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La Jolla Music Society presents a wide array of internationally renowned artists. Inside are articles from newspapers around the globe featuring the great musicians and dancers you will see and hear when you join us in the concert hall.
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Arnaldo Cohen Brings All-Liszt Recital to La Jolla Music Society
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In the News
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SanDiego.com
by Kenneth Herman
December 1, 2011
With an impressive recital by the Brazilian pianist Armando Cohen on Friday (Dec. 9), the La Jolla Music Society continued its salute to this year’s bicentennial composer, Franz Liszt. Although Cohen is little known in this country—he spent most of his career in Europe—his 2004 appointment to the faculty of Indiana University’s prestigious Jacobs School of Music may afford him greater exposure in North America.
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Arturo OFarrills Borders Leaping Music Soars
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
by George Varga
January 20, 2012
Like his famous father before him, Arturo O'Farrill's name has long been synonymous with Afro-Latin jazz. But as both a performer and a listener, this Grammy Award-winning composer, pianist and band leader knows few boundaries.
"Music is a continual movement, and the lines between jazz and Latin jazz, and polka and hip-hop, are just a gradation or a series of demarcation points," said O'Farrill, whose seven-man band opens the La Jolla Music Society's 2012 Latin Jazz Concert Series. The group performs Friday at the Birch North Park Theatre.
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Takacs Quartet to Become Associate Artists at Wigmore Hall
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In the News
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Takacs Quartet
Press Release
January 23, 2012
Takács Quartet to become Associate Artists at Wigmore Hall from the 2012/13 Season
John Gilhooly, Director of Wigmore Hall, today announced that from the 2012-13 season, the Takács Quartet will be Associate Artists at the Hall. This is a new position which is awarded on a long-term basis to senior internationally acclaimed ensembles who will be central to the venue’s chamber music output over many years.
Since taking the London audience by storm at its Wigmore debut in 1979, the Takács has enjoyed a long and much loved relationship with the city, where they will have completed seven hugely successful seasons as Southbank Centre’s Associated Artists in May 2012. With an intoxicating energy and faultless musical instincts, the Quartet is renowned for its exacting standards and hugely engaging performances, enjoying an unsurpassed reputation throughout Europe, the US, Australasia and Asia.
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Join us for this year's WinterFest at Anthology
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In the News
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WinterFest 2012 Gala
Friday, March 30, 2011
at Anthology
We are very excited to present the up-coming WinterFest Gala in one of San
Diego's hottest venue, Anthology. Located in Little Italy, Anthology is the
perfect venue for an evening of cabaret, food, and fun!
Featuring German chanteuse Ute Lemper with The Vogler Quartet, this evening
begins at 6:00pm and includes a champagne reception, seated dinner and an
auction to support LJMS' education and artistic programs.
More details to come so please check back soon.
To secure your tickets today, please contact Maija Talikka at 858.459.3724,
ext. 206 or
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
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Thank You For Helping Us Bring The World To San Diego!
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In the News
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A BIG Thank You
to everyone!
Your overwhelming "Yes" to great music, dance, and music education in San Diego helped raise over $87,000. And, with your support LJMS was #1 on the giveBIG Leaderboard.
Many thanks to everyone and to the San Diego Foundation for spearheading the giveBIG initiative. In total, 400 local San Diego non-profits participated in the giveBIG campaign, and in 36 hours over $2.1 million was raised.
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Interpreti Veneziani Makes Its La Jolla Debut at Sherwood Auditorium
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In the News
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SanDiego.com
by Kenneth Herman
November 14, 2011
If the Italian instrumental ensemble Interpreti Veneziani were a movie plot pitched to a cabal of producers, it might sound something like this: marauding gang of commedia dell’arte players infiltrates a goth-dressing troupe of performance artists in order to kidnap a cadre of talented conservatory music students. The Stockholm syndrome kicks in; the musicians adopt the actors’ personae and turn staid chamber music concerts into punk raves.
