The Da Camera Society of Mount Saint Mary's University Launches Its 50th Anniversary Season, September 10

The Da Camera Society of Mount Saint Mary's University launches its 50th Anniversary Season at the Doheny Mansion Pompeian Room on Sunday, Sep. 10, 2023 with the first of three concerts featuring women composers and musicians. This will be a family affair, with father and son duo David and Mark Kaplan performing works for violin and piano by Clara and Robert Schumann.

Other concerts in the 50th Anniversary Season include classical guitarist Stephanie Jones at USC's Cammilleri Hall on Oct. 4; the Vieness Piano Duo performing works for two pianos by Amy Beach, Rachmaninoff, and Saint-Saëns at the Webster-Zuber residence in Mar Vista on Nov. 12; the Salastina chamber ensemble opening the holiday season with Handel's Messiah on Saturday, Dec. 2 and a special 50th anniversary brunch with Salastina on Sunday, Dec. 3 at the Doheny Mansion. The Fall/Winter series concludes with a Holiday Concert on Saturday, Dec. 9 featuring the Clare College Choir of Cambridge at the Art of Living Center. Details on Spring 2024 concerts will be available soon on the Da Camera website. 

The Da Camera Society was founded at Mount Saint Mary's University in 1973 by MaryAnn Bonino with the intention of fostering the return of chamber music to the intimate environments for which it was conceived. The Society's mission expanded over the years to embrace a wide variety of musical genres and educational programming celebrating the diverse communities of greater Los Angeles. 

The Los Angeles Times has referred to the series as “site and sounds merged sublimely,” and “simply the best chamber music series in town,” while the Los Angeles Weekly called it “L.A.'s Best Concert Series.”

Through its Music in Historic Sites concert series the Society presents internationally acclaimed artists in programs matched to sites of architectural, historical, and cultural significance to the greater Los Angeles area. Highly praised by music writers and commentators as an innovative and extraordinary series, concerts have been presented at such iconic sites as the Queen Mary, Pasadena's replica of Versailles's Petit Trianon, the Spanish-Baroque interior of downtown's Million Dollar Theater, and Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House. 

The Music in Historic Sites programs enable The Da Camera Society to connect audiences with neighborhoods and musical traditions that they might not otherwise have discovered. Concerts are staged in varied cultural and historic landmarks throughout Los Angeles and attendees are encouraged to explore the neighborhoods as part of the historic sites experience.

Artistic Director Julius Reder Carlson says “The Da Camera Society is honored to continue the legacy of MaryAnn Bonino, celebrating LA's rich cultural life past and present!”

For more information on The Da Camera Society visit www.dacamerasociety.org, or email dacamera@msmu.edu.

The Da Camera Society is very much a Los Angeles institution. A half century ago, in 1973, Mount Saint Mary's University (MSMU) music professor MaryAnn Bonino had the idea of congregating chamber musicians in the salon of the Doheny Mansion, a beautiful Gilded Age building on MSMU's downtown campus. And her concept eventually expanded to include concerts at architecturally significant sites around the LA area. The inflection point for the series was the 1984 Olympics. After that, Da Camera really took off, hosting some of the world's greatest musicians in sites including the Bradbury Building, Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis (Aztec) House, and Union Station, among others. There was – and is – also a significant educational component to the series. Concerts are free to MSMU students and offered at a significant discount to young people studying at other schools. And Da Camera produces other educational programming as well, such as the music videos which can be found at dacamerasociety.org

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