Showing posts with label Fantastic Symphony. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fantastic Symphony. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

UCLA Faculty Women's Club MUSIC SECTION 2016-2017




UCLA's FWC Music Section started a celebration of the Holiday Season with a festive new tradition: we widened the Music Section membership by inviting members from book and play reading sections, we welcomed husbands, and for the first time, welcomed other FWC members to join in. Jarka and Tom Wilcox hosted the party, and Zorana Ercegovac, Chair of the Music Section, programmed the event. All music section members offered delicious food, refreshments, and beverage. The event was a great success and a wonderful way to start our FWC Centennial Celebration in 2017-2018

Shirley Ho, Music Section vocalist, performed carols in English and Chinese

Zorana Ercegovac accompanied our performers
Zorana and Debby Kennel are joined by the Swansons (from play reading)

Andrea Nolan, The FWC new member joins in, WELCOME Andrea!!

Zorana and Simone King, our Music Section member

Jarka Wilcox, our hostess, with many attendees listen the performance by Shirley Ho

Zorana and Milos Ercegovac
Debby Kennel presented Vivaldi at her Brentwood residence
from left: Jo Knopoff, guest, Mireya, Helen, Jarka, Simone, Debby (hostess),
and Zorana (chair of the Music Section)

Welcome to the Music Section of the Faculty Women's Club 2016-2017!


We had a wonderful inaugural music session on October 19th at my home

Lots of preparatory work goes into each and every music session

Our program is Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique (1830) and here's a portrait of the artist, Hector Berlioz, 1803-1869. We will briefly discuss the Romanticism as a broader context of the stylistic period, and then dig deeper in his work, and why his Fantastic Symphony is still vibrant, well performed, and modern.


Hector Berlioz

Beethoven's performance of EROICA in 1828 in Paris, as well as multiple appearances of the Shakesperian actress Harriet Smithson were important immediate inspirations for his seminal symphonic work which premiered in 1830 in Paris. Smithson (1800-1851) became his idee fixe which was used to symbolize his passionate love for the beloved.

Idée Fixe in Berlioz Fantastic Symphony, 1830

The Enlightenment period which rationalized human thought (I think, therefore I am), is now expressed in the new motto of the Romanticism: I feel, therefore I am. Indeed, Berlioz expressed his emotions and feelings for the actress using his own powerful innovative orchestral language.

The early 19th century is the cultural movement where Franz Schubert, the Schumanns, Chopin, Berlioz, and Mendelssohn created their landmark musical works. It is the period in which Delacroix, Turner, Hugo, Keats, and Dumas were particularly productive.

Eugene Delacroix: LIBERTY Leading the People, 1830

SAVE THE DATE: third Wednesday at 12:30 PM
  • November 16th 2016 -- Antonio Vivaldi at Debby's house
  • December 21st 2016 -- Holiday Sing Along at Jarka's house
  • January 18th 2017 -- we will be starting our FWC pre-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION with talented pianist Victor Shlyakhtenko an accomplished student at The Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles. 
  • This is our next Music Section event, please RSVP as soon as you can
Victor Shlyakhtenko

  • May 17th 2017 -- Vocal performance at Shirley's new residence
  • volunteers needed for winter/spring months of 2017
The following events & programs are considered throughout the 2016-2017 year:



  • The Broad Stage in Santa Monica 1310 11th st., -- Sundays at 11 AM November 20, Jan 8 (2017), March 5 for the Beethoven, Bagels & Banter (tickets are at $45, call 310-434-3200).
  • The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT) at MacGowan Hall at UCLA: Dec 5-6 at 7:30 PM at Theater Lab, Melnitz Hall, "Sunday in the Park with George," music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim



  • Sunday February 19 and 26, 2017 at 2 PM: Opera CENDRILLON, a version of Cinderella at Freud Playhouse, UCLA.
  • UCLA The 30th Annual Jazz Reggae Fest: MUSIC and ART and FOOD, 12 noon - 6 PM. Tickets are available at 310-825-2101.
  • December 3rd 2016 is Kenny Burrell's 85th birthday celebration at Royce Hall (825-4761)
  • CENTER FOR THE ART OF PERFORMANCE, CAP, at UCLA features excellent selection of programs in diverse genres of music: classical, folk, regional music traditions, and more. 

UCLA Philharmonia is the flagship orchestra of the UCLA Hern Alpert School of Music. Please check their homepage for the forthcoming programs and concerts.


  • There are many more excellent venues such as HEAR NOW Music Festival, April 28-30th 2017.
  • Le Salon De Musiques October through June music calendar on the Fifth Floor of the Dorothy Chandler at 4 PM.
  • Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Broad, the LACMA, HAMMER, and other LA venues.