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Music review: a John Williams premiere at SummerFest
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In the News
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Los Angeles Times
by Mark Swed
August 21, 2011
John Williams has summoned heroes for the movies, victors for the Olympics and whatever the cat brings in for the nightly news. But he also makes news. He wrote “Air and Simple Gifts” -- a quartet for clarinet, piano, violin and cello -- for President Obama’s swearing-in ceremony. That must have been the first time in history when an audience of hundreds of millions worldwide heard the premiere of a piece of chamber music.
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John Williams to premiere work at SummerFest
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In the News
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San Diego Union-Tribune
by Jim Chute
August 13, 2011
You might assume the most celebrated film composer of the last four decades, John Williams, is enamored with the movies. He’s not.
“It will surprise you: I’m not an avid moviegoer and I never really was,” said Williams, whose themes for movies like “Jaws,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Star Wars” and, more recently, the “Harry Potter” series are etched into the collective consciousness. But he is enamored with music.
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Ellen Taaffe Zwilich world premiere a jazzy delight at SummerFest
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In the News
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San Diego Union-Tribune
by Jim Chute
August 7, 2011
Anyone who knows Schubert’s song, “The Trout,” and the famous quintet he wrote around it, knows this is a moody trout, or to quote the song: Die Launische Forelle.
But who knew this particular trout, which was also the inspiration for Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Quintet, had the blues?
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At 25, SummerFest maintains its special glow
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In the News
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San Diego Union-Tribune
by Jim Chute
July 31, 2011
The headline in the Aug. 6, 1986, Evening Tribune said it all: “SummerFest: Don’t call it Santa Fe west.”
“It’s hard to remember,” said Joy Frieman, the board chair of the La Jolla Music Society when it launched SummerFest in 1986 after three seasons of presenting the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival in San Diego.
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Miró Quartet with Joyce Yang
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In the News
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La Jolla Light
by Jenna Jay
January 20, 2011
Renowned chamber ensemble the Miró Quartet will unite with pianist Joyce
Yang for the season-opening performance of the La Jolla Music Society’s
Revelle Chamber Music Series 8 p.m. Jan. 22 at Sherwood Auditorium in
the Museum of Contemporary Art. The musicians will highlight their
signature sounds for a concert that boasts pieces played together as a
quintet and with variety in solos.
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Vienna Philharmonic in San Diego
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In the News
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San Diego Union-Tribune
by James Chute
February 19, 2011
There’s no orchestral Super Bowl, where an ensemble is proclaimed the undisputed winner and champion. And what would be the point? A performance of a Brahms symphony doesn’t end with a final score.
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Society's dance season starts with celebrated Joffrey Ballet
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In the News
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San Diego Union-Tribune
by Janice Steinberg
March 9, 2011
“It’s a big hall and big ballet,” says Christopher Beach, director of the La Jolla Music Society, about the first offering in his 2011 dance season — the Joffrey Ballet.
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La Jolla Music Society scores three out out of the big five orchestras
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In the News
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San Diego Union-Tribune
by Jim Chute
April 18, 2011
You had to wonder what the La Jolla Music Society would do for an encore after bringing the renowned Vienna Philharmonic to San Diego this year.
With today’s announcement of the 2011-12 season, the answer is clear:
Present three of America’s “Big Five” orchestras — Chicago, New York and Cleveland — with their music directors.
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The Curious Listener Interviews Bright Sheng
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In the News
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The Curious Listener
By Karen Brailean
July 30, 2010
Part 1 of a 2 part interview.
In this interview, I've only scratched the surface of composer Bright
Sheng. I would need to be an expert in anthropology and music to uncover
the depth of his knowledge. Besides being one of the few composers
commissioned to create a piece for La Jolla Music Society, Sheng traces
human migration paths by learning their native music and making
comparisons between them.
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Young meets old at Dresden
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
By James Chute
Saturday, October 23, 2010
The Dresden Staatskapelle is roughly 450 years old; its guest conductor when it opens the La Jolla Music Society’s Celebrity Orchestra Series on Thursday is 35. Though by all accounts, British conductor Daniel Harding, who has frequently conducted the revered ensemble, is up to the challenge.
