Music

La Crescenta Presbyterian Church will celebrate Music Appreciation Sunday at its 10:45 a.m. worship service June 10. The service will feature special musical selections from all the musical groups in the church, including the Cathedral Choir and Cathedral Bells, both under the direction of Tom Brown, the church's organist and director of music. In addition to these adult groups, the children's choirs will perform special selections under the direction of Jennifer Brown, and the children's bell choir, known as "Ring for Joy," under the direction of Sheri Grey and Kerry Milbrodt, will perform as well.

The Glendale News-Press visited Thomas Edison Elementary School and asked students: “What is your favorite kind of music, and why do you like it?”   “Rap because I like the discs scratching.” DAMIAN OROZCO, 11 Glendale           “I like R&B because it sounds kind of soft, and it can be kind of hard, like rock, too.” ERICKA SHIN, 11 Glendale         “I like ’80s and ’90s because they’re sort of cool, and I like them better than the music of today.

Warm weather, classic cars, and local rockers Misplaced Priorities brought out hundreds of locals to Music in the Park this past Sunday. The free concert series had an added bonus this week, featuring a classic car show. ?Oh man, I just love these old cars,? said Jim Gibbons of Pasadena, pointing at a 1967 Cobra Mustang. ?They just don?t make them like that anymore!? Some came for the cars, while others came for the music. Misplaced Priorities is a classic rock band from La Cañada, featuring Mandy Boesche, Jeanne Nortao, Frank Dvoracek, Steve Stathatos, Rich Myers, Craig Windsor and Tom Reynolds.

Val Grayson was a very fine man with a wonderful legacy of kindness and decency. So much so, in fact, that speaking of him in the past tense makes my heart so heavy that I was nearly unable to form coherent sentences when the Glendale News-Press called on the phone for my comments. Val Grayson was so much a part of the business district I serve and in which my family has owned a business that his passing seems almost unimaginable. As a child growing up in the area, Grayson's Tune Town was a regular stop on my bicycle route through Montrose anytime I had collected enough money from my paper route to stop in and investigate the mysteries of Val's wonderful family music store.

Mary Mallory, Enjoy! GLENDALE -- Glendale Community College's musical "Kiss Me, Kate" is enjoyable and accurately captures the behind-the-scene struggles of putting on a show, but it suffers from slow pacing. Sprinkled throughout with classic songs by Cole Porter, the play presents the backstage story of actors putting on a production of "The Taming of the Shrew." Bickering ex-spouses Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi star in the play within a play that mimics their tempestuous offstage relationship.

The music and dance departments at Glendale Community College hold some of their most popular events in May and June. Music events include a performance by the college?s orchestra led by Beth Pflueger at 3 p.m. May 17 in the Auditorium. It will feature Copland?s ?Outdoor Overture? and other selections. General admission is $7 and $5 for students and seniors. The same day, the Concert Singers, directed by Peter Green, will perform Poulenc?s ?Gloria? and other works at 7 p.m. at St. Marks Episcopal Church, 1020 N. Brand Blvd.

The smooth jazz sounds of instrumental guitarist David Boswell are a reflection of his mellow personality. "I try to let my emotions tell a story," the La Crescenta resident said. "To me, it's personal. It's more about expression." Boswell can tell a story about each of the songs on his latest CD, "Bridge of Art." From "Beautiful Day," which he dedicated to his mother, to "Looking Forward," an upbeat tune that he wrote during some personal turmoil. "'Let's Go' — the tune itself is like 'let's get up and do something,'" he said.

Mike Wise never knew he had musical talent until he bought his first guitar at the age of 19. Wise, 27, focused on being an athlete before he started singing and writing his own music. "In high school, I played baseball at Burbank High," said Wise, a former Burbank resident. "I had not done anything musical my entire life." After a few guitar lessons, Wise, now a Glendale resident, learned to write music and started playing with his friend and Burbank resident, James Graham, a drummer.

In its season’s first family concert presentation — French composer Camille Saint-Saëns’ celebrated “Carnival of the Animals” at the Alex Theatre in Glendale — the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra proved that not only can music soothe the savage beast, it can engage a youngster’s enthusiasm so completely, you wonder why public schools leave it off the curriculum menu in the first place. Part of the orchestra’s regular season, three family concerts are presented each year in an effort, spokeswoman Nicolette Atkins said, to “make music as accessible as possible to children.