MusicFEST 2021 with LACO and Jaime Martin

MUSIC IN CULTURAL CONTEXTS 2021-2022 KICKS INTO HIGH GEAR

  ---   both in-person, via zoom and virtual streaming

Our FIRST in-person concert (after some 18+ months lockdown) was on November 13th 2021 at the UCLA's Royce Hall. The program was glorious, performance excellent, well attended, and safe!

The program included: Mozart's piano concerto no. 22 in E-flat, K 482 (composed in 1785), and

Beethoven's Symphony no. 3 in E-flat, also known as Eroica, written from 1803 to 1804 -- we may be incorporating parts of Eroica at one of our future events and gatherings, considering the historical and cultural contexts of the time.

Jeffrey Kahane, piano, with LACO's Jaime Martin, Music Director and Conductor

A part of our Faculty Women's Club (FWC) Music Section in Cultural Contexts:
Rochelle, Tom, Jarka, Zorana (Mireya and Anne-Marie were also in attendance)
just like an impressionistic painting with the Royce Hall in back

Beethoven's 250th anniversary of his birth (1770 - 1827) has been widely celebrated around the world with newly published books, concerts, special events, and lectures throughout 2020 - 2021. Examples are Beethoven's Empire of the Mind and  Jan Caeyers monograph, endorsed by and produced in close collaboration with the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, and other publications and concerts.

Our first 2021 - 2022 MUSIC in CULTURAL CONTEXTS gathering & program was held on October 20th 2021 via zoom. Great and active attendance. Our newest member Anne-Marie Spataru, both a Board member of the Faculty Women's Club as well as of LACO. Rochelle Caballero (see her photo below: top row, first from left) is our zoom hostess. Zorana Ercegovac (top row, second from left) is Founding Chair and Artistic Director of the Section. 

Welcome on board Anne-Marie! Her (her photo is on page 2, with a few other attendees).

Zahava Koren (middle row, first from right) joined us from Vancouver. 

Our invited guests for this particular event and program were Maria (Lolo) Penedo and John Silvester, both Ph.D. UCLA alumni in the Computer Science Department. 

Jaime Bulkacz (middle row, first from left) explained and answered questions related to the Tango Music from his native Argentina. He is our tango music expert. Two years ago, he was a featured speaker and presenter of the tango music: the roots, the evolution, and different variations of this genre in Argentina and globally. 

Jarka Wilcox (middle row, second from left) did a great overview of the "Czech History in Nutshell" for us as an introduction to B. Smetana and the mid 19th century national movement in Europe.

The program incorporated dance music and traced classical forms and genres to specific folk traditions.

For example, we included:

Frederick Chopin's mazurkas -- performed by Martha Argerich, when she was 25, and again at 80

Manuel de Falla's El Amor Brujo

Astor Piazzolla's Libertango

Bela Bartok's Romanian Folk Dances for piano (performed by Helene Grimaud)

Sergei Rachmaninoff's romance "Never sing to me, my beauty," set on Pushkin's poem 

The concert closed with B. Smetana's Ma Vlast. 

Our October 2021 meeting spent some time planning our calendar year.

We will be meeting at the Royce Hall on November 13 for the LACO concert. Will meet and greet at the Ahmanson Terrace (see below) before the performance at about 7:15 PM. The spacious Terrace is facing sunset and it is a great open venue to enjoy with friends, meet new ones, and relax before concerts. 

Milos Ercegovac, distinguished Professor Emeritus in CS

We will celebrate our Christmas and High Holidays on December 15th with the SMALL ANTHOLOGY OF MUSIC 2021 (SAM '21). We will invite our sister FWC sections, including "bookies" and play readers to join us. We ask the participants to contribute a short piece of music (any type, period, or genre) which we will share with the attendees. They will say a few words about the significance that music has to them. As soon as I receive your selections, I will create a shell for SAM '21.

