Mixed Up World

One musician I know grew up loving classical music, but also loved the Beatles and Joni Mitchell and the songs from his parents’ youth. Another was a child prodigy on both piano and violin in Jakarta, where she heard Western classical music side-by-side with traditional Indonesian music. Another is a composer from Israel who came to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film music and brought with her the music of her own land, already rich in traditions from Europe and the Middle East.

I know jazz musicians who thrive on listening to Bach after hours and who sing the praises of their training in 16th-century counterpoint, who make no distinction between being composers and performers, who blend music of Brazil and Broadway. I know musicians young enough to wonder how any of us ever made such sharp distinctions between “art music” and the rest, and who lovingly sing Schoenberg melodies at the same time as they rave about Rufus Wainwright songs.

I don’t know a single person who has grown up enjoying only one sort of music. But I know of many classical music-lovers who haunt jazz clubs and sing Beatles songs together, and Turkish ud virtuosos who know Western classical music inside and out.

Celebrate this richness of traditions, woven together in Pacific Serenades’ 24th season. Music by Brahms presented alongside music by our youngest commissioned composer ever, Jeff Kryka. New songs by Israeli-born Sharon Farber, side-by-side with Fauré, Bernstein, and Mozart. My own new violin and piano sonata-a synthesis of my personal diverse roots and music of Indonesia, at the special request of pianist Ayke Agus-along with Beethoven and Shostakovich. And jazz artist Katisse Buckingham’s music in the midst of string quartets by Webern and Dvorak-all brimming with imagination.

Yes, what a wonderfully mixed up world we live in, and I love it!