LA Chamber Orchestra Begins Gathering Together For Live Performances

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO), ranked among the world's top musical ensembles, will be among the first classical music ensembles in the country to resume gathering together for live performances - with social distancing and no audience - following the shut down due to the global pandemic when it launches "LACO SummerFest," the Orchestra's first-ever summer chamber music series.

LACO SummerFest includes five concerts, each spotlighting several LACO artists and special musical guests performing together live at Zipper Hall, in downtown Los Angeles, a broad range of chamber music that will be recorded specifically for the series, with new programs streaming every other Saturday from July 11 through September 5, 2020, at 5 pm (PDT). Each broadcast will initially be available at laco.org/live and subsequently on demand at laco.org/laco-at-home, as well as laco.org/summerfest.

"LACO's SummerFest is a small but very meaningful step toward the Orchestra continuing to produce innovative and relevant musical content," says LACO's Executive Director Ben Cadwallader. "It will keep our audiences engaged and connected while also putting our musicians back to work - while keeping them safe - which is vitally important. We are learning a lot about what it takes to pull off an in-person digital concert and will apply this new competency to the programs we have tentatively planned for fall. We have worked very closely with our colleagues in LACO's Orchestra Committee and Local 47 to establish stringent safety standards for these live engagements, in full compliance with local and state regulations, that will protect the performers and recording technicians."

He also notes that SummerFest features fully integrated programs designed specifically for the series, rather than piecing together material from archived pre-pandemic performances or recordings by individual musicians at home during the pandemic.

The festival's opening concert, which streams on Saturday, July 11, 2020, at 5 pm (PDT), features Concertmaster Margaret Batjer, Principal Cello Andrew Shulman and special guest pianist Andrew von Oeyen. The program includes Florence Beatrice Price's The Deserted Garden, for violin and piano. Although Price was a musical pioneer who became the first black female American composer to have a symphony performed by a major U.S. orchestra, her career was stunted due to the systemic racism in classical music which she and so many other artists of color have encountered and continue to encounter. Also on the program is Mendelssohn's Piano Trio in D minor, considered one of the composer's greatest and most popular chamber works.

Subsequent SummerFest concerts (artists and programs listed below) stream on July 25, August 8 and 22 and September 5, 5 pm (PDT). The concert on July 11 is made possible by a generous gift from Terri and Jerry Kohl. The July 25 concert is made possible by a generous gift from LACO Board Chair Leslie Lassiter.

LACO SummerFest supports the stellar musicians of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; viewers who wish to support LACO and the artists on screen are encouraged to visit LACO.org/donate or call (213) 622-7001, EXT. 4. Each broadcast will initially be available at laco.org/live and subsequently on demand at laco.org/laco-at-home.