News
March 18, 2012
Our 105th commissioned work will premiere at the home of Richard Norton & Stephanie Rasines, the Greene & Greene masterpiece, the Cordelia Culbertson House (also known as the Culbertson Sisters House). This historic house was commissioned by the three Culbertson Sisters in 1911. Totalling at $150,000, the commission was the largest the firm had ever seen. By 1917, upkeep of the grand property became so expensive that the sisters had to sell the house.
March 18, 2012
“It’s also a fringe benefit as a Pacific Serenades musician that we get to meet and make friends with so many wonderful audience members,” Gary went on to add. “And it makes it more special because of the venues at which we perform. It’s a wonderful situation to play chamber music in private homes, which may be the ideal setting for the most intimate of musical creations. Composers have traditionally utilized such small ensembles to convey their deepest musical thoughts and feelings, especially since they know the audience will be up close and personal.”
March 18, 2012
Duane Tatro entered the professional world of music at the end of the Big Band days when, as a sax and clarinet player, he joined the Stan Kenton Orchestra as it crisscrossed the country. Touring with Bob Hope’s show, the orchestra did radio broadcasts every Tuesday, and on the other days of the week, they performed at military bases. World War II was in full swing, and Duane was 16.
February 10, 2012
Save $42 off the single ticket price when you buy all three remaining concerts for the Private Home Series! Save …
February 9, 2012
I recently spoke with Mark about his new work, scored for alto saxophone, violin, viola, cello, and piano, and cast in four movements. Carlson describes it as a loving look backwards at music from an earlier time, especially music from American popular culture of the 1930s and 1940s, as he explores the breadth of melodic and harmonic invention of that era and reinterprets it in his own unique, classical-music voice.
February 7, 2012
Pianist Joanne Pearce Martin has been busy lately. Very busy. In her 11th season as Principal Keyboardist with the LA Philharmonic, Joanne has been deep in the Phil’s Mahler Project. As she prepared to leave on tour with the Phil to Caracas, Venezuela, she took some time to chat about her upcoming performances with Pacific Serenades.
Joanne will be appearing on her 18th concert with us on our March concerts. Beginning in 1993, Joanne has become an integral member of the Pacific Serenades family. Soon after Founder and Artistic Director Mark Carson first asked Joanne to play in 1993, she attended a Pac Ser concert at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. “I was very impressed, and was more than happy to say ‘yes’ to Mark,” Joanne shared with me.
January 3, 2012
Subscribe to our Neighborhood Church Series or our UCLA Faculty Center Series by January 15, 2012, and you will have …
December 30, 2011
Working with composer Laura Karpman in her oceanside home and studio might look much more like being on a tropical holiday than going to work. But looks would be deceiving, as this second-generation Angeleno is one of the busiest composers around. I’ve spent the last few years helping Laura juggle a busy composing schedule for films, television shows, documentaries, theater, video games, and compositions for the concert hall. Added to that are her UCLA teaching duties at both the Herb Alpert School of Music and the School of Theater, Film, and Television.During this time, I’ve also tried to facilitate a more leisurely family life for Laura and her spouse, composer Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum, and their 13-month-old son, Benjamin.
December 30, 2011
I’m so fortunate to have studied at UCLA these past four years with the great violinist Movses Pogossian. Throughout this time, he has never failed to deliver his passion and love for music through the violin. In the beginning, however, violin was not his instrument of choice. In Yerevan, Armenia, where he grew up, the most popular instrument by far was the piano, but to be permitted to study piano, you had to have all A’s in your academic courses. Luckily for us, the young Movses had one B and was forced to enroll in violin study instead.
May 13, 2011
Growing up in the Bay Area was significant [for me] because this area witnessed an influx of musicians visiting from Perú and Bolivia when I was a child. This had a profound effect on me, exposing me to the music of my mother’s culture.
