A Selective Guide to the Arts in Los Angeles

The Los Angeles chamber music scene has so much to offer this time of the year that it is difficult to know where to begin this week.  The opening gala of the Los Angeles Master Chorale Sunday, Oct. 16, will be especially unique, and any of the outstanding instrumental groups performing this week will be great. We recommend you save the dates Tuesday or Thursday, Oct. 18 or 20, to hear Camerata Pacifica with acclaimed pianist Adam Neiman.

Here is a brief summary of the events this week, and full details of each concert follow below.

There are two great vocal concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall:

• Harry Bicket and the English Concert return this season with countertenor Andreas Scholl to perform in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Baroque Variations series Tuesday evening, Oct 11;

• and on Sunday, Oct 16, the opening concert gala of the LA Master Chorale in their 48th season will be a personal affair as director Grant Gershon brings us a contemporary program that includes music from some of our own.

These five chamber concerts offer something for every taste from Baroque to modern:

• on Thursday, Oct. 13, the Calder Quartet joins pianist Gabriel Kahane;

Jacaranda brings another distinctive edition of “music at the edge” on the weekend of Oct 15 and 16.

Camerata Pacifica swings through the area with pianist Adam Neiman on Tuesday and Thursday, Oct. 18 and 20;

Le Salon de Musiques is upstairs Sunday afternoon, Oct. 16, in the Impresario Room at the Dorothy Chandler with pianist Rina Dokshitsky;

• and also on Sunday afternoon, the Mojave Piano Trio with Grammy Award-winning violinist Sara Parkins close the week with a benefit concert in South Pasadena.

And don’t miss the 78th annual Los Angeles Bach Festival Oct. 16-23 at the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles.

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Los Angeles Philharmonic Baroque Variations

HARRY BICKET and THE ENGLISH CONCERT return to Walt Disney Concert Hall with countertenor ANDREAS SCHOLL

Read our Culture Spot LA review of Bicket and the English Concert when they visited Disney Hall in 2009 with countertenor David Daniels.

Program:
Biber: Sonata No.6

Purcell: Three Airs

Purcell: Scenes from “King Arthur”

Muffat: Passacaglia from Sonata V

Purcell: Scenes from “The Fairy Queen”

Tuesday, Oct. 11, 8 p.m.

Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Avenue, LA

Tickets: $54 to $109. For ticket information, call (323) 850-2000.

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Calder Quartet

BENJAMIN JACOBSON violin, ANDREW BULBROOK violin, JONATHAN MOERSCHEL viola, ERIC BYERS cello and GABRIEL KAHANE piano

The internationally acclaimed CALDER QUARTET performs traditional repertoire and also collaborates with innovative modern composers, emerging musicians, and performers across genres.  The Quartet regularly performs in the world’s leading venues including Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Kennedy Center.  For this concert they are joined by GABRIEL KAHANE (Jeffrey Kahane’s son), who is noted for music that skips between indie, classical, and theater.

Thursday, Oct. 13, 8 p.m.

Largo at the Coronet, 366. N. LaCienega Blvd., LA

Tickets: $25, more concert information here.

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Los Angeles Master Chorale

The Los Angeles Master Chorale presents its 48th Season Opening Night Concert and Gala with Conductor Grant Gershon on Sunday at Walt Disney Concert Hall.  The program includes five diverse pieces, among them a U.S. premiere of Swedish composer Thomas Jennefelt.  Also on the program is the beautiful Lux Aeterna by former LA Master Chorale Composer-In-Residence Morten Lauridsen, which quickly became one of the world’s most popular choral works after its premiere by the Chorale in 1997.  Also featured are British composer Tarik O’Regan and works by two LA-based composers, Eric Whitacre and the Chorale’s own Shawn Kirchner.  A post-concert gala in BP Hall caps the season opener.

