By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News
RACHAEL WORBY,
former music director of the Pasadena Pops, is returning to the Pasadena area
with a new program, “Muse/ique.” The opening concert will feature Worby leading
an orchestra with soprano Jessye Norman on July 30 at 7:30 p.m. outdoors on
Caltech’s Beckman Mall (the date is a weekend when neither the Pasadena Pops
nor the California Philharmonic are performing).
The program, which the media release says will “mix high
culture with casual whimsy,” will include music by Leonard Bernstein, Duke
Ellington and George Gershwin. Subsequent events will begin in fall the fall
and carry on into 2012. Tables for
the July 30 concert on sale; single tickets will go on sale June 15. INFO:
818/732-1712.
Worby served for 11 seasons as Pasadena Pops music director
before leaving last September. Marvin Hamlisch takes over as the Pops music
director this summer with concerts on The Lawn Adjacent to the Rose Bowl. The
Pops is negotiating to move to the Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia
beginning in 2012.
THE PASADENA
CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC has acquired property adjacent to its current location
that will enable the school to expand. The new property (130 N. Hill St.) will
also allow for the creation of new performing spaces. The school currently has
1,250 onsite students and reaches an additional 3,000 students through its
outreach programs.
LOS ANGELES OPERA
will commemorate the life and legacy of composer Daniel Catn on May 23 at 6
p.m. in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The 62-year-old Catn, a South Pasadena
resident, died unexpectedly on April 8. His final opera, Il Postino (The Postman) received its world premiere by LAO to
great acclaim in Sept. 2010 (LINK).
Another Catn opera, Florencia
en el Amazonas, was presented by LAO in 1997. MORE
Speaking of IL POSTINO, PBS has announced that
the LAO production of Catn’s opera will be part of the PBS lineup in the fall.
The exact dates will be announced later. The programs will air on PBS SoCal
(the former KOCE in Orange County) and other PBS stations, which no longer
include KCET. MORE
ROBERTO CANI, a
native of Milan, has been named the Stuart Canin Concertmaster of the Los
Angeles Opera Orchestra. Cani, who studied at the Milan Conservatory of Music,
the Gnessin Institute of Music in Moscow, and the University of Southern
California, won several competitions and has extensive solo and orchestra
experience. Canin served as LAO concertmaster from 2001-2010. MORE
Pasadena resident NAZELI
ATAYAN ROHMAN-FLY will be one of 74 pianists will compete in The Van
Cliburn Foundation’s Sixth International Piano Competition for Outstanding
Amateurs May 23-29 in Ft. Worth, Tex. Rohman-Fly was born in Armenia, studied
there and in Moscow, and has performed extensively in Europe and the U.S. The
competitors, who range in age from 35-79, represent 18 nationalities from 11
countries. Among the jurors is Mark Swed, music critic of the Los Angeles Times. MORE
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.
