Daniel Müller-Schott / photo courtesy of LA Phil

The late days of summer are the best time of year in Los Angeles for an evening picnic; and if your main course pairs well with the finest music in LA, then what place could be better than the Hollywood Bowl?

Bramwell Tovey, principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, leads the orchestra in a program of music by Wagner, Elgar and Beethoven on Tuesday, Aug. 31, at 8 p.m.

Extraordinary young cellist Daniel Müller-Schott will perform Elgar’s moving Cello Concerto.  Expect to feel something good.

The program also includes Wagner’s Die Meistersinger Prelude and Symphony No. 7 by Beethoven.

Tuesday, Aug. 31, 8 p.m.

2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood

Tickets are on sale now at HollywoodBowl.com, at the Hollywood Bowl Box Office (noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday), by calling (323) 850-2000, or through Ticketmaster. Groups of 10 or more may call (323) 850-2050 for information about special rates, subject to availability.

The first act of the evening featured a range of interesting works, dip though they occasionally did into the aforementioned camp.  Several opera pieces featured excellent soloists like baritone John Musselman and the engaging, exuberant tenor DJ Pick.  The opportunity for gesture and expression allowed a greater range for the performative singers.  The evening’s conductor, Dominic Gregorio, was finishing his tenure with the group gracefully, and his enthusiasm for the operatic numbers was especially enjoyable.

After a short intermission, a world-premiere commissioned work brought the choir together with electronica musician John Tejada.  “The End of It All” was part house music, part movie chorus, and, though musically somewhat infantile, fascinating.  The interactions between live, organic sound and hyper-produced beats and tones synthesized, at its best, a uniquely pleasing listening experience.

“Baba Yetu,” which introduced the GSA Youth Choir, struck me as odd, but this may be because the tune is used in (if not from?) turn-based computer game Civilization IV.  The “Dance With Me Medley,” with Madonna and Gaga and a great deal of musical mash-up and soul bearing, brought out the best of the smaller ensemble and brought the audience to its feet.  A brief solo from Pasadena City College student Cristie Wilson made the otherwise insufferable “Lean on Me” utterly pleasing — encore for Wilson, if you please?

A semi-costumed history lesson on Harvey Milk did get off on the right foot with the aforementioned and heart-wrenching Sondheim number.  That said, it otherwise felt somewhat clumsily integrated to the singers’ purpose, an obstructive framework for otherwise skillfully chosen songs like “There Won’t Be Trumpets” and Paul Simon’s “American Tune.”  (Barring these details, the Harvey Milk Schools Project is well worth looking into; see below.)

Ironically, the evening’s second-to-last number — one that had as much potential as “Lean on Me” to be made entirely of cheese — was “True Colors,” the Lauper pop-tune from pop songsters Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly.  The combined choirs — a veritable plethora of ages, aesthetics, and all other visible indicators of individuality — fully embodied the truth that a group of people with a common belief can demonstrate deepest humanity by cooperating in song.  This reviewer did a fair amount of tear drying.

Whether ending the evening with Michael Jackson’s “Will You Be There” was total overkill is debatable; there was also a short encore piece.  The truly powerful moments of the evening stood in the unity of the performers, the enthusiasm of the group, and the articulate, happy voice of its executive director, the praiseworthy Hywel W. Sims.  The group is entering its 32nd season, and while there will be a handing-off of the baton, the GMCLA’s capacity for meaningful entertainment is promising.

Notable performances (apart from Pick and Wilson) were ASL Interpreter Jon Maher, USC student Marisa Leigh Esposito, John Tejada, and John Tejada’s intuitive music technology.

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles will be performing a holiday concert Dec. 18 and 19 in Glendale, as well as two more concerts in the “Power of 3” season.  More information on this and the anti-bullying Harvey Milk Schools Foundation can be found at www.gmcla.org.

