Pacific Serenades World Premieres Jeremy Cavaterra’s Fantasy For Four Instruments

Saturday, April 26, 4 pm, at a Tarzana residence
Sunday, April 27, 4 pm, at the Neighborhood Church in Pasadena
Tuesday, April 29, 8 pm, at the UCLA Faculty Center

Pacific Serenades, one of the West Coast’s leading chamber ensembles, presents the world premiere of composer Jeremy Cavaterra’s Fantasy for Four Instruments on Saturday, April 26, 4 p.m., at a Tarzana residence; Sunday, April 27, 4 p.m., at the Neighborhood Church in Pasadena; and Tuesday, April 29, 8 p.m., at the UCLA Faculty Center. Cavaterra is a noted composer and orchestrator of music for television, film, and the concert hall. His piano suite, Six Character Pieces, recently received its Los Angeles and San Francisco premieres by Spanish virtuoso Gustavo Díaz-Jerez, with whom Cavaterra has enjoyed a long musical collaboration.

In addition to the world premiere, the Pacific Serenades program, titled Dark woods and gleaming cities, also features Schumann’s Märchenbilder (Fairytale Pictures), Op. 113, for viola and piano; Debussy’s Premiere Rhapsodie for clarinet and piano, 1910; Glinka’s Trio pathétique in D minor, for clarinet, bassoon, and piano; and Tansman’s Suite for bassoon and piano. Gary Gray, clarinet, Judith Farmer, bassoon, Roland Kato, viola, and Ayke Agus, piano, are the performers.

Cavaterra describes his work as “a kind of ballet for instruments in which lyrical gestures and vigorous rhythms play, wrangle, or even strive violently against each other. Both sides win, happily.” About its genesis, he says, “[Pacific Serenades Founder and Artistic Director] Mark Carlson gave me the choice of writing for a string quartet or piano, clarinet, bassoon and viola, and I picked the latter, which in the end made it harder to write. These instruments — piano excluded — tend toward mid- to low ranges and dark, somber colors. While this afforded lots of rich, deep sonorities, it challenged me to find space and sweep without taking the instruments far from where they speak best. I focused on the strengths and charms of the particular instruments at hand, both individually and as a group, instead of miscasting them in roles they couldn’t perform, and the result is a piece that moves between dark and light.”

Pacific Serenades, led by Carlson, presents four world premieres during its 2008 season in keeping with its mission to commission new works each year. By the end of this season in June, 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.

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 2008 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, New West Symphony, Westwood Presbyterian Church, First Methodist Church of Santa Monica, UCLA Wind Ensemble, Santa Monica College Orchestra, among others, and for many individual musicians.

JEREMY CAVATERRA was born in New York City in 1971. Interested in music from an early age, he began improvising and “composing” on the piano long before receiving any formal musical training. When he was ten his family moved to L.A., and he took piano lessons with Tania Agins who gave him a firm traditional foundation and also encouraged his interest in composition, introducing him to Mark Carlson who guided his efforts and also provided him with theory lessons. Later he furthered his piano studies with Robert Turner before receiving a full scholarship to attend Manhattan School of Music in New York where he studied composition with Giampaolo Bracali as well as orchestration and conducting. He spent the next several years in Italy composing and performing as pianist in and around Rome and participating in festivals such as Musica Contemporanea Lazio and Musica sotto l’Orologio in which his works were premièred. Returning to L.A., he worked as composer and orchestrator for a number of films and television shows before deciding that his temperament and a distaste for electronics indisposed him to the commercial music business. More recently he has shifted his emphasis back to his musical roots, composing concert music for live players, the ambit in which he is happiest. Cavaterra is also an author whose work has appeared in publications as diverse as music journals and science fiction magazines.

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 concert in Tarzana (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 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: PACIFIC SERENADES Dark woods and gleaming cities
Saturday, April 26, 4 pm, at a Tarzana residence, Sunday, April 27, 4 pm, at The Neighborhood Church Pasadena, Tuesday, April 29, 8 pm, at The UCLA Faculty Center

Schumann Märchenbilder (Fairytale Pictures), Op. 113, for viola and piano
Debussy Premiere Rhapsodie for clarinet and piano, 1910
Glinka Trio pathétique in D minor, for clarinet, bassoon, and piano
Tansman Suite for bassoon and piano
Jeremy Cavaterra Fantasy for Four Instruments World Premiere commissioned by Pacific Serenades

Gary Gray, clarinet Judith Farmer, bassoon
Roland Kato, viola Ayke Agus, 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.