FRANK'S HOUSE Set for LACO Westside Connections Concert Tonight

Frank Gehry and the world premiere of Frank's House by LACO Composer-in-Residence Andrew Norman inspired by the celebrated architect's extraordinary Santa Monica home are spotlighted at Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra's (LACO) Westside Connections concert tonight, February, 5, 2015, 7:30 pm, at the Moss Theater, Santa Monica.

Gehry is joined by Los Angeles Times Architecture Critic Christopher Hawthorne, The Juilliard School's Ara Guzelimian, LACO Music Director Jeffrey Kahane and LACO Concertmaster Margaret Batjer for an unprecedented evening exploring compelling connections between music and architecture. The Westside Connections series concert, curated and hosted by Batjer, includes conversations with the special guests as well as musical offerings connecting form, structure and line featuring Kahane, LACO Principal Timpani/Percussion Wade Culbreath, percussionist Ted Atkatz and pianist Joanne Pearce Martin. On the program are Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (1937) and two works by Bach, transcribed by Kurtág for piano four hands, Chorale Prelude, "O Lamb of God most holy" (VIII), and Sonatina from Actus tragicus, "God's time is the best time," BWV 106, as well as the world premiere by Norman, whose music has been hailed by The New York Times for its "daring juxtapositions and dazzling col¬ors."

Gehry, one of the most acclaimed architects of our time, is renowned for his bold, iconic postmodern designs including architectural masterworks such as Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, Dancing House in Prague and the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, which opened in late 2014 to great acclaim. Based in Los Angeles, he received the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 1986, was the subject of a documentary film by director Sydney Pollack, and has become a leading figure in mainstream culture, appearing in an Apple commercial and playing himself in an episode of the hit television show "The Simpsons." He compares architecture to music, saying, "It's like jazz. You improvise, you work together, you play off each other, you make something."

Norman is considered among the most intriguing musical voices of his generation. As a lifelong enthusiast for all things architectural, he draws on an eclectic mix of instrumental sounds and notational practices and writes music that is often inspired by forms and textures he encounters in the visual world. He is the recipient of the ASCAP Nissim Prize, Rome Prize and Berlin Prize, and his The Companion Guide to Rome was named a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Norman teaches at the USC Thornton School of Music.

The three-part Westside Connections series, now in its seventh season, continues on March 19, 2015, with special guest award-winning architect Frederick Fisher, who approaches architecture as a collaborative process, and Brahms's breathtaking String Quintet as well as Kevin Puts's Arches for solo violin, featuring Batjer. It concludes April 30, 2015, with Los Angeles Times Architecture Critic Christopher Hawthorne as special guest and the West Coast premiere of Gabriel Kahane's Bradbury Studies, inspired by downtown LA's historic Bradbury Building.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra is considered one of the world's premier chamber orchestras as well as a leader in presenting wide-ranging repertoire and adventurous commissions. Its 2014-15 season, the Orchestra's 46th, features a compelling mix of beloved masterpieces and genre-defying premieres from firmly established as well as notable up-and-coming composers programmed by Jeffrey Kahane, one of the world's foremost conductors and pianists, who marks his 18th season as LACO's music director.

Tickets (beginning at $60) are available online at laco.org, by calling LACO at 213 622 7001, or at the venue box office on the night of the concert, if tickets remain. Subscriptions to all three Westside Connections concerts are available for $135. Student rush tickets ($12), based on availability, may be purchased at the box office one hour before the concert. Also available for college students is the $30 "Campus to Concert Hall All Access Pass" - good for LACO's three Westside Connections concerts at the Moss Theater, seven Orchestral Series concerts at either the Alex Theatre or UCLA's Royce Hall and Discover Mozart's Requiem at Ambassador Auditorium. Discounted tickets are also available by phone for groups of 12 or more. The Moss Theater at New Roads School is located at 3131 Olympic Boulevard, Santa Monica, CA, 90404.