Trey McIntyre Project / photo courtesy of LA Phil

I imagine the artists who had the Hollywood Bowl stomping and shaking on Aug. 18 were booked well before April 20, when an explosion aboard BP’s Deepwater Horizon precipitated the unthinkable. But Wednesday’s lineup of New Orleans music legends — the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and the Neville Brothers — paid tribute to a city that’s taken blow upon blow. And lending awe-inspiring physical form to a history of grief, endurance and vibrant spirit, dancers from the Trey McIntyre Project shared the stage with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band in their electrifying 2008 collaboration, Ma Maison.

“If you hear that beat …” In raspy barks that sound like the blasts from his trumpet, Efrem Towns of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band calls, “Get up outta your seat,” and we gladly obey. The DDBB plays the music of a fading New Orleans institution: brass bands that perform dirges for funerals, and swinging dance tunes once the somber processions pass by. Here, rattling ragtime syncopations, martial marching band rat-a-tats, and racing, trilling, squealing horns keep us clapping and chanting “My feet … can’t … fail me now” along with “ET,” and we see mostly the mirthful side of the tradition. But in the bright choruses — “No matter what you heard, everythin’s alright and we gonna be alright” — throbs a mix of pain and fierce pride, hopeful mourning within the merriment.

After intermission, lights come up on the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and picnickers around me sit up and take notice. In black and white formal wear, arranged in neat, seated formation, with band name printed on drum and tuba, they play classic New Orleans jazz in old school style — standing in unison when tinny banjo and grunting trombone rev to a climax, and gesturing theatrically to show us how “everybody lookin’” at the “Short Dress Gal” in their song. The slightly stiff, choreographed feel is such a deliberate and welcome departure from today’s performance conventions that I find myself smiling through the set.

A high steppin’, jelly-legged, rag-tag bunch of skeletons joins the suits on stage for Ma Maison, and together, with Sister Gertrude Morgan via recording, they generate an otherworldly energy. A skeleton in a jaunty green vest tosses white hands and feet out with the percussive hits of Carl LeBlanc’s strong banjo strumming in “Heebie Jeebies,” until a limb locks straight and he hobbles peg-legged in silly circles. The revelry feels mostly like joyful hilarity, but when one bag o’ bones keeps collapsing into his partner we smell death and feel frantic fear creep into the group’s sideways scurries and crazed kicks.

Morbid references lurk in all corners of this house — in the spidery shadows cast by spindly skeleton arms, in the bowed heads and softly prancing feet that sometimes turn the perpetual Mardi Gras parade into a solemn procession, and in the quick group exits with one merrymaker held stiff, aloft. But this crew parties in the face of death, hitching up legs, pumping arms, and leapfrogging over one another while the band sings, “Life is complicated … Oh, life is overrated.”

McIntyre works masterfully with the music, and he builds a movement vocabulary that draws on his dancers’ balletic virtuosity while transforming them into shaking, shimmying Lindy Hoppers who get down more convincingly than any ballet company I’ve seen.

Neville Brothers / photo courtesy of LA Phil

The skeletons take their party into the wings, but New Orleans’ first family of R&B, the Neville Brothers, keeps our celebration of the Big Easy going strong. Cyril slaps the drums and throws out fiery vocals in choppy bursts. Art’s fingers find funky up accents at the organ, while he sings, smirking, “Me oh my oh … gonna catch all the fish on the bayou.” Charles releases great swelling waves from the sax, then pulls back with a gentle turn to reveal Aaron’s voice — clear and shivering with soul. With eyes squeezed shut and shoulders hunched, he sings, “Long time comin’, change gonna come,” and I hear a wail rising under the soft, sweet sound.

Catch the conclusion of Jazz at the Bowl 2010 on Sept. 1, when Herbie Hancock celebrates his 70th birthday with help from a host of special musical guests.

Since musicians are human and, as artists, maybe even more temperamental than most, it shouldn’t surprise us then to see a story about classical musicians going through that same kind of turmoil. Playwright Michael Hollinger ventured into that ripe territory with his award-winning “Opus,” which had its LA premiere at The Fountain Theatre in June and has been extended twice. The must-see production, directed by Simon Levy, continues through Sept. 26.

“Opus” is a fascinating glimpse into the fictitious Lazara String Quartet. At the outset, Elliot (Christian Lebano), Alan (Cooper Thornton) and Carl (Gregory G. Giles) audition Grace (Jia Doughman) to replace violist Dorian (Daniel Blinkoff) in time for a concert at the White House.

