22nd Season Continues With World Premiere of New Work for Violin and Piano by Composer Bruce Boughton

Saturday, March 1, 8 pm, at a private home in Brentwood
Sunday, March 2, 4 pm, at The Neighborhood Church in Pasadena
Tuesday, March 4, 8 pm, at The UCLA Faculty Center

Pacific Serenades, one of the West Coast’s leading chamber ensembles, continues its 22nd season with its 88th world premiere, Bruce Broughton’s Sonata for Violin and Piano. One of the most versatile composers working today, Broughton wrote the piece for his wife, violinist Belinda Broughton, who performs it with pianist Joanne Pearce Martin on Saturday, March 1, 8 p.m., at a private home in Brentwood; Sunday, March 2, 4 p.m., at The Neighborhood Church in Pasadena; and Tuesday, March 4, 8 p.m., at The UCLA Faculty Center.

Pacific Serenades founder and artistic director Mark Carlson describes the new work by multiple Emmy winner and Grammy and Oscar nominee Bruce Broughton as rousing in the fast movements with a lyrical and moving slow movement. It displays perfectly Belinda’s virtuosic skills.”

In addition to the Broughton world premiere, the concert program, titled Mavericks and magicians, features Debussy’s Sonata for cello and piano (1915), one of the last three pieces he wrote, and Mendelssohn’s rarely performed Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 66, featuring cellist David Speltz with Belinda Broughton and Joanne Pearce Martin. “Debussy is the ‘maverick’ of the program,” Carlson says, “in terms of the piece’s unique form offering different colors from those usually heard in works for cello and piano. As for ‘magicians,’ Mendelssohn’s piano trio has a playfulness to it, and although it’s often overshadowed by his signature Piano Trio, No. 1 in D minor, this work is equally stunning.”

Broughton writes in every medium, from theatrical releases and TV feature films to the concert stage and computer games. An accomplished composer of concert music, he has conducted and recorded numerous original works written for ensembles ranging from the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Chicago, Seattle and National Symphonies to the United States Air Force Band. His first major film score, for the Lawrence Kasdan western Silverado, brought him an Oscar nomination, and the soundtrack album for his subsequent project, a classically styled score for Barry Levinson’s Young Sherlock Holmes, earned a Grammy nomination. With over 20 Emmy nominations, Broughton has received a record ten, including for Glory & Honor; O Pioneers! and Dallas He conducted and supervised the recording of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue” for Disney’s Fantasia 2000, and his score for “Heart Of Darkness” was the first orchestral score composed for a video game. Broughton’s first world premiere for Pacific Serenades was A Primer for Malachi, a work for flute, clarinet, cello, and piano, in 1997.

Belinda Broughton began performing concertos as a child with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and at the age of 12, she performed the Mendelssohn Concerto for Queen Elizabeth II at a Royal Command performance in New Zealand. At 18, she joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra as its youngest ever member and the following year was also playing as assistant concertmaster with the London Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra. By the age of 20 she had performed as concertmaster with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, English National Opera and BBC Concert Orchestra.

Pacific Serenades, led by Founder and Artistic Director Mark Carlson, presents four world premieres during its 2008 season. By the end of the season, the ensemble will have commissioned and presented 90 world premieres by 48 different composers since its inception, more than any other organization of its kind in the country.