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LJMS performance featured on Performance Today
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In the News
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By LJMS
April 29, 2010
On Friday, April 30th, Performance Today will broadcast part of the La Jolla Music Society's performance of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra featuring Lang Lang on the piano:
American Public Media's Performance Today is broadcast on 245
public radio stations across the country and is heard by about 1.2
million people each week. Each station individually decides what time
to air the program.
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REVIEW: Hamelin tuned in to Alkan’s Symphonie
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In the News
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Sign on San Diego
By John Lydon
December 22, 2009
If Franz Liszt himself had come to town Friday night, the excitement at Sherwood Auditorium could not have been greater, but then the La Jolla Music Society put forward a credible proxy in the person of the French-Canadian pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin.
Hamelin, who has a penchant for reviving lesser-known, challenging piano music, has become something of a legend for his near superhuman capability.
“Stick any bit of Liszt, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Ligeti or Messiaen in front of him — stick a bar code in front of him, in fact — and he’ll probably be able to play it,” a Times of London critic recently wrote.
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The Goal: Fancy footwork, maintain balance
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In the News
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Sign on San Diego
By Janice Steinberg
January 10, 2010
Programming a genuinely vital arts series takes a gambler’s nerve, as well as a juggler’s ability to balance proven crowd-pleasers with more adventurous fare. La Jolla Music Society keeps hitting the jackpot with its dance season, entering its third year.
Last season’s debut performance by Pilobolus quickly sold out, and a second show was added. The Music Society also did well with its more ambitious offerings, Shen Wei Dance Arts and Ballet Preljocaj.
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La Jolla Music Society samples fifty years of dance
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In the News
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SDNN.com
By Brian Schaefer
January 11, 2010
To appreciate the lineage of contemporary visual art, one may view an 18th century painting next to a 21st century painting. To compare the changes in film, one can simply watch a 1950s classic followed by a recent masterpiece, or even track the growth of a particular director with a quick trip to the video store.
Dance, however, is notoriously difficult to place in historical perspective. It’s an art form that must be experienced live. And the La Jolla Music Society’s 2010 Dance Series is an intriguing sampling of the past half-century of modern dance, exemplified by three distinct companies.
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REVIEW: San Diego Chopin Celebration scores high in opening concert
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In the News
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SDNN.com
By Valerie Scher
January 16, 2010
If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a bunch of arts administrators to foster the Chopin Bicentennial Celebration 2010/San Diego.
At least that’s the way it seemed on Friday, when pianist Garrick Ohlsson’s captivating, sold-out recital launched the year-long extravaganza consisting of a dozen programs by a variety of local organizations.
“This is a big undertaking,” the La Jolla Music Society’s Christopher Beach told the audience at La Jolla’s Sherwood Auditorium in the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
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REVIEW: Chopin Bicentennial Celebration Opens In La Jolla
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In the News
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San Diego.com
By Kenneth Herman
January 16, 2010
The anniversary celebration of the birth year or death year of great composers is a questionable enterprise. Two years ago, some adventurous music presenters took the bold step to honor the centennial of French composer Olivier Messiaen’s birth with performances of his less familiar works, a great service to adventurous music lovers. In New York City, for example, the organist of St. Thomas Church played all of the composer’s works for organ in a daunting series of six weekly recitals.
On the other hand, did we really need all of the hoopla about the 250th anniversary of the death of J. S. Bach in 2000, especially since recording companies (remember those?) and performers had gone all out to fete the 300th aniversary of Bach’s birth in 1985? Bach is not a composer who has languished in obscurity, at least in our lifetime.
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REVIEW: Garrick Ohlsson serves up a refreshing take on Chopin
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
By John Lydon
January 19, 2010
Ever since the Beethoven anniversary of 1970, bicentennials have been landmark occasions in classical music, focal points for music directors around the world. In 2009 it was Mendelssohn’s turn, this year it’s Chopin’s and Schumann’s.
In San Diego, the La Jolla Music Society has seized the opportunity to mount a comprehensive Chopin retrospective. The Music Society and its collaborators — the San Diego Symphony, San Diego Youth Symphony and California Ballet — have coordinated their programming for a yearlong homage to the Polish composer.
