Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra blog

In the Classical period, composers sought out positions in the courts of kings and dukes, who would pay these composers to write and perform music, and possibly conduct their musical ensembles. In return, a composer would receive food, lodging, and a salary. Haydn, for example, not only lived with the Esterhazy family for whom he worked, but also went with them on vacation. Remember that musical recordings didn’t exist, so if you wanted music, you needed live musicians around. It must have costs these patrons a lot of money to keep full orchestras at their disposal, but they were willing to pay the price, and their resources allowed composers to write some of the most lasting music from that time period.

To kick off a new and promising year, LACO is continuing its long tradition of bringing new and promising talent to our audiences when 21-year-old violinist Nigel Armstrong appears with the Orchestra on January 21 & 22 in Mozart. Armstrong is a native of Sonoma County, but his journey to the LACO Orchestral Series has hardly been just a trip down the 101. No stranger to LA, Armstrong studied at the Colburn Conservatory and held the post of concertmaster with American Youth Symphony. Currently attending the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, Armstrong’s burgeoning career has taken him from California to Buenos Aires to Moscow and back again. Below, a sampling of highlights from his musical life so far.

Over the past year, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra has experienced two seasons of outstanding music-making, celebratory returns and major organizational milestones. The Orchestra started the year with Mozart and Haydn under the direction of pianist Ignat Solzhenitsyn. Following the weekend concerts, LACO traveled to Santa Barbara performing a unique run-out at The Granada. Called “one of the finest chamber orchestras in the world” (Scene), LACO’s concert was a “rare pleasure.” (Santa Barbara News-Press) Moving into February, the 2010-11 season picked up speed with PROJECT Trio making their LACO debut at the popular Family Concerts series. Performing Hip-Hop Peter and the Wolf, the ensemble wowed audiences with their mix of classical and cool, laying the ground work for an exciting new three-year Family Concerts residency that starts in 2012.

One of my favorite things in the whole world is stories. Stories are what draw us all in to almost everything in life, and help us find meaning. Whether it be the literal forms like movies, books and operas, or the ones that take a little more work like visual art or antique objects, everything has a story.

I’m pleased to share with you the first blog from LACO’s Sound Investment composer Timothy Andres. Enjoy as Timo takes us through the compositional process on his way to the March 24, 2012 debut of his piece:

If there’s one thing I learned from coming to LACO’s concerts over the past few years, it’s that most orchestral music tells a story. Program notes and pre-concert preludes help explain the stories by providing context, like when the piece was written, what was going on in the composer’s life at the time, and so on, but as an audience member, it’s my own ears that fill in most of the gaps. I love nothing more than to be carried away by a piece of music at the Alex Theater or Royce Hall – pulled along by intertwining melodies, entranced by graceful arcs, jolted by powerful chords. The program of Reflection, the LACO concert I attended on Saturday, was rife with stories, but I was faced with an added challenge – none of the context and history meant anything to me. As I walked into the theater, I wondered… would this be the concert that I just didn’t understand? Luckily for me, the answer was a resounding NO.

It’s Julie Gigante! Her beautiful portrait and those of many LACO musicians past and present overlook the 110N on Kent Twitchell’s homage to great music.

The Kahane family has been making waves lately. Both Jeffrey Kahane and Gabriel Kahane have been much in the news, and we are so excited to have them both with us in one concert this April!

When human beings first started making music—tens of thousands of years ago—think about what exemplars of music there were in their environment. The first naturally occurring music that springs to mind is birdsong. Some birds tweet or chirp, while some sing little tunes. It stands to reason that one of early human’s first musical influences must have been birdsong. It is possible to imagine that some of the very first instruments we have found, like a flute more than 35,000 years old, might have imitated the songs of birds. But even when people started notating complex counterpoint, the simple songs of the birds never quite left the imagination. Birdsong can represent the coming of spring and renewal, the beauty and peacefulness of natural settings, or even the blossoming of love.

November 11, 2011 is largely remembered in the United States as Veteran’s Day, but elsewhere in the world it is known as Armistice Day. For some, this day marks the conclusion of the “War to End All Wars,” World War I, and the armistice that was signed at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month that brought the horrible conflict to its end. It symbolizes a time of tremulous hope and enormous despair and marks a turning point in modern history with repercussions still felt today. What followed the war and the ensuing Treaty of Versailles was a time of tremendous artistic creation with the likes of Stravinsky, Hemingway, Picasso and Ives. Those who experienced the Great War entered with bravado and left empty, searching for meaning in the void.

When I think about J.S. Bach, I think first about the music. I think about my favorite pieces: the St. Matthew Passion, the Brandenburg Concertos, the “Wachet Auf” Cantata (and a ton of others). Next, I think about the well-known anecdotes I’ve heard about Bach’s life. I think of his two marriages and twenty children (only half lived to adulthood). I think about Bach’s kids who went on to great success as composers. I think about the time when Bach left his job without permission to walk 250 miles to study with noted organist Dieterich Buxtehude. He learned a lot when he was there, and was very interested in taking Buxtehude’s position, but he would have had to marry the man’s daughter. Despite how much he wanted the job, he said no, and then he had to walk the 250 miles all the way back home again. I think about the Collegium Musicum, a secular performance ensemble that Bach directed, and I wonder what their coffee house performances were like.

The drive home from Royce Hall after LACO’s Illumination concert was a lovely one. My drive takes me through the Hollywood Hills along Beverly Glen, a twisting street that climbs through canyons and along ridges until it comes to a curve near the top and, all of a sudden, as you drive around that curve, the twinkling lights of the San Fernando Valley appear, spread out beneath you, stretching into the distance. It occurred to me this evening, as a rounded that curve, that I’m one lucky guy to have such a beautiful drive just a few miles from my home, and then it dawned on me how lucky I was to have experienced this evening as a whole. A pretty drive is one thing, but the performance I was driving home from… well, leave it to LACO to craft and execute an evening an marvelous as Illumination.

I am pleased to introduce production and education manager Shawne Zarubica. She comes to LACO with an extensive background in the arts having studied Music Performance/Composition Major at University of California, Santa Barbara. We have all enjoyed working with Shawne and invite you to stop her and say hello at future events. Here is a note from Shawne, reflecting on the LACO mural:

Musical evolution is not a straight line. It looks that way in retrospect because we ignore all the fits and starts and all the things composers still hung on to long after they were popular. Music moved seamlessly from one period to the next with little fanfare. Press releases did not proclaim the end of one musical style and the beginning of another. But every once in a while, a single composer or a single piece made people aware of something new. Beethoven was such a figure, and the “Eroica” Symphony was such a piece. When people first heard it, some of them thought—quite correctly—that things might very well be different from now on.

Lately I have listened to Adele on repeat. Of course she is a “pop” star and some would wonder why her name is even mentioned on a classical music blog. I do not expect many converts, although I would hope one listen to her sultry tone and sharp emotion would persuade any discerning listener to take interest. Rather, I want to illustrate the power of the voice and how great vocal artists inspire me.