Dorian, who was unceremoniously fired and disappears, is a musical genius, who is also unstable and claimed to talk with dead composers. Plus, his romantic involvement with violinist Elliot did not make things any easier. The repercussions of that entanglement and Elliot’s take-charge attitude are also not necessarily healthy for the continuing quartet.

Violinist Alan is the most level-headed of the group, and adds a fair share of comic relief. Carl, who has been in remission from cancer, is a focused cellist who prefers a no-nonsense approach to rehearsals. The young Grace, fresh out of graduate school, holds her own with the men while feeling compelled to audition for the principal violist position of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra — despite comments from the quartet about the quality of life (and suicide rate) of unfulfilled orchestra members.

The characters are richly drawn, the dialogue true to life and the story compelling. The actors, all with exceptional credits in theater (and some having made recognizable TV appearances), make wonderful music together. They also do a convincing job of pantomiming on their instruments — not an easy task — thanks to music advisors Larry Sonderling, a violinist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1976, and Roy Tanabe, a violinist who retired after 41 years with the LA Phil. The music is courtesy of the Vertigo String Quartet, recorded by Jorge Cousineau for the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia, where the play saw its world premiere in 2006. At that time, by the way, the real-life Audubon Quartet suffered a high-profile split, complete with threatened lawsuits, proving just how true Hollinger’s premise is.

A violist trained at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Hollinger knows his classical music, and includes details like Dorian’s yearning to play the violin rather than viola, much to his lover’s exasperation. The musical context and the group’s struggles with Beethoven’s Opus 131 make the play new and interesting. But it is also more than a play about classical music. Director Levy, a former music major who played trumpet and sax and considered graduate studies in conducting before turning to theater, commented in press materials that “Opus” is “true to the world of classical music, but also very human.”

Hollinger portrays human relationships with an accuracy and sensitivity that give it a universal appeal. That’s what makes “Opus” compelling and assures its longevity.

Of course, the Lazara Quartet’s future is less certain.

“Opus” runs through Sept. 26 at The Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., (323) 663-1525 or www.FountainTheatre.com. On Sunday, Sept. 12, at 4:30 p.m., The Fountain Theatre presents LA-based string quartet Quartetto Fantastico (Chris Woods and Paul Cartwright, violin; Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, viola; Peter Jacobson, cello) for a live chamber music concert following the matinee performance of “Opus” (separate admission; discount available with “Opus” ticket stub).

Southwest Chamber Music continued its great summer concert series at the Huntington Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 7 and 8, with music by Debussy, Ravel, Satie, and well-known local composer Anne Le Baron.

Debussy’s Danse sacrée et danse profane attracted me to the concert to begin with – and I was not disappointed.  Alison Bjorkedal’s harp swept us away.  She is an extraordinary harpist, and her Debussy was right in the zone.  Her technique was flawless, her artistry inspired.  The music was so beautiful, so affective, so potent, that its effect defies language.  Merci!

With the starry Los Angeles summer sky in the background, Bjorkedal was then joined by flutist Larry Kaplan in a unique transcription of Satie’s Le Fils des étoiles, realized in this arrangement by Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu.  The connection between French and Asian musical traditions was underscored in Jeff von der Schmidt’s remarks, and this composition was a fine example.  An ebb and flow of ambiguous harmony unencumbered by cadence yielded attention to Kaplan’s sonorous melody. Takemitsu’s setting was totally rational and easy to understand, and Bjorkedal’s and Kaplan’s portrayal was vivid.

Southwest Chamber Music is known for showcasing living local and international composers, including women, mixed with the cultural roots we share.

Le Baron’s Solar Music was mesmerizing.  The composer was in attendance, and in her remarks said that the pre-existing title was apropos to the dynamic of her work although was chosen post-hoc to its composition.  The reference is to Mexican surrealist painter Remedios Varo’s work with “a woman standing in a dying forest, bowing rays of the sun.”