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REVIEW: Masters of Dance Illusionism are Double Pleasure
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In the News
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SanDiego.com
By Kris Eitland
January 18, 2010
Hordes of San Diegans are mourning the Chargers' loss and gearing up
for the Super Bowl. But if you were one of about 1,400 lucky people who
attended a "Best of MOMIX" performance Saturday at the Birch North
Park, you're still thinking about a different kind of athleticism.
Images of men and women defying gravity, balancing on a giant
gyroscope, and twirling with Dervish intensity linger long after you've
left the theater.
The matinee and evening programs were packed and consisted of excerpts
from vivid dances that have made director Moses Pendelton famous. He
and imaginative buddies from Dartmouth co-founded Pilobolus Dance
Theater in 1971, a company known for its gymnastics, humor and
sculptural shapes that performed here last January.
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REVIEW: Pianist Frédéric Neuburger Continues Chopin Festival
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In the News
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SanDiego.com
By Kenneth Herman
Posted on Sun, Mar 7th, 2010
Astounding young Frenchman enthralls
When La Jolla Music Society President and Artistic Director
Christopher Beach launched the ambitious Chopin Bicentennial
Celebration earlier this year, he prudently chose pianist Garrick
Ohlsson to play the first recital. As the first American to win the
Chopin International Competition, in 1970, Ohlsson is a well-liked
performer who has made Chopin interpretation the cornerstone of his
repertory.
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REVIEW: Lang Lang, Eschenbach generate excitement with German orchestra
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In the News
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SDNN.com
By Valerie Scher
Posted on Sun, April 18, 2010
Some concerts are so irresistible that there’s no way you’d want to miss them.
The latest example?
Saturday’s Mozart-Beethoven-Brahms program with superstar pianist
Lang Lang and super-charged conductor Christoph Eschenbach, who happen
to be two of my favorite musicians. They appeared with Germany’s
Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, a training ensemble that made
its San Diego debut at downtown’s Copley Symphony Hall as part of its
first North American tour.
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Music Society goes for ‘the best’: Vienna Philharmonic on tap for 2010-11 season
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
By James Chute
April 25, 2010
Christopher Beach had his fingers crossed, but he wasn’t sure how the La Jolla Music Society board would respond to his query: The Vienna Philharmonic, universally regarded among the most celebrated orchestras in the world, was planning a Southern California tour. Did the La Jolla Music Society want in?
Of course, there was one little catch:
“I told them if we did it, it would be the most expensive concert we’ve ever presented,” said Beach, president and artistic director of the Music Society.
The response, according to Music Society board chairman Leigh Ryan, was unanimous.
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Art+Culture Interview with Christopher Beach
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In the News
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Art + Culture La Jolla
By Nancy Bockoven
How would you describe your role as the President and Artistic Director for La Jolla Music Society?
The buck, indeed every buck, stops with me.
In the past you’ve worked as Stage Director, Operations Manager, Administrator and Performing Arts Manager, how does your role as Artistic Director for La Jolla Music Society differ from these past positions?
Although several of those positions were early in my career and were focused specifically on production or facilities, my current job is exactly like my previous position as Director of The Performing Arts Center at the State University of New York in Purchase, except that it is a lot sunnier.
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Thoughts on the Tradition of the Virtuoso Pianist
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In the News
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The Times
By Igor Toronyi-Lalic
November 6, 2009
Marc-André Hamelin is not easily fazed. The French-Canadian pianist is what they call a super virtuoso. Stick any bit of Liszt, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Ligeti or Messiaen in front of him — stick a bar code in front of him, in fact — and he’ll probably be able to play it. Next week, however, as he walks out on stage at the Wigmore Hall he might look a little more nervous than normal. Awaiting his fingers will be one the most frightening piano compositions ever written: Charles-Valentin Alkan’s Symphony for solo piano from his 12 Etudes.
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Shanghai Players Arrive, Driven On by Their Titan
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In the News
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The New York Times
By David Barboza
November 9, 2009
SHANGHAI — Just over an hour into a rehearsal here last week, the maestro’s baton came down like the crack of a whip, and the music screeched to a halt. Long Yu, the imperious 45-year-old conductor of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, wanted perfection.
