LA Chamber Orchestra Announces 2016-17 Season
By: Tyler Peterson May. 10, 2016
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO), one of the nation's premier orchestras as well as a leader in presenting wide-ranging repertoire and adventurous commissions, announces its 2016-17 season, its final under the leadership of esteemed Music Director Jeffrey Kahane, who steps down at the end of the season, concluding an unprecedented and extraordinary 20-year tenure at the Orchestra's artistic helm, the longest in LACO history. The sweeping and deeply personal season commemorates Kahane's remarkable legacy, spotlights his exceptional rapport with the Orchestra and features some of the world's leading musicians.
"LACO is deeply indebted to Jeffery Kahane, a truly visionary talent who, for the past two decades, has propelled the Orchestra forward on an amazing and successful trajectory," says LACO Board President Dana Newman. "He has expanded our musical and artistic horizons in ways we never could have imagined while providing inspired and thoughtful leadership every step of the way, and he's genuinely beloved by LACO audiences and the Orchestra. We look forward to celebrating and enjoying the incredible music, events and tributes planned to honor him." "It is with a bittersweet mixture of joy, excitement, pride and sadness that I look forward to my final season as music director of one of the world's finest and most versatile chamber orchestras," says Kahane. "It is the hope of every music director to leave an orchestra in better shape than it was when he inherited it, and I believe that anyone who has known and loved LACO over the last few decades would resoundingly agree that this hope has come to fruition. I also know that the Orchestra's distinguished history of nearly half a century is a prelude to still more wonderful things to come. I will cherish every moment of every rehearsal and concert with my beloved and extraordinary colleagues, and I feel confident that each concert this season will be memorable."2016-17 SEASON DETAILED SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
This season, LACO honors Kahane in myriad ways, including the presentation of several extraordinary special events that showcase not only his own musical virtuosity and that of the Orchestra, but also the profound power of music to unite people across boundaries, foster understanding and promote community engagement. "Lift Every Voice." The season's crowning special event is "Lift Every Voice," a three-week festival in January 2017 of concerts, conversations and community engagement curated by Kahane to explore themes of tolerance, compassion, cooperation and creativity and the power of music to encourage understanding and promote peace inspired by the lives of human and civil rights champions Rabbi Joachim Prinz and composer Kurt Weill. The project highlights the unique ability of music to spark dialogue about challenging moral issues and bring together people from different walks of life to promote cross-cultural interaction and understanding. Of particular note, Kahane conducts LACO in the first Los Angeles performance since the 1950s of the gripping musical Lost in the Stars, Weill's final stage work featuring lyrics by Maxwell Anderson and based on Alan Paton's classic novel Cry, the Beloved Country, a powerful social indictment of racism and apartheid South Africa. This momentous and impactful production, a co-presentation of LACO and CAP UCLA, is directed by Anne Bogart, co-founder of the New York-based theater ensemble SITI Company, which is a CAP UCLA Fellow. Along with LACO, SITI Company, guest soloists and chorus are featured in the production. (Saturday, January 28, 8 pm, and Sunday, January 29, 7 pm, UCLA'S Royce Hall) Further exploring these substantive themes, Kahane conducts the US premiere of Weill's Suite for Violin and Orchestra, arranged by Paul Bateman, and the West Coast premiere of Bruce Adolphe's Violin Concerto "I Will Not Remain Silent," which the composer dedicated to Prinz and his friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Both works feature guest soloist Daniel Hope, "among the best (violinists) in the world" (The Observer, London) who is also known for his humanitarian efforts espousing tolerance as well as building bridges between different musical worlds. Additionally, Kahane leads Weill's compelling Seven Deadly Sins, originally composed in 1933 as a ballet with text by Bertolt Brecht that features virtuosic pop singer Storm Large of Pink Martini and the all-male vocal quartet Hudson Shad. (Saturday, January 21, 8 pm, Alex Theatre, Glendale; Sunday, January 22, 7 pm, UCLA's Royce Hall) LACO's "Lift Every Voice" project includes other compelling chamber music programs, as well as thought-provoking symposiums and community engagement events, with additional details to be announced. In planning the festival, Kahane benefitted from the expertise of Kim Kowalke, President and CEO of Kurt Weill Foundation for Music. Beethoven Triple. To help celebrate Kahane's final blockbuster season, world renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who has introduced new generations to the vitality and timelessness of classical music and is a long-time colleague of Kahane's with whom he toured internationally for nearly a decade, and Pamela Frank, a "great" violinist (Intelligencer), join