Solar Music includes unorthodox sounds that combine into an ethereal music of creative technique.  Bjorkedal supplemented her technical abilities on the harp with resonant taps and slaps, string preparations, and various detunings; the ending sounded a bowed harp played using a screwdriver as a sort of slide.

Kaplan was marvelous as he squeezed and teased a smooth flow of ever-changing timbres from the entire family of flutes.  He developed a sonic pallet of multiphonics, harmonics, alternate fingerings, bends, quartertones, use of voice, and all manner of attack into a masterfully expressive performance.  The ride was Messiaen-like as the colors of the spectrum, from the bass flute to the alto to the standard to the piccolo, flowed in an ever-rising sequence.

Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro required the largest ensemble of the program, and the sound and its energy resonated hugely with the audience.  Clarinetist Jim Foscia’s arpeggios were quick and delicate, and his role was significant. Kaplan and Foscia both sounded large, especially in duet. In fact, the whole ensemble was rich and authentic, and on the whole Ravel was the best performed and received of the evening.

The Debussy String Quartet is literally one-of-a-kind, and the performance was en française with joie de vivre that infused the space with a delectable perfumed sound.  Jan Karlin’s viola had an exquisite tone that was accentuated by a gentle technique and her keen sensitivity to the music and the other voices in the ensemble.  Peter Jacobson’s cello touch was light, yet still deliberate, and especially in consort with Karlin, it impressed an unmistakable structure and forward motion onto the sound.  Lorenz Gamma and Shalini Vijayan added a delicate sheen to the sound that was brilliant.

Southwest Chamber Music ends its summer series at the Huntington with two concerts next weekend, Aug. 21 and 22.

Victor Vener leads the CalPhil at Disney Hall.

After such an enjoyable program two weeks ago, the California Philharmonic’s “Frank, Tony and the Maestro” at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Aug. 8 was not up to their usual standards. The customary thread with which Maestro Vener usually weaves together all the selections was grossly missing. The program ranged from Las Vegas-styled standards to Elgar’s Enigma Variations, from highlights of The Sound of Music to Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccio for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 28. This hodge-podge created a program that was frayed at the edges.

Two baritones, Kevin Earley and Michael B. Levin, were engaged for this program. Earley was most at ease with the musical theater genre, while the more seasoned Levin had a flair for standards made famous by Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. The program would easily have been improved by cutting Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Op. 35, which closed the first half, and programming additional songs for the two vocalists.

The Saint-Saëns showpiece opened the second half and featured Daniel Shindarov, a remarkable Russian violinist who soon will celebrate his 86th birthday. The audience responded to his performance with an enthusiastic ovation. Earley followed with a couple selections: “As Time Goes By,” in which he wandered away from the tonal center by the end of the song, and his most successful number, “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables.

Every performance group needs to know what they do best and stick to it. The CalPhil’s rendition of Elgar’s masterpiece, the Enigma Variations, Op. 36, which closed the concert, was abysmal. The work sounded under rehearsed, the strings were ragged, the woodwinds’ ensemble was inferior, and the tempos were unbearably slow. Overall the variations lacked the vigor, clarity, and sparkle to convey their true genius and grandeur. Vener called back the singers for a final encore, “Luck Be a Lady Tonight,” which restored some energy to the hall.

The final concerts on Aug. 21 and 22 promise to end the season with a big bang: a combination of Broadway favorites and the Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth. For information, call (800) 745-3000 or visit www.calphil.org.

Subscription and individual tickets are on sale now. UCLA Live is offering Culture Spot readers the chance to win a pair of tickets to the event of their choice. To be entered in a drawing for free tickets, send your name, event choice and the correct answer to the following trivia question to Editor@CultureSpotLA.com by Friday, Aug. 13, at midnight:

Which of the following famous artists performed at Royce Hall in the 1930s?

a) George Gershwin

b) Duke Ellington

c) Arnold Schoenberg

d) all of the above

UCLA Live’s Must-See Dance by Anna Reed

David Sefton, director of the UCLA Live performance series for a decade, resigned in May. And the reason for his departure – program “restructuring” due to budget constraints – along with the elimination of the International Theatre Festival from the 2010-11 schedule, has triggered some very legitimate concerns about LA’s access to the national and international arts scene. The 2010-11 dance series that Sefton leaves behind, however, continues the program’s tradition of curatorial excellence. If fiscal limitations motivated the inclusion of more domestic artists than usual, Sefton made good use of his reduced funds – bringing artists and works that LA has not seen, and needs to.

