By Ted AYALA Dmitri Shostakovich’s 1959 “Cello Concerto No. 1” is a compact, grim little piece in four movements that tends to veer off into the darker end of the emotional spectrum for nearly the whole of its 25-minute duration. Not that the composer would have told you or anybody else that. Shostakovich was infamously […]
By Ted AYALA Pacific Serenades brings its 27th season to a close on Sunday, June 3 with a program of chamber music for winds by Mozart, Poulenc, Saint-Saëns, and local composer Stephen Cohn. Southern California is enjoying an embarrassment of riches when it comes to chamber music. Pacific Serenades holds its own place of distinction […]
By Michael YEGHIAYAN Supporters of Glendale’s arts and culture community gathered in North Hollywood to help raise funds to the sights of a 1950s newsroom and the sounds of Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. The event, aptly named Pops & Props, was held on Saturday at one of the area’s largest prop houses. The […]
By Ted AYALA The last time she was in town, cellist Alisa Weilerstein left a deep impression on local audiences with her playing of Peter Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo Variations.” The 2011 MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipient returns to Los Angeles for a pair of concerts with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) this weekend, closing out the […]
By Ted AYALA The recent announcement by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) regarding its 2013-14 season startled some of its supporters in Glendale who feared the ensemble may be feeling its way toward a new home. In a press release, the orchestra announced that the first two concerts of its new season would take […]
By Ted AYALA The Glendale Youth Orchestra (GYO) brings its 24th season to a close on Sunday at the Alex Theatre with a program that mixes classical works spanning the 18th and 20th centuries with a little bit of Brazilian jazz. Traditionally, the end of season concerts of the GYO have been a showcase for […]
Take a typical Southern California spring weekend in May, add tall trees, snow-streaked mountain peaks, blue sky and pine-scented air and you have the beginnings of a recipe for family fun. Begun in 1982 as a way to forget winter and welcome the approaching summer, the Lilac Festival started as little more than a bake […]
Star Trek opens May 17. Okay, say it with me: Star Trek opens May 17. Have you ever heard anything so wonderful? By Mary O’Keefe “Star Trek Into Darkness” is the second in the new J.J. Abrams series of films. But before there was Chris Pine’s Capt. James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto’s Spock there […]