Backstage With Buzz: Springing Up Across Our Creative City

Spring brings creativity across our city not only in flora & fauna but also in new exhibitions and music events for us to delight in. On the Westside, we are so fortunate to have The Getty Center and The Skirball Cultural Center.

The Getty Center has an incredible exhibition of Camille Claudel’s sculptures. The exhibition is the first in North America to focus solely on Claudel in over 30 years. It will be on until July 21, 2024.

This is a major retrospective of the French sculptor’s work that features about 60 sculptures. Her brilliance was visionary and daring at a time when women sculptors were rare. She produced work at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. She is often remembered for her dramatic life story – her passionate relationship with the artist Auguste Rodin and a 30 year internment in a psychiatric institution. Her work is now widely sought after by museums across the world. Other than her talent she was also noted for her physical beauty.

The Getty Center
1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90049
Getty.edu

Further up the road is The Skirball Cultural Center and their new exhibition is dear to my heart because I read the book “Where the Wild Things Are “ (1963) so many times to my sons. We all delighted in hearing and seeing it.

The exhibition is: Wild Things Are Happening: The Art of Maurice Sendak.
It is a gathering of works over 60 years. There are over 150 artifacts – paintings, drawings, videos, objects – what objects! Plus there are toys & opera sets and film & television sets. The exhibition shows his love of Mozart. Sendak said “I love opera beyond anything, and Mozart beyond anything.”

A child of Jewish immigrants he enriched American culture. This is the first major Sendak retrospective since his death in 2012 and the largest and most complete exhibition of his work to date.

This exhibition was organized by The Columbus Museum of Art. It is open now through September 1, 2024.

There is also an exhibition of twelve prints of work by Frank Stella. It is called Frank Stella: Had Gadya.

Stella a Catholic was inspired by a series of lithographs by a Russian Jewish artist. The art of storytelling is what the theme of this exhibition leaves us with. It is also open now.

Skirball Cultural Center
2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90049
Skirball.org

Crossing the city we come to the 13th year of the HEAR NOW MUSIC FESTIVAL 2024.
It is a celebration of new ideas. A promise of what’s to come. Anoint the new.

Hugh Levick, Artistic Director of HEAR NOW is pleased to announce the 13th Annual HEAR NOW Festival of New Music by Contemporary Los Angeles Composers. This year HEAR NOW 2024 will take place April 24 to 28 with the International Contemporary Ensemble from New York as special guest performers plus the UCLA Philharmonia led by Neal Stulberg, Hear Now resident ensembles Brightwork Ensemble, the Lyris Quartet and HEX vocal ensemble.

Levick announced that the annual HEAR NOW Ursula Krummel commission was offered this year to LA composer Andrew Moses “a spectacularly gifted young composer” he said. “We are proud of our 13 years presenting the music of Los Angeles composers, over 290 works and grateful for the support of the Los Angeles community. We are also pleased to present the outstanding International Contemporary Ensemble from New York and an orchestral work by George Lewis their artistic director. As Lewis says in his opera AFTERWORD ‘this music has a lot to do with disrupting any status quo or system…Our purpose is to awaken the psyche.’ In other words, the materiality of sound infused with Spirit becomes music and the music of HEAR NOW offers an expression of plenitude and abundance, that is, our true nature.” Alex Ross in The New Yorker calls Lewis “one of the most formidable figures in
modern music…”

Presenting 29 works by LA composers this festival includes ORFEO in a World Premiere by 96 years old Thea Musgrave, and LONNIE AND LONIE by George Lewis both performed by the UCLA PHILHARMONIA.

Following is the festival program (subject to change) – except as noted, all concerts begin at 8:00 pm.

On WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24 Electroacoustic concert in collaboration with People Inside
Electronics with Brightwork Ensemble.
2220 Arts + Archives. 2220 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles 90057.

On THURSDAY, APRIL 25 Chamber Concert. Lyris Quartet, Brightwork Ensemble and HEX.
2220 Arts + Archives. 2220 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles 90057.

On FRIDAY, April 26 Chamber Concert II with International Contemporary Ensemble
FRANKIE.
300 S Mission Road, Los Angeles.

On SATURDAY, April 27 Chamber Concert III with International Contemporary Ensemble FRANKIE – Sunset Concert beginning at 5:00 pm.

On SUNDAY, April 28 Orchestra Concert with UCLA Philharmonia, Neal Stulberg, conductor – Free concert with reservation.
SCHOENBERG HALL, UCLA 4:00pm.
445 Charles Young Dr. E, Los Angeles 90095.

Orfeo. Thea Musgrave (world premiere).
Seawall Blvd. Ella Kaale
From th’ Ethereal Skie. Jack Van Zandt (World Premiere)
Songs from the Deep. Juhi Bansal (LA Premiere)
Inhabited by Air. Akari Komura (West Coast Premiere)
Lonnie and Lonie. George Lewis.

www.hearnowmusicfestival.com

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