Kahane, who conducts and plays piano, in a special LACO performance of Beethoven's "Triple" Concerto. Frank, who made headlines for her triumphant return to the concert stage nearly a decade after suffering nerve damage to her arm in 2001, makes her first LACO appearance since her injury. The concert is a co-presentation of LACO and USC Thornton School of Music. (Sunday, October 16, 7:30 pm, USC's Bovard Auditorium) ORCHESTRAL SERIES LACO's core "Orchestral Series" expands this season from seven to eight concerts, each with back-to-back performances on Saturday nights at the Alex Theatre in Glendale or the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena and Sunday nights at UCLA's Royce Hall. The series showcases LACO's remarkable artistry and trademark mix of orchestral masterpieces and daring new works from today's leading composers, as well as the much-admired collaborative style between LACO artists and Music Director Jeffrey Kahane, who conducts five of the eight "Orchestral Series" programs. Passionate, joyous and engaging, the series features a range of exceptional guest artists. Opening: Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Tigran Mansurian. LACO's 2016-17 season-opening program is a study in musical contrasts with Music Director Jeffrey Kahane conducting several favorites, including Beethoven's ecstatic Symphony No. 7, Mozart's radiant Exsultate, jubilate: "Alleluia" with soprano Joélle Harvey and Bach's joyous Cantata No. 51, "Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen," featuring Harvey with LACO Principal Trumpet David Washburn. They are juxtaposed by the somber but transcendent Violin Concerto No. 2, "Four Serious Songs," by Tigran Mansurian, widely considered the world's greatest living Armenian composer. It features Armenian-born violinist Movses Pogossian, winner of the 1986 Tchaikovsky Competition and heralded for his "enormous skill and conviction" (Boston Globe), who regularly collaborates with Mansurian. (Saturday, September 24, 8 pm, Alex Theatre, Glendale; Sunday, September 25, 7 pm, UCLA's Royce Hall) Beethoven, Sibelius, Albert Schnelzer. Guest Conductor Thomas Dausgaard - Principal Conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Chief Conductor Designate of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Seattle Symphony - makes his LACO debut leading the West Coast premiere of A Freak in Burbank, a romping homage to filmmaker Tim Burton by Swedish composer Albert Schnelzer. Dausgaard also conducts Sibelius's Six Humoresques for violin and orchestra, featuring Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud, praised for his "utter brilliance" (The Strad), who makes his first LACO appearance in 12 years; and Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, "Eroica." (Saturday, October 29, 8 pm, Alex Theatre, Glendale; Sunday, October 30, 7 pm, UCLA's Royce Hall) Mozart, Mendelssohn, Adam Schoenberg. Rising French conductor Alexandre Bloch, Principal Guest Conductor of Düsseldorf Symphoniker noted for his "passion and precision" (The Arts Desk), makes his LACO debut, conducting the West Coast premiere of Adam Schoenberg's Scatter, a triple concerto written for and featuring genre-defying Project Trio, (Peter Seymour, double bass, Greg Patillo, flute, and Eric Stephenson, cello), "a cross between chamber musicians and rock stars" (Iowa Public Radio). Additionally, the program includes Mozart's Symphony No. 38, "Prague," a work that helped expand the symphonic genre with its structure and contrapuntal complexity, and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3, "Scottish," inspired by a visit the composer made to Scotland in 1829. (Saturday, November 12, 8 pm, Alex Theatre, Glendale; Sunday, November 13, 7 pm, UCLA's Royce Hall) Weill, Bruce Adolphe. LACO's season continues with Kahane conducting a captivating semi-staged program that is part of "Lift Every Voice," LACO's three-week exploration of tolerance, compassion, cooperation and creativity to shine light on the power of music to encourage understanding and promote peace inspired by the lives of human and civil rights champions Rabbi Joachim Prinz and composer Kurt Weill. Kahane leads the US premiere of Weill's Suite for Violin and Orchestra, arranged by Paul Bateman, and the West Coast premiere of Bruce Adolphe's Violin Concerto "I Will Not Remain Silent," which the composer dedicated to Prinz and his friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Both works feature guest soloist Daniel Hope, "among the best (violinists) in the world" (The Observer, London) who is known for his humanitarian efforts espousing tolerance as well as building bridges between different musical worlds. The program also includes Weill's compelling Seven Deadly Sins, a work originally composed in 1933 as a ballet with text by Bertolt Brecht that features virtuosic pop singer Storm Large of Pink Martini and the all-male vocal quartet Hudson Shad. (Saturday, January 21, 8 pm, Alex Theatre, Glendale; Sunday, January 22, 7 pm, UCLA's Royce Hall) Lutos?awski, John Adams, Haydn, Rossini. LACO takes part in the world-wide celebration honoring John Adams on the occasion his 70th birthday when Uruguayan-born guest conductor Carlos Kalmar leads a performance of Adams' The Wound-Dresser, composed for baritone singer and orchestra and based on war poems penned by Walt Whitman during the Civil War. The