Classical Music

On Sept. 24, Glendale's Alex Theatre will host electric guitarist Wiek Hijmans, who will perform with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Hijmans, 44, a resident of Amsterdam, grew up in Holland with parents who were lovers of classical music. By age 10, he was playing classical percussion in his hometown of Middelburg, which he considered a boring place save for one exception: its annual festival of new music. “I didn't hate classical music but I loved the sound of The Beatles and the sound of the electric guitar,” he said.

The Glendale News-Press visited Wilson Elementary School and asked music students, “Who is your favorite composer?”   “Beethoven . . . because it has a lovely tune that catches your attention.” ASHLEY NAVARO, 10 Flute player, Glendale         “Mozart. I just like his style.” RYAN FLEMING, 12 Trombone player, Glendale             “Beethoven because he was a musical genius.

What do you have planned for this weekend? Could I suggest a family activity that would interest and benefit the whole family? It is on a par, as far as expenses go, with any other activity in the area, including dinner and a movie or a local sporting event. My wife and I have lived in La Cañada for the past 13 years. We love Southern California and are especially fond of this community. I am a violist and my wife Stacy is a violinist. We both play in the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The Women's Committee of the Glendale Symphony Orchestra Assn. is putting final touches on plans for the annual "Symphony Stampede" Saturday night at the Jeffers' ranch in La Canada Flintridge. By attending this gala, at $35 per person, the community can help continue a vital classical music education program on the elementary school level. Throughout the school year, the nonprofit Women's Committee organizes its Ensembles in the Schools. A quintet of Glendale Symphony Orchestra musicians visit each of the 20 elementary schools in the district.

The hairiest, smelliest barn animals are typically included in a petting zoo, but on Sunday, the Americana at Brand will host a more brassy, stringy zoo of instruments to pet instead. The Pasadena Symphony Assn.?s Musical Circus for children ages 3 to 8 is a free event and a symphony tradition that brings kid-friendly classical music to families. The Musical Circus is presented one week before the symphony?s classical music concert performance at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

It's not just an evening of jazz, and it's not just an evening of classical music. It's not just a performance, and it's not just a panel discussion. It's Clazzical Notes, a free jazz outreach program sponsored by The Pasadena Symphony. And, as its title suggests, Clazzical Notes is a fusion of jazz, classical music, performance and discussion that has rapidly become a favorite of music lovers throughout Southern California. On Jan. 24, Clazzical Notes will return for the third time in the 2004-2005 season, to present "Meet the Sidemen" at Travis Auditorium on the campus of Fuller Theological Seminary, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The program, which has focused in the past on such instruments as the piano, flute, violin and voice, will highlight "sidemen" from the worlds of both jazz and classical music.

Buck Wargo DOWNTOWN -- A concert intended to introduce children to classical music will also serve as a tribute to the creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip, Charles Schultz. The 35-member chamber orchestra will be at The Alex Theatre on Sunday to perform music inspired by such "Peanuts" characters as Snoopy, Linus, Schroeder and Lucy. It's part of a family concert series, but the death of Schultz on Sunday, the last day his comic strip was published in newspapers across the country, gives the concert a special meaning.

Glendale Community College's Cultural Diversity program presents Paul Livingstone and the Arohi Ensemble on May 12 from noon to 1 p.m. The ensemble will perform a special blend of classical Indian and world music. Born in Beirut, Livingstone is an international performing artist, composer and ensemble leader. He performs in the creative tradition of North Indian classical music, having undergone rigorous training for over 17 years in India and the U.S. Livingstone also plays a number of fretless and world guitars, some of which he has designed himself.

Violinist Jacqueline Suzuki is a one-woman wrecking crew. What she wants to “wreck” is Glendale's image of not being a city known for classical music. Starting its fifth year is the Glendale Noon Concert series Suzuki established in November 2008. The free concerts are offered on the first and third Wednesday of every month. The series' venue is the First Baptist Church of Glendale. The Church presents each concert and financially supports the series. Pastor Charles Updike is Suzuki's biggest fan. Each concert's costs are low thanks to Suzuki's thriftiness.