“Hold it, hold it!” he bellowed. “We want something smoother, as smooth as a lake. Now try it again.”
The orchestra was preparing to perform music by Mozart and Mussorgsky and a selection of Chinese pieces the next night here before traveling to New York for a performance at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday evening, when it will close Ancient Paths, Modern Voices, the hall’s three-week celebration of Chinese culture. Then it will perform in 11 other North American cities.
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REVIEW: Pianist Yuja Wang the wow in Shanghai Symphony Concert
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In the News
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San Diego News Network
By Valerie Scher
November 20, 2009
Yuja Wang.
Remember the name.
You’ll be hearing more from her - and about her.
Wang’s attention-getting abilities were evident on Thursday at Copley Symphony Hall, where the 22-year-old Beijing-born, New York-based pianist was the soloist in a concert with music director Long Yu and China’s Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, presented on the La Jolla Music Society’s Celebrity International Concert Series.
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Season 41 Opening Concert Receives Rave Review!
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
By John Lydon
October 19, 2009
Every once in a great while you might have the good fortune to hear a concert that you know will play in your mind for years to come. It was with one of those that the La Jolla Music Society opened its 41st season Saturday at Sherwood Auditorium with the Shanghai Quartet and the cellist Lynn Harrell.
The Shanghai Quartet and Harrell are familiar to San Diego audiences, having appeared in the Music Society's Summerfest 2007. And both are firmly established in general: the quartet for its polished readings of traditional repertoire — such as Ravel's quartet — and forays into contemporary and cross-cultural music; and Harrell, a two-time Grammy Award winner, as a prominent cello soloist and chamber musician.
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Review: Police’s Stewart Copeland rocks SummerFest
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In the News
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San Diego News Network
by Valerie Scher
August 22, 2009
During The Police’s hugely successful 30th anniversary tour, drummer/composer Stewart Copeland did more than perform with the rock band fronted by Sting. He also worked on a chamber piece commissioned by the La Jolla Music Society for its prestigious SummerFest.
On Friday, “Retail Therapy, ‘La Jolla’” (2009) received its peppy and upbeat world premiere at La Jolla’s nearly sold-out Sherwood Auditorium in the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Copeland and his music made the venue seem more like a club than a concert hall, especially when the rock showman was at his most flamboyant.
Click the link above to read the entire article.
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Scorekeeper: Stewart Copeland is always attempting new musical goals
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
by George Varga
August 20, 2009
“I've always been an arrogant SOB with overblown ideas of what I
can and can't do,” said Stewart Copeland, whose attributes clearly do
not include a gift for understatement.
Best known as the drummer and founder of the Anglo-American rock
trio The Police, with which he played a sold-out reunion show here last
summer at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre, Copeland is also an
accomplished composer.
Click the link above to read the entire article.
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Episcopal priest finds the SummerFest poetry divine
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
by Jim Chute
August 16, 2009
Eleanor Ellsworth has a few favorite lines in Mark Strand's “Poem After the Seven Last Words.”
They are in the final canto, where the poet dedicates himself to “a
place of constant beginning that has within it what no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched, what has not arisen in
the human heart ... ”
“This really gets to me emotionally,” Ellsworth said. “When I said my
morning prayers this morning, that's what I said. And that's the thing
about poetry; if you spend enough time with it, it becomes part of your
spiritual DNA, part of what you live.”
Click the link above to read the entire article.
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Masters of Music Teach Local Youth: LJMS Hosts Master Classes
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In the News
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NBC San Diego
by C. Garcia
August 18, 2009
Some of the world's most respected musicians have made their way to San Diego this August to participate in Summerfest, a three week long chamber music festival featuring concerts, open rehearsals and coaching sessions.
As part of Summerfest,
the public is invited to watch what are called "master classes," in
which a well known musician mentors a young musician selected by the La Jolla Music Society.
Organizers say it is a way for those at the top of their field to pass
on their love for music and help influence a young musician's voice.