moving work, a tribute to the tolls of war, features Brian Mulligan, applauded for his "commanding and clear-voiced" baritone (San Francisco Examiner). Kalmar - currently in his 13th season as Music Director of the Oregon Symphony, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Spanish Radio/Television Orchestra and Choir in Madrid, and Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago - also conducts Lutos?awski's Musique funèbre, Haydn's Symphony No. 98, and Rossini's The Italian Girl in Algiers Overture. Kahane cites Kalmar as one of his favorite conductors. (Saturday, February 25, 8 pm, Alex Theatre, Glendale; Sunday, February 26, 7 pm, UCLA's Royce Hall) Mozart, Mahler, Julia Adolphe, Handel, Brahms. Kahane showcases some of his top musical picks in this deeply personal program that includes a world premiere by Julia Adolphe as part of LACO's singular and highly successful "Sound Investment" commissioning program, initiated during Kahane's tenure 16 years ago to engage LACO audiences in developing new works. (Adolphe, who has also written for the New York Philharmonic, is the niece of Bruce Adolphe, whose Violin Concerto is featured on LACO's January program.) Her piece is scored for 18-piece orchestra, a configuration Kahane particularly favors, describing it as "a big chamber ensemble." In addition, Kahane conducts Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2, which he says is the piece that changed his life when he first heard it at age 14, cementing his love for music and desire to play professionally. Written for extended chamber orchestra, it features acclaimed pianist Jon Kimura Parker, with whom Kahane shares a special rapport. World-renowned mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, a "luminous standout" (New York Times), also returns to LACO to perform selections from Mahler's tender and intimate Rückert Lieder, as well as the arias "Deh, per questo istante solo" from Mozart's opera Le clemenza di Tito, and "As with rosy steps the morn" from Handel's oratorio Theodora. (Saturday, March 18, 8 pm, Alex Theatre, Glendale; Sunday, March 19, 7 pm, UCLA's Royce Hall) Beethoven. While the music of Beethoven has been a mainstay of LACO's repertoire since its inception, the Orchestra has performed his Symphony No. 9, "Choral," only once previously for a program at the Hollywood Bowl. Long on his LACO "bucket-list" for the Orchestral Series, Kahane conducts this monumental work about protest and the human spirit with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and guest soloists Kathryn Mueller, soprano; Suzanna Guzman, mezzo-soprano; Paul Appleby, tenor; and Justin Hopkins, bass. Traditionally performed by massive forces, Kahane points out that LACO's presentation includes a smaller contingent of singers and instrumentalists, which "allows for different sonorities and a different light to be shed on the work." (Saturday, April 22, 8 pm, Ambassador Auditorium, Pasadena; Sunday, April 23, 7 pm, UCLA's Royce Hall) Mozart, Christopher Cerrone, Schubert. Music Director Jeffrey Kahane concludes his remarkable 20-year tenure with LACO in grand fashion with a quintessential "Kahane" program that includes something new, something personal and something profound. The concert opens with Kahane conducting the world premiere of a LACO commission by 2014 Pulitzer-Prize finalist Christopher Cerrone, "a rising star" (The New Yorker) whose compositional voice is characterized by expressive lyricism, ringing clarity and a deep literary fluency. Kahane, a world renowned pianist, then takes on dual roles as soloist and conductor, in his trademark style, as he leads the Orchestra from the keyboard to perform Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27, which he describes as a "bittersweet valedictory piece about being at the end of winter and longing for spring." For his final flourish as LACO music director, Kahane takes the podium to conduct Schubert's Symphony No. 9, "The Great C-major," which embodies Schubert's great love of Beethoven. Summing up both the piece and his time with LACO, Kahane concludes, "It's a great way to end." (Saturday, May 20, 8 pm, Alex Theatre, Glendale; Sunday, May 21, 7 pm, UCLA's Royce Hall) BAROQUE CONVERSATIONS
LACO announces that harpsichord virtuoso Mahan Esfahani has been appointed Baroque Conversations Artistic Partner for a three-year period, through the 2018-19 season. Artists curating and hosting performances for LACO's enlightening five-concert Baroque Conversations series, held at The Colburn School's Zipper Hall in downtown LA, are Esfahani (October 6, 2016); Principal Harpsichord Patricia Mabee, celebrating her 40th year with the Orchestra (November 3, 2016); guest viola d'amore/violin Rachel Barton Pine, (February 9, 2017); guest conductor Stephen Stubbs whose program features the 16-year-old Dutch phenom, recorder player Lucie Horsch (March 2, 2017); and LACO Assistant Concertmaster Tereza Stanislav, who is joined by Music Director Jeffrey Kahane (April 13, 2017). The series spotlights repertoire from early Baroque schools through the pre-classical period. In signature LACO style, the artists share their insights into the music and invite questions from the audience, which provides patrons with an in-depth look at the music being presented as well as an opportunity to get to know LACO artists on a deeper level. Each program begins with a wine and hors d'oeuvres reception. (Thursdays, October 6 & November 3, 2016, and February 9, March 2 & April 13, 2017, 7:30 pm, Zipper Hall, downtown Los Angeles) (programs to be announced) WESTSIDE CONNECTIONS - Music: The Mirror of Time