Program:

ERIC WHITACRE: Her Sacred Spirit Soars

THOMAS JENNEFELT: Music for a big church; for tranquility (U.S. Premiere)

TARIK O’REGAN: Tal vez tenemos tiempo

SHAWN KIRCHNER: Heavenly Home

MORTEN LAURIDSEN: Lux Aeterna

Sunday, Oct. 16, 7 p.m.

(6 p.m. – “Listen Up!,” pre-concert conversation with Grant Gershon and KUSC host Alan Chapman)

Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Avenue, LA

Tickets: $24 to $134; $10 student rush tickets may be purchased at box office two hours prior to performance, based on availability; gala reservations: $500.

For information call (213) 972-7282.  (Tickets cannot be purchased at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office except on concert day starting two hours prior to performance.)

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Camerata Pacifica

Acclaimed pianist ADAM NEIMAN joins CAMERATA PACIFICA as they tour the local venues with concerts at the Huntington Library in San Marino and at Colburn’s Zipper Hall in Downtown Los Angeles.

Program

Liszt: Transcendental Etudes

Tuesday, Oct. 18, 8 p.m.

Huntington Library, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino

Thursday, Oct. 20, 8 p.m.

Zipper Concert Hall, The Colburn School, 200 S. Grand Ave., LA

For information and directions click here.

Tickets: Huntington Library: $45, Zipper Concert Hall: $45.

See concert and artist information.

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JACARANDA – music at the edge

PATRICK SCOTT artistic director and series producer, MARK ALAN HILT music director, SCOTT DUNN conductor, CÉCILIA TSAN cello, MARIA CASALE harp, ARON KALLAY celesta, MARK ALAN HILT organ, JACARANDA CHAMBER SINGERS.  LYRIS QUARTET: ALYSSA PARK and SHALINI VIJAYAN violins, LUKE MAURER viola, TIMOTHY LOO cello.

With its motto “music at the edge,” Jacaranda offers the best of music from centuries past next to new and modern music with artists drawn from the Southland’s finest and premier international guests.

Program:

Nico Muhly: Clear Music (2003)

Philip Glass: String Quartet No.5 (1991)

Philip Glass: Another Look at Harmony IV (1975) – West Coast Premiere

Saturday, Oct. 15, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 16, 6 p.m.

First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica, 1220 Second Street, Santa Monica

Tickets: $40 / $20 students, at the door; $35 / $15 students, advance sale

For concert information and to order tickets, click here.

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Le Salon de Musiques

RINA DOKSHITSKY piano, PHILLIP LEVY and JULIE GIGANTE violins, ANDREW DUCKLES viola, DAVID LOW cello.

Le Salon de Musiques features well-known artists from LA’s leading ensembles and orchestras. The venue is the fifth-floor Impresario Room in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with a beautiful view. After the performance, audience members mingle with the artists and fellow music lovers around a gourmet buffet with French Champagne.

Read Culture Spot LA’s review of Le Salon de Musiques last season.

Program:

Brahms: Scherzo for violin and piano in C Minor

3rd movement of the “F-A-E Sonata”

Brahms: Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op.34

Sunday, Oct. 16, 4 p.m.

Impresario Room (fifth floor), Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 North Grand Avenue, LA

Tickets: $65. For full concert and artist information, click here.

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Mojave Piano Trio

Restoration Concert Series

Grammy Award-winning violinist SARA PARKINS of the famed Angeles Quartet is joined by UC Irvine faculty cellist MARGARET PARKINS and Pomona College faculty pianist GENEVIEVE FEIWEN LEE.

Sunday, Oct. 16, 4 p.m.

Community Room, South Pasadena Library, 1115 El Centro Street, South Pasadena

Tickets: $18. Net proceeds to be used for the continuing restoration of the library’s community room.  For information click here.

~Theodore Bell/Culture Spot LA

Culture Spot LA recommends Jim Eninger’s Clickable Chamber Music Newsletter, an extensive calendar of upcoming music events, large and small, happening all around Los Angeles.