Click the link above to read the entire article and view video clip.
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Words and music drive ‘Arden’ at SummerFest
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
by Jessica Fryman
August 9, 2009
Recitation — an art often lost to today’s generation of video games and television — will take the stage this week in La Jolla.
English actor Michael York will narrate Strauss’ “Enoch Arden” with
pianist Andreas Haefliger as part of Wednesday’s “An Evening With
Andreas Haefliger and Michael York” SummerFest program in Sherwood
Auditorium.
Click the link above to read the entire article.
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A dedicated group of women is the backbone of La Jolla Music Society
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
By James Chute
August 2, 2009
Photo by Eduardo Contreras/Union-Tribune
LA JOLLA — With the recession forcing
some arts donors to reconsider their financial commitments, the La
Jolla Music Society board and management had to make some tough
decisions for SummerFest 2009. They had already eliminated concerts
outside of Sherwood Auditorium, including an annual dance concert at
the North Park Theatre. Reluctantly, they cut out a free outdoor
concert at the Cove, which had just been instituted the year before.
Click the link above to read the entire article.
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SDNN August’s Artist of the Month: Cho-Liang Lin
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In the News
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San Diego News Network
By Valerie Scher
August 1, 2009
If you ever e-mail violinist Cho-Liang Lin, he’ll probably respond promptly.
“It’s for self-preservation,” says the music director of La Jolla
Music Society SummerFest, which opened July 31 and continues through
August 23. “I feel that it’s only polite to respond. And if I don’t
reply quickly, I’ll be overwhelmed.”
Small wonder.
Click the link above to read the entire article.
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Police Drummer Joins SummerFest
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In the News
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San Diego News Network
By Mikel Toombs
July 25, 2009
This year’s La Jolla Music Society SummerFest will combine the comfort of the familiar with the thrill of the new - and newly commissioned.
“I am deeply, deeply committed to commissioning new works,” said Christopher Beach, the society’s president and artistic director, who works closely with the festival’s music director, violinist Cho-Liang Lin. “We’ve got three composers (George Tsontakis, Paul Schoenfield, and Stewart Copeland) this year that we’ve asked to write world premieres. In the past, we’ve commissioned people who regularly write classical music.”
Click the link above to read the entire article.
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Celebrating the Life of Ellen Revelle
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
By Blanca Gonzalez Union-Tribune Staff Writer
May 7, 2009
Ellen Revelle was a descendant of the prominent Scripps family and wife of a legendary scientist and educator, but she forged her own legacy as a leader in philanthropy and devoted supporter of arts and education in San Diego.
Whether she was helping stuff envelopes for a nonprofit or donating a landmark cottage to the La Jolla Historical Society, Mrs. Revelle believed in the family tradition of public service exemplified by her great-aunt and namesake, Ellen Browning Scripps.
Click the link above to read the entire article.
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Police Drummer Joins SummerFest
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
By Jim Chute
April 19, 2009
The La Jolla Music Society has a history of commissioning new works for its annual chamber music festival, SummerFest. But this year's SummerFest promises to break new ground with an Aug. 21 world premiere by Police drummer and accomplished film composer Stewart Copeland.
Click the link above to read the entire article.
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
By Jim Chute
May 10, 2009
Garrick Ohlsson still recalls the conversation he and presenter Christopher Beach had after Ohlsson performed the entire piano works of Frederick Chopin at SUNY Purchase in 1995-96:
“I remember him saying, 'I don't know where I will be, but if I'm alive in 2010 (for the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth), I want you to do this again.' He felt very proud of it all around, as I did. It sold out, people loved it, and it was artistically full of merit.”
Click the link above to read the entire article.
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Marcus Roberts on NPR's All Things Considered
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In the News
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Brilliant jazz pianist Marcus Roberts was recently featured in a remarkable interview on NPR's "All Things Considered". The interview explores Mr. Roberts' life, artistic growth, and his mission to reconcile the many styles that make up his unique approach to jazz. Mr. Roberts and his trio will perform as part of La Jolla Music Society's Jazz Series at the Birch North Park Theatre on Saturday, April 25th, at 8pm. Tickets are $65, $45 and $35.