Designed to illustrate the connections between music and other human and artistic endeavors, LACO's trademark "Westside Connections" inter-disciplinary three-concert chamber music and discussion series continues to step outside the proverbial "music "box" with this season's theme, Music: The Mirror of Time, a thought-provoking exploration of masterworks from times of tragedy and triumph. The series, designed to illustrate the myriad ways music is woven into society and our lives, is curated by Concertmaster Margaret Batjer, who selects chamber works to complement the presentations of the special guests. In previous seasons, Westside Connections has explored the connections between music and such disparate topics as the mind, architecture, the culinary arts and poetry. "Westside Connections" concerts take place at the state-of-the-art 335-seat Moss Theater at New Roads School in Santa Monica, providing an intimate setting for the fascinating and often surprising programs. (Thursdays, February 23, April 6, May 4, 2017, 7:30 pm, Ann and Jerry Moss Theater at The Herb Alpert Educational Village at New Roads School, Santa Monica) (programs to be announced) LACO À LA CARTE
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra offers music lovers an opportunity to enjoy five intimate, elegant and entertaining "LACO à la carte" fundraising events, which illustrate that music truly knows no boundaries by pairing delectable international cuisine and exclusive salon musical performances by LACO musicians and guest artists in spectacular international residences. Included this season are salons at the residences of the consuls general of Austria, Turkey and Australia, among others. "LACO à la carte" is chaired by LACO board member Mahnaz Newman. (dates, locations and programs to be announced) LACO ANNUAL CONCERT GALA
LACO's annual concert gala celebrates Music Director Jeffrey Kahane. The elegant fundraiser features a special concert, silent and live auctions and a sumptuous dinner, and takes place on Saturday, March 25, 2017, at The Biltmore Hotel. Pat and Sandy Gage, who co-chaired LACO's three most lucrative galas ever, head the event for a fourth time. LACO @ THE MOVIES
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra continues to honor its rich "Hollywood" heritage with "LACO @ The Movies," an extraordinary evening of music and film in one of LA's movie palaces. LACO was founded by studio musicians eager to play in a concert setting as well as in recording studios with many of LACO's artists continuing to be involved in the film and television recording industry. (Saturday, June 3, 2017, location and program to be announced) LACO'S COMMUNITY PROGRAMS REACH THOUSANDS OF YOUNG PEOPLE
Nurturing future musicians and composers as well as inspiring a love of classical music are integral to LACO's mission. Through its "Meet the Music," "Community Partners," "LACO-USC Thornton Strings Mentorship Program" and master classes with LACO Composer-in-Residence Andrew Norman, the Orchestra reaches thousands of young people annually.
Meet the Music. Each school year, LACO, through its acclaimed "Meet the Music" program, hosts 3,200 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students of varied cultural and musical backgrounds at a series of four live programs of classical works and often an upcoming program's soloist at a professional concert hall. Offered in cooperation with the Los Angeles, Pasadena and Burbank unified school districts, "Meet the Music" fosters listening skills, encourages involvement in music making and provides personal contact with musicians and composers. Prior to attending the concert, students learn about the music on the program in their classrooms through a dedicated volunteer corps of educators and graduate students specially trained by LACO, which underwrites production and, often, transportation costs. For many students, "Meet the Music" marks their first time seeing a live orchestral performance. Joining the Orchestra for at least one program is contemporary classical music ensemble wild Up, which embarks on the final year of a three-year residency as LACO Education Artists-in-Residence. LACO recognizes The Colburn School for its continued support of the Orchestra's "Meet the Music" education outreach program. (Fridays, October 21 & 28, 2016, and February 24, 2017, Zipper Concert Hall; Thursday, November 10, 2016, Alex Theatre; programs to be announced)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
LACO recognizes the generous support of Carol and Warner Henry for "Baroque Conversations"; The Colburn Foundation; and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Steinway is the official piano of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. The Orchestra also receives public funding via grants from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
For a free season flyer, additional information about Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra's 2016-17 season or to order tickets, please call 213 622 7001, or visit www.laco.org.
PHOTO CREDIT: Ken Hively
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