All entries by this author

Classical Encounters

April 15, 2011 | By Julie Riggott | Category: Classical Music and Opera

The Hamburg Room at Ronna Binn Hersh’s Tarzana home (with two Steinway pianos and great acoustics) has been host to the Classical Encounters series for five years and Pacific Serenades performances for eight years. This Sunday’s (April 17) concert at 4 p.m. wraps up the Classical Encounters season with pianist Jura Margulis performing works by Liszt.
Consolation [...]



Shakespeare in the City

April 14, 2011 | By Julie Riggott | Category: Theater and Dance

Where else but LA can you experience Shakespeare any way you want, any time you want?  A few of your options include productions at the Broad Stage, A Noise Within and “by the Sea.”
‘The Merchant of Venice’
Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham stars as Shylock in a production commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company at [...]



LA Zoo’s Sunset Safari

April 8, 2011 | By Julie Riggott | Category: Entertainment and Events

Did you know that the Los Angeles Zoo is an international leader in the conservation of endangered species? That’s reason enough for animal lovers to join the Safari Club. But exclusive events, like the upcoming Sunset Safari, which are only open to Safari Club members provide another incentive.
The Sunset Safari on Saturday, April 16, from [...]



Billy Collins and Kay Ryan at UCLA Live

April 6, 2011 | By Julie Riggott | Category: Books and Lectures

UCLA Live presents an evening with two of America’s premier poets, former Poets Laureate Billy Collins and Kay Ryan, appearing at Royce Hall Saturday, April 23, at 8 p.m.
In conjunction with the event and tied to National Poetry Month, UCLA Live is holding a poetry-writing competition. Collins and Ryan will judge the winners from selected [...]



’60s Abstract Painting at the Norton Simon Museum

April 3, 2011 | By Julie Riggott | Category: Art and Museums, Featured Articles

The Norton Simon Museum’s “Surface Truths: Abstract Painting in the Sixties” features work by artists such as Larry Bell, Thomas Downing, Helen Frankenthaler, Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella and Jack Youngerman. This exhibit, on display through Aug. 15, provides a rare chance to view 17 large-scale pieces from the Museum’s vaults.
The size of the canvases and [...]



Homeboy Industries and Nancy Baker Cahill

March 18, 2011 | By Julie Riggott | Category: Art and Museums

“Exit Wounds,” a collaborative, relational art project between formerly gang-involved youth of Homeboy Industries and Los Angeles artist Nancy Baker Cahill, opens with a free reception on Saturday, March 19, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Hi-Lite Project Space in downtown Los Angeles.
According to the gallery’s website: “Works in this exhibition blend individual narrative collages [...]



Nathan Gunn at Segerstrom Center for the Arts

March 18, 2011 | By Julie Riggott | Category: Classical Music and Opera, Entertainment and Events, Featured Articles

When we last spoke with acclaimed opera singer Nathan Gunn, he was performing the title role in LA Opera’s “The Barber of Seville” as well as a recital at the Broad Stage.  Now, he will make his debut at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts March 24-27. Appearing as part of the Cabaret Series in [...]



Two Unique Theater Experiences

March 11, 2011 | By Julie Riggott | Category: Classical Music and Opera, Theater and Dance

This weekend offers two very different and uniquely entertaining theater experiences. One is at Disney Hall and the other at the Bang Comedy Theater.
Tchaikovsky and Shakespeare
Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m., Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in performances of Tchaikovsky’s dramatic tone poems on Shakespeare plays: “Hamlet,” “The [...]



Trpčeski Returns to Disney Hall

February 12, 2011 | By Julie Riggott | Category: Classical Music and Opera, Featured Articles

Simon Trpčeski returns to Walt Disney Concert Hall for a solo recital on Tuesday, Feb. 22. The program includes music by Haydn, Chopin and Prokofiev, as well as fellow Macedonian Pande Shahov.
Culture Spot interviewed Trpčeski before his performance last spring with the LA Phil and conductor Jaap van Zweden at Disney Hall. We followed up [...]



Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic

January 26, 2011 | By Julie Riggott | Category: Classical Music and Opera

In celebration of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s 75th anniversary season and the 50th Anniversary of Zubin Mehta’s conducting debut, the IPO and Maestro Mehta embark on an eight-concert, seven-city U.S. tour in February, which culminates with a concert and gala at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Tuesday, March 1. The program includes Haydn’s Symphony No. 96 in D major, “The [...]