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New UCSD-TV Video from SummerFest 2008!
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In the News
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Every summer, UCSD-TV produces several TV shows from SummerFest concerts for broadcast. This year's programs feature exciting performances from the Tokyo String Quartet, Vladimir Feltsman and other great SummerFest performers. Click the link to watch the programs on UCSD-TV's website.
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Special Article honoring the 40th Anniversary of La Jolla Music Society
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In the News
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Article by Welton Jones
With art, as with most civilized commerce, it’s the product that matters, not the source. Happy audiences take for granted the structure supporting their treasures, any conscious gratitude blurred by bliss.
Anniversary seasons become appropriate occasions to recognize the vision, dedication and tenacity that brought about such abundant bounty. La Jolla Music Society (LJMS), now ending its fourth decade, is a widely-respected constant in the universe of art music not only for the quality of its program, but also because it has proven so able to fulfill so well any role required by its community. Concert music by the world’s leading artists is a given amenity in the city, thanks to the Society’s patrons, supporters and operatives.
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Orion Weiss Plays Chopin for the La Jolla Music Society
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In the News
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Sandiego.com
by Kenneth Herman
May 21, 2010
After the third all-Chopin piano recital Friday (May 21) in its comprehensive Chopin Bicentennial Celebration, the La Jolla Music Society appears to be confirming the Mae West dictum that “too much of a good thing can be wonderful.” Certainly in terms of the depth and caliber of Chopin performances, the series has moved from strength to strength.
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Mr. Popular: SummerFest Music Director Cho-Liang Lin has a reputation
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
James Chute , MUSIC AND ART CRITIC
August 1, 2010
LA JOLLA — Every year, La Jolla SummerFest music director Cho-Liang Lin writes a welcome letter in the festival’s program book. But this year was particularly challenging. With Lin celebrating his 10th anniversary as the director of the festival, which opens Friday at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, he was encouraged to toot his own horn (or maybe in his case, play his own violin).
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SummerFest plays with the instruments of change
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
August 11, 2008
Beer bottles used as panpipes. A piano played inside and out. The soothing harmonies of a harmonica and percussive clanking of metal plates.
That and much more were heard during “SummerFest Commissions,” La Jolla Music Society SummerFest's contemporary music program that featured compositions by Huang Ruo, Kaija Saariaho, Christopher Rouse and Steven Mackey at the Birch North Park Theatre.
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Amorous amalgam (Loussier)
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
August 14, 2008
He calls himself the “grandfather of crossover music,” and tomorrow, veteran French jazz pianist/composer Jacques Loussier presents his latest example, “Divertimento,” at La Jolla Music Society SummerFest.
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Rioult leads troupe to SummerFest
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
August 17, 2008
Reality television hasn't yet spawned “So You Think You Can Choreograph,” but if there were a competition for dance makers, contestants might face the type of challenges Pascal Rioult sets for himself.
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SummerFest takes flight on Messiaen's timeless notes
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
August 18, 2008
In the final passages of Olivier Messiaen's “Quartet for the End of Time,” the music crept higher and higher until it sounded as if violinist Cho-Liang Lin and pianist Christopher Taylor had reached the uppermost limits of their instruments and run out of notes. Read More
NELVIN C. CEPEDA
French horn virtuoso
Richard Todd
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Voices & Choices- Fleisher
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
August 18, 2008
Three major performers – Leila Josefowicz, Vladimir Feltsman and Leon Fleisher – will join a few friends and play some of their favorite pieces during La Jolla Music Society SummerFest's “An Evening With ” series. We asked them why they chose the music and what it means to them.
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SummerFest Heading to National Audience
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
August 1, 2008
The La Jolla Music Society's slogan is “we bring the world to San Diego.” Now the society is bringing San Diego to more of the world.
For the first time, La Jolla Music Society's SummerFest will produce its own radio shows, digitally recording performances at the festival that begins today and ends Aug. 24.