Composer BRUCE BROUGHTON’s major motion picture credits include Lost in Space; Tombstone; Miracle on 34th Street; Carried Away; Baby’s Day Out; The Presidio; Narrow Margin; Harry and The Hendersons; Krippendorf’s Tribe; Honey, I Blew Up The Kid; The Boy Who Could Fly; the Disney animated features, The Rescuers Down Under and Bambi II, and the two Homeward Bound adventures. He conducted and supervised the recording of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue” for Fantasia 2000. Numerous TV credits include the main titles for JAG, Tiny Toon Adventures, and Dinosaurs, as well as scores for Amazing Stories, Quincy, and How The West Was Won. Movies for television include Lucy, Bobbie’s Girl, and O Pioneers!; and the miniseries Roughing It, The Blue and the Gray, and the Emmy-nominated True Women. An accomplished composer of concert music, Broughton has conducted and recorded numerous original works, including “Mixed Elements,” commissioned by and premiered at the Sunflower Music Festival, “Modular Music,” composed for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; “The Magic Horn,” commissioned jointly by the Chicago, Seattle and National Symphonies for the Magic Circle Mime Company; “Excursions,” commissioned and premiered by The United States Air Force Band in Washington, D.C.; “Fanfares, Marches, Hymns and Finale,” commissioned by The Bay Brass; “English Music” for Horn and Strings; “And on the Sixth Day” for oboe and orchestra; “Tyvek Wood,” commissioned by the Debussy Trio; a piccolo concerto; a tuba concerto; several solo works for winds; numerous chamber works, and the list goes on. As a conductor, his recordings of Miklós Rózsa’s Ivanhoe and Julius Caesar for Intrada records, performed by the Sinfonia of London shortly before the composer’s death, have received rave reviews, as has his recording of Bernard Herrmann’s riveting score for Jason and the Argonauts. Broughton is a board member of ASCAP, a governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a former governor of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and past president of The Society of Composers and Lyricists. He has taught film composition in the Advanced Film Music Studies program at USC and is a frequent lecturer at UCLA.

PACIFIC SERENADES has become one of the foremost chamber music organizations in the nation since its inception in 1982 and one of the longest performing on the west coast. Twice winner (2003 and 2005) of the prestigious Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, the ensemble has achieved critical acclaim for its concerts at which new music is played alongside traditional chamber repertoire in intimate settings, including private homes. Among its musicians are principals of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Pasadena Symphony and Long Beach Symphony. Pacific Serenades’ CD, The Hall of Mirrors, won the 2001 Chamber Music America/WQXR Records Awards. A new recording, funded by The Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund and The Aaron Copland Fund for Recording, is planned for the coming season. Pacific Serenades was founded by flutist and composer MARK CARLSON, who serves as artistic director. Carlson is the recipient of more than 40 commissions and has composed works for the National Shrine in Washington, DC, the New West Symphony, Westwood Presbyterian Church, First Methodist Church of Santa Monica, the UCLA Wind Ensemble, the Santa Monica College Orchestra, among others, and for many individual musicians.

The Neighborhood Church in Pasadena is located at 301 N. Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena, the UCLA Faculty Center is located at 405 N. Hilgard Avenue in Westwood. Directions to the home concert in Brentwood (which is open to the public) will be sent to ticket buyers prior to the performance.

Pacific Serenades concerts are supported in part by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and by The James Irvine Foundation, Los Angeles Center Studios and Keyboard Concepts.

Tickets are $55 (home concert) and $32 (Neighborhood Church and UCLA Faculty Center concerts). Student rush tickets are available for $5 (at the door only) for programs held at the Neighborhood Church in Pasadena and the UCLA Faculty Center. To purchase tickets, more information, or to request a brochure, call (213) 534-3434. www.pacser.org.

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

Mavericks and magicians
Saturday, March 1, 8 pm, at a private home in Brentwood
Sunday, March 2, 4 pm, at The Neighborhood Church in Pasadena
Tuesday, March 4, 8 pm, at The UCLA Faculty Center

Mendelssohn: Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 66
Debussy: Sonata for cello and piano (1915)
Bruce Broughton: Sonata for violin and piano
World Premiere-commissioned by Pacific Serenades

Belinda Broughton, violin
David Speltz, cello
Joanne Pearce Martin, piano

Tickets are $55 (home concert) and $32 (Neighborhood Church and UCLA Faculty Center concerts). Student rush tickets are available for $5 (at the door only) for programs held at the Neighborhood Church in Pasadena and the UCLA Faculty Center. To purchase tickets, more information, or to request a brochure, call (213) 534-3434.