Finally, as we plan on returning to the Faculty Club (notice their new name: Faculty Center to Faculty Club), we would like to propose to have two of our concerts at the Cypress Room, one in Fall 2022 and another, in Spring 2023. See our members attendees when we invited a duo flutist and pianist.

Graduate USC students performed for us in October 2019 in the
Cypress Room, The Faculty Center (now Faculty Club)

The idea is to advertise our FWC Music Section in Cultural Contexts program in the FC Newsletter. Ideally, the FC members would have a great music experience after they had their lunch in the FC dining room; alternatively, FC members could just join us for an hour of great music & social. This would be a nice promotion for the UCLA FWC, for our section, and the Faculty Club could have free of charge  music event.  

                            LOOKING FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU

                                       HAPPY and SAFE HALLOWEEN

From the neighborhood walks

LACO (Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra) and their Music Director Maestro Jaime Martin have put together a wonderful five-event program on Fridays at 6 PM. 

LACO performs Ginastera's Variaciones Concertandes
August 27, 2021 

The program included Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983), an Argetinian classical music composer: Variaciones Concertandes. The performance was broadcasting live from the WDCH, the first in-person concert after 503 days! It was available via utube.

Here are the following music events, all available for us via youtube:

 

September 10 (Friday at 6 PM)

Manuel de Falla (1876-1946): El Amor Brujo

 

September 24 (Friday at 6 PM)

Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony no. 4 “Italian”

 

October 8 (Friday at 6 PM)

KiMani Bridges and Claude Debussy

 

October 22 (Friday at 6 PM)

Juan Pablo Contreras and Geronimo Gimenez

Since most of us are vaccinated, but awaiting for our booster shots, the best way to keep healthy and safe is to listen to music program via media channels, such as LACO's SummerFEST 2021.

However, I offer to meet in person in smaller groups, and discuss our programs at two wonderful locations: Luskin's Plateia at UCLA. Another is at the J. P. Getty. I can arrange a car pool for small groups of 4 of us to drive and spend some time at their galleries and their wonderful Restaurant, which is now operational. 

Here are several photos from the collection of the J. P. Getty Museum in Brentwood.

Edvard Munch, Starry Night (1893)

We do not travel, but we can visit the Swiss Alps, French countryside, sail, and visit Norway.

Giovanni Segantini: Spring in the Alps (1897)
This is just a detail from a larger painting from the J. P. Getty Museum collection

Alfred Sisley (1839-1899): The road from Versailles to Saint-Germain
We feel the outdoors, exploring the effects of changing light and weather

In the SPOTLIGHT: Victor Shlyakhtenko

SAVE the DATES for February and March 2017:
The month of February will take us to UCLA's Freud Playhouse for "Cendrillon" by Jules Massenet. Libretto by Henri Cain, based on the fairytale by Charles Perrault. This opera is co-produced with the Department of Theater.
Based on a well know fairy tale Cinderella, this opera in 4 acts, was first performed in 1899 at the Theatre National de l'Opera Comique.
For a full libretto, main characters, dance numbers, and music, go to OPERATODAY and search for titles of specific operas, like Jules Massenet's Cendrillon.
WHEN: Sunday February 19th at 2 PM. $25.00, tickets at 310.825.2101

One more outstanding event:
WATCH THE MOSTER STORM splashes down on LA today from 10 AM to 5 PM.

Friday February 17th at Royce Hall (8:00 pm)
Bamberg Symphony with its origins as the German Philharmonia, goes back to the 18th and 19th centuries. Mozart's Don Giovanni Overture, premiered 29 October 1787 in Prague by the National Theater (of Bohemia); Mozart entered the work in his catalog as an opera buffa.

Max Bruch composed his violin concerto (No. 1 op. 26 in G minor) in 1886; the work was dedicated to violinist virtuoso Joseph Joachim. Gustav Mahler conducted the orchestra in 1885-1886. The San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas produced an excellent presentation in KEEPING SCORE (PBS).