If you leave a phone message for guitarist/composer/arranger Greg Porée on a Monday or Tuesday, don't be surprised if you have to wait for a return call. Those days are taken up with providing the musical direction to a little enterprise called “Dancing with the Stars.” The hours are long and stressful, and when they're over, he needs time to himself. Drop into Andre Vener's welcoming Redwhite+Bluezz at 70 S. Raymond Ave. in Pasadena on a Wednesday night, though, and you'll find Porée and bassist Keith Jones providing engaging guitar-and-bass duets for the diners at that fine restaurant.

If conductor Jeffrey Kahane led the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra with even more vim and vigor than usual during last weekend's concert at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, he had good reason. The program of new and familiar music on Saturday, April 21 offered not only a celebratory wind up to the deeply respected Kahane's 15th anniversary season as LACO's music director - with the group's original founder, Sir Neville Marriner, in attendance - it marked the first time that he had conducted an orchestral work by his son, Gabriel Kahane, a critically acclaimed, rising young composer, singer-songwriter and musician.

Who says classical music has to be a formal affair? Not PROJECT Trio, a classical chamber ensemble fueled by the sounds of rock 'n' roll, hip-hop and jazz, from Guns 'N Roses to Duke Ellington. With some 66 million hits on YouTube, appearances on Nickelodeon and MTV and gigs in major concert halls, coffeehouses, clubs and classrooms around the world, this Brooklyn-based ensemble - Greg Pattillo on flute, cellist Eric Stephenson and Peter Seymour on bass - has electrified audiences of all ages with its virtuosity and wild enthusiasm for making music.

1919-2011 Steven Istvan Choti, 92, died on December 28, 2011, after a lengthy battle from complications of Alzheimer's disease. Born in Oregcserto, Hungary on August 30, 1919, he was the son of Antal and Erzsebet (Torok) Csoti. While a university student in Budapest during the Hungarian occupation in World War II, he was interned in a labor camp in Dresden, Germany and he survived the bombing of Dresden. He eventually escaped and became a refugee in Germany after the war, completing his graduate studies at the Technical University of Munich.  He immigrated first to Montreal Canada, eventually settling in Southern California in 1954 with his first wife, Olga (Jivotovsky)

On Sept. 24, Glendale's Alex Theatre will host electric guitarist Wiek Hijmans, who will perform with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Hijmans, 44, a resident of Amsterdam, grew up in Holland with parents who were lovers of classical music. By age 10, he was playing classical percussion in his hometown of Middelburg, which he considered a boring place save for one exception: its annual festival of new music. “I didn't hate classical music but I loved the sound of The Beatles and the sound of the electric guitar,” he said.

Two choir ensembles at Hoover High School are planning a series of fundraising events for a trip to New York City after a production company invited them to perform at Carnegie Hall. Beth Richey-Sullivan, choir conductor at the school, submitted a video of the two advanced classes that she teaches to MidAmerica Productions, which presents performances from student and adult ensembles year-round. The school must raise $80,000, or $2,000 per student, for airfare, hotel and transportation for a five-day residency in May. It's a process the school just began, said Richey-Sullivan.

Discipline is a requirement for musicians, whether they are playing in an orchestra, soloing or conducting. Sometimes, though, adhering to strict control can subdue the emotional level — as it did in the major work on the program of the New Valley Symphony Orchestra heard Sunday afternoon at the Hall of Liberty, Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills. Conductor Armen Garabedian was firmly in control of his 40-member orchestra, using his baton with surgical precision throughout the concert.

If you ask 13-year-old Lukas Bartke or 14-year-old Clayton Bonura, “Star Wars” is the best song to play at the Verdugo Youth Musicians Assn. As the orchestra inches to the intro, and the conductor announces the song, all the kids let out a sigh of relief. In 2001, the association began providing classical music training from professional musicians to children of all ages who live in Glendale, Burbank, La Cañada, Pasadena and the San Fernando Valley. As part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Partnership Program, the collaboration gives children their first seat next to a monstrous cello or drum.