Feb. 25-26: Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM

Foremost is Canadian Crystal Pite’s company, Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM. Founded in 2001, Kidd Pivot’s international appearances have met with consistent critical acclaim, and in July The Observer called Pite’s Lost Action “the best dance work to visit London last year.” Superfast, impossibly fluid, almost inhuman manipulations reference Pite’s background as dancer with William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt. But it’s Pite’s own choreographic vision that’s recently landed her the position of Associate Choreographer for the prestigious Nederlands Dans Theater. Kidd Pivot makes its LA debut with Lost Action at UCLA Live Feb. 25-26, and look for another Pite work in March when NDT comes to the Music Center.

UCLA Live presents the world premiere of Helios Dance Theater's "Beautiful Monsters." / Photo courtesy of UCLA Live and Helios Dance Theater

May 6-7: Lucinda Childs

UCLA Live facilitates another long-overdue Los Angeles visit with the arrival of American Lucinda Childs’ Dance, a revival of the 1979 minimalist classic, May 6-7. Member of the postmodern breakaway collective Judson Dance Theater in the ’60s, Childs choreographed Dance as her first large-scale collaboration, working with minimalist icon and composer Philip Glass and visual artist Sol LeWitt. With tripping, skipping steps, dancers skim the stage in continuous crossings. And like the repeated notes in Glass’ score, these simple movements combine in space and time to weave patterns of tremendous complexity. In the revival, dancers leap and bound in front of LeWitt’s original film – the 1979 company performing Dance – so we see in side-by-side action dancers usually separated by decades.

March 11-12: Stephen Petronio Dance Company

Stephen Petronio came of choreographic age in Manhattan in the ’80s and ’90s, and his signature style – fast and furious, sexy and leggy, hip and restless – conveys the urban energy of his home base. His company, now an established international presence, celebrates its 25^th anniversary with the stormy new work I Drink the Air Before Me and performs the West Coast premiere at Royce Hall March 11-12.

April 15-16: Barak Marshall

Barak Marshall, born physically in LA but choreographically in Israel, brings Monger (2008) home for its West Coast debut April 15-16. Marshall draws movement and music from diverse cultural traditions (including his own – American, Yemeni, Israeli) to build this charging, driving exploration of power, free will, and survival.

Oct. 23: Helios Dance Theater

And with local and national critical acclaim for The Lotus Eaters (2008) under her belt, LA dancemaker Laura Gorenstein Miller and her company Helios Dance Theater open the dance season at UCLA Live with a one-night-only world-premiere performance of Beautiful Monsters on Oct. 23. For this work, Gorenstein Miller teams up with leading artists in the entertainment industry to craft a dreamscape inspired by childhood nightmares, and if The Lotus Eaters is any indication, it will be a world of physical daring, sensory thrills and riveting storytelling that we enter in October.

UCLA Live’s Must-Hear Classical by Julie Riggott

Nov. 4: Murray Perahia

Over the course of a 35-year career, Murray Perahia has established himself as one of the world’s most prized pianists. He returns to Royce Hall to perform works by the Three Bs: Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. In 1972, he was the first North American to win first prize at the Leeds Piano Competition, and he went on to work with the likes of composer Benjamin Britten and pianist Vladimir Horowitz, whom he considers a major influence on his style. Perahia, called a “poet of the piano” by The New York Times, also serves as the Principal Guest Conductor of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, with whom he has toured extensively as conductor and pianist.

Nov. 20: Menahem Pressler and Richard Stoltzman with the New York Chamber Soloists

Menahem Pressler and Richard Stoltzman sure make for a dynamic duo. Pressler is co-founder of the renowned Beaux Arts Trio, with whom he recorded nearly the entire piano chamber repertoire. Now an octogenarian with a five-decade career of distinction, he is recognized among the foremost pianists. Grammy-winning Richard Stoltzman is arguably the world’s most famous classical clarinetist. Together with the New York Chamber Soloists, they will perform Brahms’ Sonata No. 2 for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 120. Pressler will also play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17, K.453, and Stoltzman will treat the audience to Mozart’s exquisite Clarinet Concerto, K. 622.

