News
April 6, 2013
Have you ever wondered what it feels like to have close contact with the composer of a new piece—and to have the privilege of commissioning it? I first found out in 1998 when I had the opportunity to meet several composers for our upcoming season. I had a great visit with David Goodman at a special event for donors that fall, and I walked away from there thinking what fun it would be to commission the piece he was embarking on writing for us. I liked his ideas and thought I just might like what he writes. So I volunteered to donate funds for the commission. I was not disappointed!
April 6, 2013
The house was built in 1940 on a double lot in a cul-de-sac in Pacific Palisades. Mark Freund and Trice Koopman purchased it in 1983 and have done two extensive remodels, completed in 1992 and 2004. Designed by architect Lorcan O’Herlihy, the first remodel very early in his career, the second after he was well established, both keep a continuity of design and materials. “We tend to refer to it as comfortable modern,” Mark says. O’Herlihy describes the upstairs (the second remodel) as light skin construction, meaning the house is skinned in glass (mostly) while the structural support is more internal.
April 6, 2013
Our May concerts present two string quartets from the past—Haydn’s Op. 64, No. 2 in B minor, and Smetana’s second string quartet—as well as the world premiere of a brand-new one, Gernot Wolfgang’s String Theory. Though from the standard repertoire, the other two are not well-known. Smetana’s first string quartet is often performed and is deservedly popular. And Haydn wrote so many string quartets—68 in all—that it is relatively easy to hear each one as if it is newly-discovered.
April 6, 2013
It has been a long and interesting musical journey for Gernot Wolfgang, who, as a high school student in his native Austria, was a fan primarily of Top 40. From there, he found his way to jazz—first as a guitarist and then increasingly as a composer—then to film music, and eventually to his current passion: writing music for classical music concerts.
You might know Gernot as one of the most prolific and most-performed composers in the LA concert music scene, what with a commission from LACO a few years ago, commissions from numerous chamber ensembles, and repeat performances all over the place.
February 22, 2013
This year we again visit the home of Ronna Binn-Hersh and Louis R. Hersh, which is nestled in the hills above Tarzana.
Ronna Binn-Hersh has loved music all of her life and has been involved in
volunteer work with several different musical organizations. She is also an
accomplished pianist and teacher. So when the 1994 Northridge earthquake caused her living room’s fireplace to fall, she opted not for a new fireplace, but instead to take the opportunity to create a perfect space for chamber music and piano concerts. Ronna is blessed with having two wonderful Steinway grand pianos which she keeps in perfect condition with the help of Richard Davenport, her piano technician.
February 22, 2013
Our March concert program brings together three composers spanning 200 years of music history and culture. From Beethoven, his “Spring” Sonata for violin and piano echoes the transition in music at the dawn of the 19th century. From Fauré, his piano quartet, Op. 45, conjures the French nationalism towards the end of the 19th century. And a world premiere by Kenneth Froelich represents the vision of what is to become known as music in the 21st century.
February 22, 2013
The piece that Pacific Serenades commissioned him to write, and which we will be premiering on our upcoming concerts, is Piano Quartet No. 1: Mirror. He had written a great deal of wind music in the preceding year, including Portraits of Mt. Rushmore for the US Air Force Brass in Blue, a subset of the US Heartland Band in Omaha, which commissioned the work. The USAF Brass in Blue premiered the work at Mt. Rushmore last year. After that, he said to himself, “I need to write something that isn’t brass and winds. I need a change.” And so he welcomed the opportunity to write a piece for strings and piano.
He described the piece to me as “primarily tonal, but also modal, octatonic, and bitonal—shifting rapidly from one key to another. It has less jazz in it than some of my other works, as I wanted the piano quartet to be more classically oriented. There are hints of chant in the piece, and the introduction is chant-like, even hymn-like. Originally I had a concept for the piece as rooted in political relationships, but I abandoned that. That didn’t feel authentic to me, and I always want what I am saying as a composer to be authentic, to be in my own voice.”
February 22, 2013
Save 15% off the single ticket price when you buy all three remaining concerts.
January 9, 2013
Subscribe to our Neighborhood Church Series or our UCLA Faculty Center Series by January 30, 2013, and you will have the opportunity to bring a friend who is new to Pacific Serenades to our first concert of the season. All you need to do is include your friend’s name, address, and, preferably, email address with your subscription order, and we’ll take care of the rest.
January 9, 2013
“I am extremely excited to be playing with my colleagues on this series. I’ve known all three of them for a long time, and in different ways. David Speltz and I studied with the same teacher, and I’ve known him since I was 16. We’ve also taught together for decades at the Idyllwild Arts Summer Program. Eugene Friesen and I shared a stand together in the American Youth Symphony (conducted by the great Mehli Mehta) back in the mid ’70s, and Giovanna Moraga was my student and is now one of my most esteemed colleagues. This series of concerts will be pure joy!”
