Jacaranda – A Love Letter

A jewel in the crown of Los Angeles’s creativity is having one last shining season.

Jacaranda started 20 years ago and gave us great thrilling music and musicians. We know that all things transcend in one way or another. While Jacaranda at this point is having its last season, all of the musicians are bursting with talent and the desire to continue making extraordinary music. They each have given us such riches for our ears, minds, and dreams. We are so grateful to all of them for transporting us to a rich world. We can show our appreciation and join in this last season with them.

Our thanks to Patrick Scott for his brilliant ideas and great program notes, hopefully his genius will be turned into a book, and also to Mark Alan Hilt for his thoughtfulness and amazing conducting. The two of them gave us programming that stretched our music understanding. The musicians, ah, the musicians, will continue their amazing talents and careers and we will seek them out.

I cannot say goodbye as yet because we have this last season to hear the talents of composers who changed music and the musicians who take us on this journey.

Please join me in traveling to the beautiful First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica with its Tiffany glass windows and wonderful acoustics and Laddie John Dills artwork that welcomes you into the campus.

As with all loves there are changes and we face that with Jacaranda.

Let’s join in this last season.

Below is the announcement of the final season:

JACARANDA MUSIC ANNOUNCES IT WILL PERMANENTLY CLOSE AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE LANDMARK 2023-24 SEASON, ITS 20th ANNIVERSARY, ENTITLED “PLANET SCHOENBERG.”

Farewell Season Features an Unprecedented Celebration of the Sesquicentennial of
Groundbreaking Composer Arnold Schoenberg, Spotlighting Him in Terrains Both Familiar and Foreign, Past and Present.

Schoenberg’s Work, which Altered the Landscape of 20th Century Music, will be Contextualized by the Music of Sixteen Other Composers over the Course of Five Concerts and Two Significant Special Events.

Highlights Include:
Seven Seminal Genre-Shifting Schoenberg Works, Including Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9; Book of the Hanging Gardens, Op. 15; Five Piano Pieces, Op.23; and Ode to Napoleon, Op. 41;

· A World Premiere by LA-Based Composer Peter Knell, Part of California Festival: A Celebration of New Music;

· Works by Composers Who Inspired Schoenberg and Those Who Were Influenced by Him, Among Them, Bach, Berg, Boulez, Coltrane, Mahler, Schubert, R. Strauss, Wagner, Webern, Zeisl, and more;

· Such Celebrated Featured Artists as Lyris Quartet; Ethnic Heritage Ensemble; Pianists Gloria Cheng, David Kaplan, Inna Faliks, Scott Dunn, and Steven Vanhauwaert; Violinist Movses Pogossian; Saxophonist David Murray; Soprano Julia Metzler; Mezzo-Soprano Katarzyna Sadej; and Baritone reciter Luc Kleiner.

· Conductors David Bloom, Scott Dunn, and Mark Alan Hilt Leading the Jacaranda Chamber Ensemble.

Two significant special events presented by Jacaranda as part of Planet Schoenberg are designed to provide compelling insights into the composer’s life and career, including From the City of Music to the City of Angels, a screening of a pair of documentary films by Emmy-nominated writer/director Hilan Warshaw at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall, named after the composer, who taught at the university beginning in 1936. The films are Through the Darkness (2021), which chronicles the extremely fraught relationship between Schoenberg and Austrian painter Richard Gerstl in Vienna, and Shadows in Paradise: Hitler’s Exiles in Hollywood (2008), a portrayal of the creative and vibrant German-speaking exile community in Los Angeles during the 1930s and 1940s of which Schoenberg was a central figure.

Additionally, at Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades, once a gathering place of exiles, Jacaranda hosts Schoenberg: Why He Matters, a compelling discussion about Arnold Schoenberg’s legacy with the composer’s son Larry Schoenberg and Harvey Sachs, author of the critically acclaimed 2023 biography “Schoenberg: Why He Matters.”

2023-24 PLANET SCHOENBERG Season Subscription:
September 23rd at 8:00 pm – February 25th at 8:00 pm.

For more information visit jacarandamusic.org

PostScript:

In my last conversation with Patrick Scott he said, “Over twenty years from its base in Santa Monica, Jacaranda has launched five spellbinding excursions to Planet Schoenberg – in 2010, 2013, and 2017. For our thrill-packed final season, your flight team has chartered six planetary landings across six months’ time. Buckle up for a unique journey! Schoenberg: Why He Matters, the new classical music bestseller, is part of the entire package that includes a free ticket to hear the brilliant author Harvey Sachs talk with the master’s son Larry Schoenberg at Villa Aurora. Preferred seating for a pair of screenings at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall is also included. Unlike SpaceX, this privilege is super affordable. Take the ride, or live to regret it!”

Backstage with the Buzz is written by Sheila Tepper, Producer Cultural Programming. Sheila has lived in the Larchmont area for fifty years, among her passions have been passing legislation for children with disabilities and interviewing outstanding artists appearing in the Los Angeles area.