Out West Arts: Performance at the end of the world

There are three things I’m super excited about today. You should be too. In no particular order:

1) Los Angeles’ most exciting young chamber orchestra, wildUp, has just announced they will serve as the first orchestra-in-residence at the Hammer Museum in Brentwood. The orchestra will be involved in a myriad of musical art projects over a six month period that will kick off with the first of three full scale concerts, WEST on July 21st. Although details of the rest of the projects are forthcoming, I’m told there will be dozens of appearances between July and December from various members of the collective all over the museum in conjunction with numerous other projects and installations. If you want to know how orchestras are changing and what the future of classical music may look like, plan on spending time in Brentwood later this year.

2) There are still a few days left to stream the best orchestral concert of 2011 on line. Last Sunday, KUSC broadcast one of last year’s visits from Esa-Pekka Salonen to the Los Angeles Philharmonic stage in December. The program included the world premiere of the prologue to Shostakovich’s uncompleted opera Orango alongside the composer’s Symphony No. 4. The orchestra was amazing in this searing, profound and worldly-wise performance that outpaced anything they done all season. And you can still relive it now online until Sunday. Don’t miss it.

3) And speaking of listening to broadcasts, KUSC will also be kind enough to deliver a double dose of Los Angeles Opera this weekend when they’ll revisit the company’s opening production of the 2011/2012 season on Saturday at 10AM (PST natch’) with Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin from last September. This is followed on Sunday by a live broadcast of the company’s current and final production of the same season Puccini’s La Bohème with a young all-star cast including Ailyn Perez, Stephen Costello, and Janai Brugger. Sunday's sold out performance can be heard on line and on the old-fashioned radio starting at 2pm.

All this and I’m going to see Sondheim’s Follies again tomorrow night at the Ahmanson. There, I've said it.

Labels: In the Wings