Happy Spring 2016 !!
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Spring blooms
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UCLA's Faculty Women's Club has been busy attending music performances and other cultural programs, working for the next 2016-2017 Music Section Season, participating in planning of the
FWC Centennial 2017-2018, and celebrating various members' achievements. Some of these highlight are captured in a few annotated photos below.
Our last 2015-2016 Music Section Season was on June 2 at the Macgowan Little Theater on the beautiful UCLA campus. UCLA Department of Music and School of Theater, Film and Television presented
The Tragedy of Carmen
This opera is a 20th adaptation of Georges Bizet's 19th century classic opera by Marius Constant, Jean-Claude Carriere, and Peter Brook. We enjoyed an excellent cast of four opera singers and two actors. The principal singers on June 2nd were:
Joanna Lynn-Jacobs as CARMEN
Thomas Thompson as DON JOSE
Ian P. Walker as ESCAMILLO
Emily Scott as MICAELA
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Main opera singers were: Micaela, Don Jose, Carmen, Escamillo
with two actors on each side |
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Debby, Mireya, Jarka, Tom, Milos
Photo credits: Zorana |
This was our first opera event; based on the amazing performance and the production, we decided to incorporate at least one opera in the following year. We will be back at
TFT.
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| Photo credits: Zorana Ercegovac |
Cave temples of Dunhuang -- Buddhist art on China's silk road, displays great murals, now reproduced at The Getty Museum in Los Angeles, May 7 through September 4, 2016. Here are just two fragments with China's musicians and musical instruments.
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| Aspara playing music (Dunhuang) from the 780s |
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| Aspara playing an old Chinese lute |
Our recital on May 18th at Shirley's residence in Brentwood is captured in a few annotated photos below.
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| From left: Helen, Amelita, Mireya, Roma, Zorana, Simone, Joy |
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| Jarka and Debby with our hostess and vocalist Shirley in the center |
May 12th marked a special treat for all of us who attended the UCLA Philharmonia
All-Star Concert with Neal Stulberg, conducting the flagship orchestra of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
UCLA's
Herb Alpert School of Music is featuring its Ethnomusicology Department music performances, so check their
daily event programs for specific regions, including musics of the Balkans, India, Bali, Africa, JAZZ, and more !!
Several friends were introduced to several rarely performed pieces: Martinu's (1890-1959) Cello Concerto No. 1 (1955) performed by
Sol Gabetta (b. 1981). Her encore piece was Petris Vaska (b. 1946) a Latvian composer. Hear her play "
Dolcissimo"
A few of us attended UCLA's Hear Now Festival by contemporary Los Angeles composers at Schoenberg Hall (April 22). Prior to the concert, we chatted about super rich cultural programs in LA, had fun, and planned the next season.
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| Zorana, Mireya, Debby, Simone, and Helen (photo credits: Milos) |
The program included four LA-based composers: Ben Phelps, Bill Kraft, Cieri Torjussen, and Dan Kessner; each of them was in the audience, happy to chat with us and answer questions. Justine Aronson, soprano, was featured in Kraft's
Settings from Pierrot Lunaire (1994).
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| Justine Aronson, soprano |
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| William Kraft, composer (b. 1924 ) |
Works by John Adams (b. 1947), Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921), and Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1849) were on the program at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Behzod Abduraimov, a 26 year old amazing pianist performed the piano concerto (No. 2 in g minor Op. 22). As
Washington Post notes, we will "keep our ear on this one."
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| WDCH (just before the Adams/Saint-Saens/Mendelssohn concert) |
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| Morning walk in Santa Monica Beach |
If you are lucky, you can begin your morning with a walk along the beach, a visit to a gallery, and then start off the day with your essential daily commitments.
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Start a walk in Santa Monica
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| Noguchi (bronze) at Getty Museum |
UCLA Faculty Women's Club Music Section friends celebrated Spring 2016 by attending a special performance at the Royce Hall. We met at the foyer to enjoy a moment, to sip, chat, and photograph. More friends were scattered throughout the historic building, but here is the dedicated small but important group who attended last night's concert: G. Wolfgang and Wolfgang A. Mozart (two Austrian composers 200 years apart from one another).
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From left: Ross, Zorana, Joy, Rochelle, Gerry, Mireya
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| Pre-concert happy and relaxed moment: Ross, Mireya, and Rochelle |
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| Pre-concert moments: Joy with Gerry and Milos |
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Joy with Gerry and Zorana
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The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra 5 Program was conducted by Kahane, Music Director of LACO.
Clarinet Concerto in A major featured Jashua Ranz, LACO's principal clarinetist. Has anyone noticed that the soloist played a basset clarinet, longer and heavier than a standard A clarinet?
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Except at the last night's performance, the same program was held at the
UCLA's Royce Hall, March 20th at 7 PM |
Gernot Wolfgang's
http://www.laco.org/blog/?c=12 Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds featured David Shostac (flute), Allan Vogel (oboe), Kenneth Munday (bassoon), and Richard Todd (horn).
Great performance review is in
Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-laco-review-20160323-story.html
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