The following text is taken given below from Wikipedia:
The first movement (of the Bruch's violin concerto) is unusual in that it is a Vorspiel, a prelude, to the second movement and is directly linked to it. The piece starts off slowly, with the melody first taken by the flutes, and then the solo violin becomes audible with a short cadenza. This repeats again, serving as an introduction to the main portion of the movement, which contains a strong first theme and a very melodic, and generally slower, second theme. The movement ends as it began, with the two short cadenzas more virtuosic than before, and the orchestra's final tutti flows into the second movement, connected by a single low note from the first violins.

The slow second movement is often admired for its melody, and is generally considered to be the heart of the concerto. The themes, presented by the violin, are underscored by a constantly moving orchestra part, keeping the movement alive and helping it flow from one part to the next.

The third movement, the finale, opens with an intense, yet quiet, orchestral introduction that yields to the soloist's statement of the energetic theme in brilliant double stops. It is very much like a dance that moves at a comfortably fast and energetic tempo. The second subject is a fine example of Romantic lyricism, a slower melody which cuts into the movement several times, before the dance theme returns with its fireworks. The piece ends with a huge accelerando, leading to a fiery finish that gets higher as it gets faster and louder and eventually concludes with two short, yet grand, chords.

Tonight's concert closes with L. van Beethoven's Third Symphony "EROICA" We as a Music Section group had the entire session dedicated to this Symphony in 2016.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E flat Major "EROICA"

Check UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance CAP UCLA for calendar of programs.

Bamberg Symphony

The Bamberg Symphony, founded in 1946, was formed from German musicians expelled from Czechoslovakia.

MARCH 2017

This month brings old masters and new multi-sensory musical experiences. Jocelyn Ho, in the photo below, will perform six piano pieces at UCLA's Schoenberg Hall on Friday, March 2-3, 2017.

Jocelyn Ho, Assistant Professor, UCLA

Another interesting avant-gard experience is the UCLA Game Lab, which strives to develop new modes of expression and form through gaming. Take a look at some of the "disruptive borderlands" by Prof. Eddo Stern and other projects by faculty and students.

Get ready for a special treat on March 15th at 12:30 PM.
The Program: We will enjoy music by Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)
Our hostess and the lead will be Jarka Wilcox
To prepare you for this event, you may want to explore some among numerous excellent sources on Dvorak. I offer just a few links for biography, photos, and discography.
RSVP and volunteer with refreshments for March 15.

Antonin Leopold Dvorak (1841-1904)

Faculty Women's Club MUSIC SECTION has started off the New Year 2017, and our Centennial Year (1918-2018) with a brilliant young pianist Victor Shlyakhtenko, 14, who has been studying piano since the age of five.

Victor Shlyakhtenko
THE PROGRAM :
Toccata in E minor, BWV 914 by J.S. Bach
Tarantella from Venezia e Napoli by Franz Liszt
Sonata in E-flat major, Hob. XVI:52 by F. J. Haydn
Chorphantasie Op. 80 by L. van Beethoven
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 by Liszt
 Piano Concerto No.21 in C major, K. 467 by W. A. Mozart
Sonata, Op. 26 by S. Barber

The intimate setting of the piano recital afforded the opportunity to interact with Victor, and the audience took advantage of our event: to ask questions, network, and listen to the great music.

Music Section group with Victor in the center of the photo, January 18, 2017
Thank You, Victor, for taking the time to perform for us !

QA time: our attendees had lots of questions, and Victor had so much to offer ranging from a masterful interpretation of his repertory to anecdotes, and brief commentaries.

Victor in the spotlight: too many important questions to ask
From left: Francois and Arlene, our hostesses converse with Victor

Victor with Zorana, founder and chair of the FWC Music Section

In the intimate setting of the private residence in Santa Monica, Victor gave generous time to chat with many members of the Music Section as well as invited guests.

Music Section member Olga Merkurev and Victor: old friends
Kudos to Olga who presented Victor to the Music Section attendees

Victor talks with Milos Ercegovac during the concert intermission
ART MEETS COMPUTER SCIENCE