Starting in January, the 13 one-hour programs, hosted by veteran sportscaster Dick Enberg, will be distributed nationwide by Chicago's WFMT Radio Network. WFMT syndicates such top ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
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The stars shine at SummerFest
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
August 18, 2008
Tomorrow (7:30 p.m.) at Sherwood Auditorium in the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla. “Brahms III: Intimacy and Grandeur.” All-Brahms program. “Variations on a Theme of Haydn”; Sonata in E-Flat Major for Viola and Piano; “Two Songs for Alto, Viola and Piano”; and String Quintet in F Major. Includes pianists Orion Weiss and Shai Wosner, violists Michael Tree and Heiichiro Ohyama, mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford, and the Tokyo String Quartet.
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Happily Playing Musical Chairs with Symphony, Ensemble
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
August 1, 2008
If violist Che-Yen (“Brian”) Chen weren't so wild about Taiwanese food, he might never have founded the prize-winning Formosa Quartet.
“It was a combination of my passion for quartet playing and my passion for the food in Taiwan,” says the 30-year-old native of Tapei, who has a special reverence for deep-fried meatballs slathered with sauces and sprinkled with cilantro. “I use any excuse to go back and eat. That's why I gathered some of my Taiwanese friends – so we could eat and play our way through the island.”
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A SummerFest Sighting: Saariaho Shooting Star
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
August 3, 2008
Early in her career, Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho asked a cellist she admired if he would record one of her pieces for Finnish radio. Greatly amused by the thought of a woman composer, the cellist laughed so hard that he nearly choked.
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'It was really sweet and in the perfect range' (Andrea Yu)
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
August 3, 2008
Four days before her 15th birthday, cellist Andrea Yu will make her debut at La Jolla Music Society SummerFest.
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SummerFest opens with fire and passion
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
August 4, 2008
La Jolla Music Society SummerFest launched its 23rd season with a scintillating, sold-out concert that showed just how eclectic, and interesting, the festival has become.
“Opening Night: Fire and Passion” brought together works by two Argentinian composers – Osvaldo Golijov and the late tango master Astor Piazzolla – and music of Johannes Brahms, that paragon of 19th-century German romanticism. As unlikely as the combination was, it worked.
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His SummerFest mission is to stay radio active
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
August 10, 2008
On a recent afternoon, recording engineer Paul Cox peered through the window of a control booth, watching the stage far below as three classical music stars – violinist Gil Shaham, cellist Carter Brey and pianist Garrick Ohlsson – rehearsed Brahms for the opening of La Jolla Music Society SummerFest.
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Voices & Choices- Feltsman
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
August 10, 2008
Three major performers – Leila Josefowicz, Vladimir Feltsman and Leon Fleisher – will join a few friends and play some of their favorite pieces during La Jolla Music Society SummerFest's “An Evening With ” series. We asked them why they chose the music and what it means to them.
Read More
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REVIEW: Pianist Ax captures the spirit of Schubert
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In the News
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San Diego Union Tribune
August 12, 2010
LA JOLLA — It was billed as an evening with Emanuel Ax, but really, the sold-out SummerFest program at Sherwood Auditorium on Wednesday was an evening with Franz Schubert.
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10 Questions for La Jolla Music Society President and Artistic Director Christopher Beach
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In the News
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LA JOLLA LIGHT
May 8, 2008
Since joining La Jolla Music Society as its president and artistic director in December of 2005, Christopher Beach has invigorated its programming, initiated a long-range plan to expand its artistic offerings and laid the foundation for an overhaul of its administration.
An internationally-respected arts manager, Beach previously held the position of director of The Performing Arts Center in Purchase, N.Y., for 16 years.
Beach has held numerous positions nationally, such as house manager for Baltimore's Center Stage and production stage manager for many American opera companies including the Santa Fe Opera.
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Listen to La Jolla Music Society SummerFest 2007 Radio Programs On the Web
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In the News
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August 15, 2008
Listen to the complete La Jolla Music Society SummerFest radio programs from 2007, narrated by NFL commentator Dick Enberg and broadcast throughout the nation. These invigorating radio programs feature the best classical concerts from SummerFest 2007.
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