Daniel Hope joins Jeffrey Kahane at UCLA Live. / Photo by Marco Borggreve courtesy of UCLA Live

Feb. 11: Daniel Hope and Jeffrey Kahane

Violinist Daniel Hope, the youngest person to perform with the prestigious Beaux Arts Trio, joins pianist Jeffrey Kahane, music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, for a program featuring Brahms’ Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78, Regenlied, O. Messiaen’s Théme et Variations, Schulhoff’s Sonata No. 2, Sz. 76, and Franck’s Sonata in A Major. Hope, a champion of contemporary composers who has collaborated with many artists (including two Police: Sting and Stewart Copeland), has also made it a mission to revive music suppressed by the Nazis. Well-known as both a pianist and conductor, Kahane was a finalist at the 1981 Van Cliburn Competition and made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1983. In addition to his projects with LACO, extensive touring and recording, he has also collaborated with artists like Yo-Yo Ma and Joshua Bell.

March 3: Scharoun Ensemble Berlin

Founded in 1983 by members of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin is one of Germany’s most distinguished chamber music ensembles.  The group will perform three masterpieces: Mozart’s Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, Beethoven’s Septet in E flat major and Schubert’s Octet in F major. The Scharoun Ensemble is recognized as the leading interpreter of these three composers’ work.

April 3: Takács Quartet with Nobuyuki Tsujii

The Takács Quartet returns to UCLA Live for a program of Haydn’s String Quartet, Op. 74, No. 3, and Bartok’s String Quartet No. 1. Formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest and now based at the University of Colorado, the Takács Quartet tours throughout the world and is known for its innovative programming. Joining the Takács Quartet for Schumann’s Piano Quintet is Nobuyuki Tsujii, making his Los Angeles premiere. Born blind, the 22-year-old prodigy won the gold medal in the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

All events are in Royce Hall on the UCLA campus; most start at 8 p.m. For a complete schedule and more details, visit: http://www.uclalive.org/calendar/. For tickets or more information, visit the individual links above or www.uclalive.org or call (310) 825-2101. Royce Hall is located at 340 Royce Drive, Westwood.

Main page image: Kidd Pivot performs Crystal Pite’s Lost Action at UCLA Live’s Royce Hall. / Photo by Chris Randle courtesy of UCLA Live

Gustavo Dudamel

Gustavo Dudamel had a ball at the Bowl with Gershwin and Bernstein kickin’ it Tuesday night, Aug. 3.

Gershwin’s eidetic An American in Paris was rapturous — take that, you East Coast snobs!

The large orchestration really resonated in the Hollywood Bowl, and Dudamel and the LA Phil delivered a knock-out performance. We could see the New York night in Dudamel’s face and hear the unique Los Angeles sound in his baton.  The combination was nirvana.

The principals stepped up with enthusiasm, as Concertmaster Martin Chalifour was perfectly on mark, and Principal Violist Carrie Dennis was fun to hear and witness as her animated persona connected with Dudamel’s baton.

The Bowl is uniquely the place to see Dudamel.  The projection system captured every nuance of his amazing persona.  He exudes a fury of decisiveness as he generates rapid-fire gestures, each succinct and discrete, often uber-bursting with exuberance, yet fluidly integrated with the music and its emotive heart. He bombards the orchestra (and this night the audience) with clearly interpretable although wildly unorthodox manners.  I couldn’t take my eyes off of him — a ballet of brilliance that produced a sound like no other.

The evening was special in several ways, as it was the anniversary of Dudamel’s first appearance at the Bowl after being invited by Esa-Pekka Salonen only five years ago, and because he was joined by his homeland friend, pianist Gabriela Montero, with whom he shares connections to Venezuelan  conductor José Antonio Abreu.  His humble pride was evident.

Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue featured Montero with a classic rendition.  Clarinet soloist Michele Zukovsky was superb and it was immediately obvious from the opening glissando.  The huge sound of trumpeter James Wilt was outstanding.  My ear was piqued by the deep-timbred sound of flutist Catherine Ransom Karoly that penetrated with a finely honed edge; her artistry stood out.

Montero’s precision was extraordinary, although at times the exacting technique detracted from the Gershwin aesthetic.  She had a great opportunity to step out of the box with her well-known improvisatory abilities and breadth of style, but she played it straight; her sensibilities clearly waned classical, and some tender moments of the music were lost to rigueur.

Musical badinage with the audience and orchestra made for a delightful segue to intermission, as Montero solicited a musical theme on the spot and then produced improvisations. This night she developed the opening notes of the Beethoven Fifth and the beautiful Guantanamera. Her impromptu treatments were totally classical in character, curiously un-jazzy, and somewhat formulaic as simple melodies quickly developed into large-scale virtuoso vehicles.  Her skill was impressive, and she is truly unique in her improvisatory art.

Bernstein’s Three Dance Episodes from On the Town and Symphonic Dances from West Side Story were delightful — but the night belonged to Gershwin.

Thank goodness that Los Angeles had the wisdom to grab this extraordinary maestro!

Miwa Matreyek’s "Myth and Infrastructure" / Photo by Scott Groller

REDCAT’s annual New Original Works (NOW) Festival draws to a close tonight (Aug. 7), but the three live performances included in this week’s show raise more than enough questions to fuel another year of artistic investigation. And as Thursday’s show sold out long before show time, get your tickets NOW and read on after.

Alexandro Segade’s Replicant VS Separatist, a play framed as a budget movie shoot complete with directorial “cuts” and actors who switch between roles, couldn’t be more timely, premiering hot on the heels of the decision to overturn California’s ban on gay marriage. The movie inside the play depicts a dystopian LA where marriage has become a state-mandated instrument of government control over gay relationships. The clones who comply: Replicants (Reps). The boy-band renegades who love outside the law and fight to establish a state beyond the new governator’s reach: Separatists (Seps).

Segade’s choice to build a story full of wonderfully classic sci-fi illusions – like hovercars and teleportation – within a deliberately anti-illusionistic frame at first heightens the humor by playing up the falseness. But then his droning directorial comments lose their deadpan comedy and, in combination with ever-shortening, increasingly perfunctory scenes, deaden the energy. Maybe we need these breaks to keep us from getting so swept up in the onstage antics that we forget to consider their broader implications. But at the end, I wonder if we’ve been distanced so successfully that instead of dispassionately considering the issues raised, we move on too easily to the next new work.

Hana van der Kolk mouths something from behind a microphone. She releases a vowel sound, then others in steady rhythm, and when she adds consonants the chorus from the 1987 classic “Lost in Emotion” gradually emerges in a robust chant. Watching Once More, Again, One, we whisper and chuckle softly when we get it, and sharing the joke connects us to her and each other through the darkness. Later on, van der Kolk transfers her weight side to side with an easy bounce, punctuating some drops with a spoken “yes.” The bounces morph to jazzy jogs, then hunched boxing footwork, then ecstatic Richard Simmons-style reaches, and she says “yes” to each with complete investment and unequivocal assent.

I struggle to engage through some of the work’s slower progressions and stillnesses, but the spaces make Once More feel like a relaxed conversation and invite us to take part. Van der Kolk makes a formal and completely unthreatening invitation when she holds up a sign that reads “I need a volunteer.” Although the physical tasks they complete don’t seem quite worth the trouble, the exchanges we witness while she whispers her plans to each volunteer are thrillingly real and beautifully human. They smile shyly, giggle and shake out shoulders nervously, register polite unwillingness with side-to-side tilts of the head, and as we imagine ourselves doing these things we feel welcomed by van der Kolk too.

Oh, if only all evenings could end as magically as this show does. A woman’s rounded silhouette wanders through an ever-blossoming, ever-changing world in Miwa Matreyek’s Myth and Infrastructure. Interacting with her animations from behind a screen, Matreyek casts a shadow that steps lightly and fingers tenderly, exploring blinking cityscapes like a gentle King Kong, or forming an island paradise with her softly sloping back.