Former principal percussion of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, TED ATKATZ has performed with the Atlanta, Boston, Houston, Pacific, Seattle and Santa Barbara symphonies; Hong Kong and Los Angeles philharmonics; and the Boston Pops. Active as a studio musician, Atkatz also performs with his band, NYCO. He is on the faculty of the Lynn Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton, the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara and the Texas Music Festival in Houston, and has given masterclasses and clinics worldwide. He holds a bachelor's degree in percussion performance and music education, magna cum laude, from Boston University. His gradu¬ate studies were at the New England Conservatory of Music and at Temple University.

MARGARET BATJER, concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orches¬tra since 1998, made her first solo appearance at age 15 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She has since soloed with leading orchestras from around the world including the Philadelphia, St. Louis and Dallas symphonies; the Prague, Halle and Berlin sympho¬ny orchestras; and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. An esteemed chamber musician, she appears regularly at the Marlboro Music Festival, as well as many other festivals in the US and Europe. Batjer has recorded extensively for Philips, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon and BMG. In 2008, Batjer developed LACO's Westside Connections chamber music series. She serves on the faculty of the USC Thorn¬ton School of Music and the Colburn Music Academy.

WADE CULBREATH studied at the Eastman School of Music in Roches¬ter, New York. He is principal timpani and percussion with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, principal percussion with the Holly¬wood Bowl Orchestra and timpanist with the Pasadena Symphony Orchestra. He has freelanced with the Los Angeles Opera, Bolshoi Ballet, American Ballet Theater and the National Ballet of Canada. With the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he participated in two Europe¬an tours and eight recordings on the Sony Classical and Deutsche Grammophon labels. Culbreath has played on nearly 400 soundtracks for the motion picture studios including the Academy Award-win¬ning scores for Aladdin, Pocahontas and Life of Pi.

Raised in Toronto, Canada, architect FRANK GEHRY moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1947. Gehry received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Southern California in 1954, and studied City Planning at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. In subsequent years, Gehry has built an architectural career that has spanned over five decades and produced public and pri¬vate buildings in America, Europe and Asia. His work has earned Gehry several of the most significant awards in the architectural field, including the Pritzker Prize.

ARA GUZELIMIAN is Provost and Dean of The Juilliard School in New York City, having been appointed to the post in August 2006. At Juilliard, he oversees the faculty, curriculum and artistic planning of all three of its divisions-dance, drama and music. He has previ¬ously held artistic planning positions at Carnegie Hall and the Aspen Music Festival. A Southern California native, he was artistic director of the Ojai Festival (1992-1997) and had a long association with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1978-1993), first as producer of the orches¬tra's national radio broadcasts and then as artistic administrator. He is editor of Parallels and Paradoxes (Pantheon Books, 2002), a col¬lection of dialogues between Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said.

CHRISTOPHER HAWTHORNE has been the architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times since 2004. Previously, he was archi¬tecture critic for Slate and a frequent contributor to The New York Times. He is the author, with Alanna Stang, of The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture. Hawthorne grew up in Berke¬ley and has a bachelor's from Yale, where he readied himself for a career in criticism by obsessing over the design flaws in his dormi¬tory, designed by Eero Saarinen.

Equally at home at the keyboard or on the podium, JEFFREY KAHANE has established an international reputation as a truly versatile artist, recognized around the world for his mastery of diverse repertoire ranging from Bach, Mozart and Beethoven to Gershwin, Golijov and John Adams. Now in his 18th season as music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, he previously served as music director of the Colorado and Santa Rosa symphonies. He has garnered tremendous critical acclaim for his innovative programming and commitment to education and community involvement and received multiple ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming for his work in both Los Angeles and Denver.

Keyboardist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, JOANNE PEARCE MARTIN has made numerous solo appearances on piano, harpsi¬chord and the Walt Disney Concert Hall organ. Described by the Los Angeles Times as playing with "unusual fervor and fluency," she has been guest soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles and San Diego chamber orchestras and England's Hud¬dersfield Philharmonic. Martin has also appeared on the major US television networks and at summer festivals and on concert series internationally, while Southern California audiences follow her per¬formances of new music and "standards." She has recorded for the Yamaha Disklavier piano and Yarlung Records recently released a solo CD, Joanne Pearce Martin, Barefoot.