NEWS AND LINKS: Sir Neville Marriner to receive 2012 Richard D. Colburn Award, lead The Colburn Orchestra April 22 at Disney Hall

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News

 

Conductor Sir Neville Marriner has been named recipient of the 2012 Richard D. Colburn Award and will lead The Colburn Orchestra, the flagship ensemble of The Colburn School, in a gala concert on April 22 at Walt Disney Concert Hall as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's "Sounds About Town" series.

 

The award honors an individual "whose lifelong dedication, work, talent and reputation enhance the teaching and performance of classical music or dance in the Southern California Community." This is the first time the award has been given to a musician. Previous winners were Ernest Fleischmann, former executive director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2009, former L.A. City Councilman and L.A. County Supervisor Ed Edelman in 2010 and Toby Mayman, the school's founding president, last year.

 

Marriner, who will turn 88 a week before the event, co-founded and was music director of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra from 1969-1978. In announcing the award, Sel Kardan, the school's President and CEO, said: "Sir Neville shaped the artistic landscape of Los Angeles with his time as the Music Director of LACO and inspired and mentored our students during his guest conductor residency in 2011. We are thrilled to honor him with a special night of performance and celebration."

 

Marriner will conclude the April 22 concert (which will start at 6:30 p.m.) by leading Elgar's Enigma Variations. Earlier, current Colburn Orchestra Music Director Yehuda Gilad will conduct Rossini's William Tell Overture and Barber's Violin Concerto, with Mayumi Kanagawa, a Colburn student and winner of the 2011 Irving M. Klein International String Competition in San Francisco, as soloist.

 

The Colburn Orchestra concert becomes the second event on the Phil's "Sounds About Town" series this season. "SAT" presents top-notch local performing groups and is the cheapest way to see concerts in Disney Hall (tickets for the Colburn Orchestra concert are $15-37).  Information: www.laphil.com

 

The first event on the current "SAT" series will be a joint appearance by the American Youth Symphony and Los Angeles Children's Chorus on March 4 at 7:30 p.m. James Conlon, Los Angeles Opera music director, and Alexander Treger, AYS music director, will lead the ensembles in a program that will feature the world premiere of Icelandic composer Daniel Bjarnason's The isle is full of noises, a joint commission by AYS and LACC.  Information: www.laphil.com

 

The Colburn Orchestra is also scheduled for the 2012-2013 "SAT" series on Feb. 19, 2013 when LAPO Music Director Gustavo Dudamel will lead the ensemble. The orchestra's next concert at Ambassador Auditorium is March 3, when Bramwell Tovey (music director of the Vancouver Symphony) will be the guest conductor (LINK).

 

In addition to help to found and lead LACO, Marriner founded London's Academy of St. Martin in the Fields chamber orchestra in 1959, which he led from both the concertmaster's chair and the podium until the 1990s. He was also music director of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1979-1986. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1985.

 

This year marks the 100^th anniversary of the birth of Richard Colburn, a noted philanthropist whose donation in 1980 helped the then-30-year-old school grow into one of the nation's premiere music schools. The school moved to its present location atop Los Angeles' Bunker Hill (across the street from Disney Hall) in 1998.

_______________________

 

(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.