitt St. from ArtshareLA