Concert

The Music in the Park 2009 summer concert series officially got underway Monday afternoon as Captain Cardiac and the Coronaries blasted their way on to the stage in La Cañada?s Memorial Park at the close of the Memorial Weekend Fiesta Days celebration. Wearing bright red sequined tuxedo jackets, retro hairstyles and singing danceable tunes like Chubby Checkers? ?The Twist? and the Rolling Stones? ?Brown Sugar? with a nod to swing dancers with ?Tuxedo Junction,? the Coronaries had the crowd on their feet.

GLENDALE — Mike Boyd felt helpless when he watched news reports of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I would look at the news every day and see kid, after kid, after kid dying,” Boyd said. “I felt so much for our U.S. troops who were dying.” Instead of wondering what he could do to help the troops, Boyd went into action. He founded a series of “American Soldier Thank You” concerts to help raise funds for military personnel. “It was something I needed to do for them, knowing all the things they have done for us,” said Boyd, the founder of Burbank-based Singboy Productions.

Claudia Peschiutta GLENDALE -- Consider it a journey from the sacred to the secular, from the Bible to Broadway. Cantors from throughout the area will perform everything from sacred music to show tunes at a concert Sunday at Temple Sinai of Glendale. "Southern California is very eclectic, as far as their music, so we thought we'd have a little something for everybody," said Matthew Suddleson, chairman of the event. The concert is a fund-raiser being put on by the Sinai Seniors, a temple group whose members are 60 and older.

Marshall Allen LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE -- Golden Bough, a musical group that performs Celtic music of Ireland and Scotland, will perform in a special benefit concert for Delphi Academy. The concert will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday in the La Canada High School auditorium, 4463 Oak Grove Drive, La Canada Flintridge. In its 22nd year of performing, Golden Bough is a favorite at Celtic festivals and various Scottish and Irish gatherings throughout the United States and Europe.

Claudia Peschiutta GLENDALE -- State Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Glendale) will be the keynote speaker Saturday at a concert to promote peace. Schiff, chairman of the state Senate Select Committee on Juvenile Justice, plans to talk about combating youth violence at "Peace Through Music," sponsored by the Pasadena Human Relations Commission. The concert will feature several musicians and dancers, including pianist Vatche Mankerian and 11-year old violinist Christopher M. Ballard.

Internationally renowned Welsh harpist Robin Huw Bowen will be in concert at the Sylvia Woods Harp Center in Glendale on May 5 at 8 p.m. Doors will open one half hour before the show. Ticket prices are $16 in advance and $18 at the door. The Harp Center is located at 915 N. Glendale Ave.; phone is 956-1363. Tickets may be purchased at the Harp Center, or may be ordered by phone or from the website at www.harpcenter.com. Advance ticket purchase is strongly recommended. Bowen is a master of the Welsh Triple Harp and a proponent of all things Welsh.

Judy Seckler HOOVER HIGH SCHOOL -- Studying about French-speaking African countries gave Hoover High French teacher Kathy Angers' students an awareness of global poverty. A musical benefit concert organized Thursday evening by the school's French Club produced proceeds estimated at more than $1,000. Prior to the concert, $650 of those funds was raised in a week through decorated donation boxes placed in each classroom, Angers said. The money will go to orphan children, refugees from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo who are being sheltered at the Ebenezer School in Nairobi.

Alecia Foster NORTHEAST GLENDALE -- Glendale Community College will be celebrating Women's History Month during March with several different events. Two events this week will include a concert and a play. Today, Rizzo, a two-woman alternative rock band will perform at noon in the college's Plaza Vaquero. On March 11 at 2 p.m., the play "Miss Julie" will be performed in the Studio Theatre Auditorium. The play by August Strindberg was banned in Stockholm in 1889.

JOYCE RUDOLPH The Musical Theatre Guild's next concert staged reading is the 1941 "Lady in the Dark" at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. With music by Kurt Weil, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and a book by Moss Hart, the musical was inspired by Hart's personal experience with psychoanalysis. The score is made up of three extended dream sequences and features such classics as "My Ship," "The Saga of Jenny" and "Tchaikovsky." Starring as Liza Elliot is Broadway veteran Eileen Barnett.