The images that result suggest creation stories, as lands materialize with a breath or a tap, or apocalypses, as tiny planes crash down around her head and buildings collapse at her feet. Her powers to create and transform intrigue as she encounters other beings with agency – a bear that lumbers onto her back, fish that rush and swirl about her, a tiny person who climbs into her mouth and down her throat. Toward the end I find myself hoping for more variation in Matreyek’s physical interactions with these creatures and their world, but the work is mesmerizing throughout and exciting in the rich possibilities it suggests for future incarnations.

Segade, van der Kolk and Matreyek present these works in the final performance of the NOW Festival tonight, Aug. 7, at 8:30 p.m.

Noreen Green, founder, artistic director and conductor of the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony

The Los Angeles Jewish Symphony celebrates contributions of Jewish composers to film history with its annual concert program, Cinema Judaica, on Sunday, Aug. 8, at 7:30 p.m., under the stars at the Ford Amphitheatre.  The orchestra, led by Founder and Artistic Director Noreen Green, pays tribute to Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Steven Schwartz, Danny Pelfrey, Charles Fox, Yuval Ron and other major composers. Guest artists include Ron, percussionist Jamie Papish, and Israeli-born pianist Andy Feldbau.

The program features music from two exciting Goldsmith works, Masada and QB VII; the expansive score of Bernstein’s Ten Commandments Suite; the thrilling music of Schwartz’s songs in The Prince of Egypt; Pelfrey’s Symphonic Suite from Joseph: King of Dreams; Fox’s riveting Victory at Entebbe Suite (with Feldbau); and Ron’s West Bank Story Suite, with the composer on oud and Papish on ethnic percussion.  Additional concert highlights include the world premiere of new arrangements from The Chosen and Thoroughly Modern Millie.

World music performer/composer Ron’s West Bank Story Suite, from the Academy Award-winning 2006 live-action short musical film, interweaves Arabic folkloric motives with East European Klezmer Jewish music. “My score spoofs Leonard Bernstein’s original West Side Story,” Ron says. “After our movie won the Oscar, I put together a 10-minute suite of highlights, a medley of the songs and dances. The music now has a life of its own.”

During the concert, Ron will play the song melodies on the oud, the Middle Eastern string instrument. A renowned educator and peace activist, he was invited to perform for His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. “My life changed substantially after the movie,” says Ron. “Suddenly, I had opportunities for speaking engagements around the world, with screenings of the movie, in workshops devoted to the peace process.”

Green will conduct the concert. Under her baton, Los Angeles Jewish Symphony has performed in concert with Billy Crystal, Randy Newman, Theodore Bikel, Lainie Kazan, Marvin Hamlisch, and others. “The orchestra is made up of musicians from the LA Phil, studio musicians, community members and high-level students,” she says. “It is exciting to work with them.”

Green talks about each piece during the concerts “to bring the audience into the concert experience as an active participant,” she explains. This process comes naturally to her. “I come from a choral background with a doctorate in choral music from USC. I also have a degree in education, and I love going back and forth between the two worlds. As the conductor, I feel like I am the conduit between the performers and the audience – with energy flowing through me between the two entities. It is quite a high!”

This event is part of the Ford Amphitheatre’s multidisciplinary arts series produced by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission in cooperation with Los Angeles County-based arts organizations. For a complete season schedule, visit www.FordTheatres.org.

The Ford Amphitheatre is located at 2580 Cahuenga Blvd., East Hollywood.  The grounds open two hours before show time for picnicking.  Food is also available on-site.

On-site, stacked parking costs $5 per vehicle. FREE non-stacked parking serviced by a FREE shuttle to the Ford is available at the Universal City Metro Station lot at Lankershim Boulevard and Campo de Cahuenga.  The shuttle, which cycles every 15 to 20 minutes, stops in the “kiss and ride” area.

Tickets, priced at $36 and $25, and $12 for full-time students with ID and children 12 and under, are available at www.FordTheatres.org or (323) 461-3673.