Arts & Entertainment

Jacaranda "Music at the Edge" Concert & Forte Award After Party

Jacaranda, the Westside music series known for presenting rarely heard, modern and new classical music, will present a concert featuring music by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho (b. 1952), Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996), French composer Henri Dutilleux (b. 1916), and Cambodian-American composer Chinary Ung (b. 1942).

The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. and musicians who will be performing include Grammy-winning pianist Gloria Cheng, with two members of the Calder Quartet; guitarist Michael Kudirka; the Lyris Quartet; as well as sopranos Elissa Johnston and Kathleen Roland with the Jacaranda Chamber Ensemble conducted by Mark Alan Hilt, Jacaranda's music director.

Receiving its LA premiere, Saariaho's 2003 trio for piano, viola and cello Je sens un deuxieme coeur (I feel a second heart) remembers the composer's first pregnancy. Takemitsu's 1987 guitar solo All in Twilight and Dutilleux's 1976 string quartet Ainsi le Nuit (Such is the night) explore nocturnal sensibilities. Ung's 2006 Aura, a 45-minute work for two sopranos and 10 instrumentalists, conjures the transforming force of spirit/nature in the aftermath of calamities such as Hurricane Katrina.

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After the concert ends (at around 9:30 pm), The Forte Award After Party honors two champions of modern and contemporary classical music — Deborah Borda and Movses Pogossian — in a special event at the Knoll Showroom across the street at 214 Wilshire Blvd (enter on Second Street).

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, and Grigor Hovhannissian, Consul General of Armenia, will present the awards, with musical surprises, desserts and champagne to follow.

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President and CEO of the LA Philharmonic Deborah Borda, has significantly deepened the orchestra's long-term commitment to commissioning new music. With some 50 commissions currently active, the LA Philharmonic leads the nation's orchestras in the promotion of new music. Movses Pogossian studied violin in his native Armenia. At age 19, he became the youngest ever First Prize-winner of the USSR National Violin Competition, following in the footsteps of David Oistrakh and Gidon Kremer. He went on to win prizes at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow. Since making his critically-acclaimed American debut with the Boston Pops performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in 1990, Pogossian has recorded various new and modern music and is the artistic director for the Dilijan Chamber Music.

This year’s recipients of The Forte Award join past honorees Alan Rich and Gloria Cheng (2008), William Kraft and Grant Gershon (2009), Catherine Uniack and Steven D. Lavine (2010). The honor includes membership in Jacaranda's Board of Advisors. The formation of that group, which also includes leaders in various fields, is being officially announced at this event. A list is attached below.

About Jacaranda

Jacaranda, with a motto of “music at the edge,” is a series of intimate concert adventures that combines the rarely heard with the new in thematic contexts to awaken a sense of discovery and connection. Founded in 2003 by arts impresario Patrick Scott and professional organist/conductor Mark Alan Hilt, Jacaranda produces an annual series of concerts in Santa Monica that feature current and rising stars in the world of classical music performance. For more information or to purchase tickets to the concert series, go to www.jacarandamusic.org.

Jacaranda, music at the edge Board of Advisors (2012)

Sasha Anawalt

Director of USC Annenberg Arts Journalism Programs, dance writer

Richard Beene

Dean of the Colburn School Conservatory

Gloria Cheng*

Grammy-winning pianist

Gail Eichenthal

Program Director, Executive Producer, KUSC

Grant Gershon*

Music Director, LA Master Chorale; Associate Conductor, LA Opera

Joseph Horowitz

Music writer, artistic consultant, teacher, and author of Classical Music in America

William Kraft*

Composer, timpanist, founder, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group

Veronika Krausas

Composer, lecturer, professor, USC Thornton School

David Lang

Pulitzer-prize-winning composer, professor, Yale University

Morton Lauridsen

Composer, National Medal of Arts, Distinguished Professor, USC Thornton School

Steven D. Lavine*

President, California Institute for the Arts

Arthur Rieman

Attorney & founder, The Law Firm for Non Profits

Peter Sellars

MacArthur Fellow, theater & opera director

Yuval Sharon

Opera director, Artistic Director, The Industry

Chad Smith

Vice President of Artistic Planning, Los Angeles Philharmonic

Sheila Tepper

Radio producer, interviewer, community volunteer

Catherine Uniack*

Director, Piano Spheres

Bill Viola & Kira Perov

Video art partners - MacArthur Fellow (Viola) & photographer/executive director (Perov)

Michael Webb

architecture writer, author of Venice, CA: Art + Architecture in a Maverick Community

* Forte Award Honorees


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