The Crescenta Valley Arts Council is making final preparations for a free concert of baroque chamber music for the community taking place on Feb. 1. The music of Bach, Zelenka, Telemann and Vivaldi will be performed by local musicians at 7:30 p.m. at the La Crescenta Presbyterian Church. Local resident Ken Munday, bassoonist for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, offered to present a concert with his friends, also gifted musicians. The sanctuary of the La Crescenta Presbyterian Church provides the perfect acoustics for the event and, replete with stained glass windows and a pipe organ, was a perfect choice for the concert.

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.

Spencer Robinson was one of the early pioneers of Glendale, arriving here the same year Glendale became a city. He later served as the city's first mayor. Robinson brought with him an illustrious history. Not only was he descended from old American Colonial stock, he was an accomplished singer who had often appeared in concert. A native of Illinois, he was born to Dean and Julia (Spencer) Robinson. His mother was descended from a prominent English line, according to one of Robinson's relatives, Steve Hunt.

Eight Los Angles indie bands perform from 6 to 9 p.m. throughout the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens, 5333 Zoo Drive, Los Angeles. Bands include Abe Vigoda, Big Search, Hands, Pollyn, Allah Las, Kitten, Mini Mansions and HoneyHoney. Admission for Los Angeles Zoo Assn. members costs $13 for adults and $8 for children ages six to 15. Admission for non-members is $17 for adults and $11 for children ages 6 to 15. Tickets can be purchased at the door or in advance. Call (323) 644-6042.

Two goofy but groovy bands will rock out under the night sky at Starlight Bowl on Saturday, giving Burbank residents a blast from the past. Donning belbottoms, afros and other disco swag, Boogie Knights will play covers from the swinging 70s. They'll be followed by the Spazmatics, who will resurrect 80s power ballads for the crowd. The Spazmatics' gang of super-nerds formed as a result of a wager that was placed on a String Theory debate. When high school teacher Kevin Stigwood of Alta Dena High in Thousand Oaks lost, he was forced to perform "She Blinded me with Science.

At last, Glendale has a pops orchestra with a tenured music director/conductor who can pull top names to headline concerts. And he sings beautifully too! Matt Catingub and the Glendale Pops Orchestra had their debut concert “The Premiere” on May 13 at the Alex Theatre. It was a chance to introduce the audience to the maestro and his musicians as well as showcase some of the guest talent on tap for the first season, which will be a mix of free concerts at the Americana at Brand and paid shows at the Alex.

The Glendale High School choir is scheduled to perform in the Los Angeles Master Chorale High School Choir Festival on Friday. Five of the students were also selected by taped audition for the Festival Honor Choir, which will be conducted by Music Director Grant Gershon. The students include Frankie Castro, tenor; Kevin Chung, tenor; Jose Galvez, bass; Sofia Rezvani, alto; and Ariana Verhauz, soprano. The festival choir concert is from 1 to 2 p.m. at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

An outstanding performance by 17-year-old violin soloist Ani Bukujian was the highlight of the Glendale Youth Orchestra’s concert on March 13 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. Fronting an orchestra of 31 musicians ranging from 11 to 18 years of age, Ani played the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s “Violin Concerto in D,” Opus 35, which is a challenging selection for violin and orchestra. Orchestra conductor Brad Keimach began his welcome with the remark, “Thanks for coming to hear my kids.” He then explained that this concerto created all the drama and theatrics associated with such familiar Tchaikovsky works as “Swan Lake” and the opera “Eugene Onegin.” Taking the podium, he led Ani and “his kids” into a professional performance on a par with recognized seasoned orchestras.

For almost three hours, members of the Armenian community sat transfixed as they heard two of their countrymen, violinist Khachik Babayan and pianist Serouj Kradjian, perform a rich and colorful execution of classical compositions Sunday evening at the First Baptist Church of Glendale. Babayan, in his U.S. debut, and Kradjian delved into a fast-paced program of works by composers Franz Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven, Giuseppe Tartini, Fritz Kreisler, Komitas, Aram Khachaturian and Johannes Brahms that was breathless in scope and virtuosic in its performance.

Duo piano teams, with two pianists at separate pianos, is a lost art, having languished out of sight for about a half-century. That may be changing if Jack Lantz and Kemp Smeal’s Sunday afternoon program at the La Cañada Presbyterian Church catches on. Lantz, director of music and worship arts, and his colleague Smeal, organist, pianist and handbell director at the church, designed a handsome program of two-piano music presented as part of...