CONCERT TOMORROW: 

Member's Priority Concert
Saturday, May 12, 2018, 3pm 
Ann & Jerry Moss Theater
At the Herb Alpert Educational Village at New Roads School
 

STEPHEN SCHWARTZ: Beautiful City from Godspell 
Featuring the Urban Voices Project Choir
HARRY PARTCH: Two Studies on Ancient Greek Scales
“MOONDOG” LOUIS HARDIN: String Quartet in C Major, Mvt. 2, Romance
VIVALDI AND MARK GUTIERREZ: 58,000
VIVALDI: L’estro Armonico, Op. 3, Nos. 1, 3, 6, and 11
VIVALDI: Concerto No. 1 “Spring” from The Four Seasons 

This free concert is now sold-out, but walk-up tickets will be available at the door!
AYS Members who wish to reserve tickets can call 310-470-2332 for updates on availability.

We end the 2017/18 season with a very special chamber performance to thank our donors for all they do in support of AYS!

Our inaugural Musician Citizen Fellow, Spencer Baldwin, selected music for this unique event around the theme of “Home.” Listen to our pre-concert podcast to learn more about how this event came together, and find more details in the official press release. 

Each work featured on the program holds a deep connection to the issue of homelessness. And we're excited to announce a newly added opening song, Beautiful City, presented in collaboration with Urban Voices Project, a choir made up of current and former residents of Skid Row.

Of the composers featured, musical maverick Harry Partch dropped out of USC in 1922 and spent decades building his own instruments and composing in microtonal scales, while traveling the country as a transient worker. “Moondog” Louis Hardin, whose fans included Philip Glass and former-NY Philharmonic conductor Artur Rodziński, performed on the streets of New York City from the 1940s-70s, wearing a cloak and horned helmet, known to locals as “the Viking of 6th Avenue.”  Antonio Vivialdi, a Catholic priest as well as a composer, served from 1703-1740 as a music instructor at the Ospedale della Pieta, a Venetian orphanage known across Europe for presenting extraordinary musical performances. Together, these inspiring works prove that great art can come from unlikely places, and that music can sustain and uplift us during dark and challenging times.

Inspired by the theme of this event, AYS Bassist Mark Gutierrez has composed and will perform an original work of rhythmic poetry, setting rap lyrics to a classical/hip-hop fusion of selections from the overture for Vivaldi’s 1733 opera Montezuma, arranged for string ensemble and percussion. This work takes its name from the record number of people currently living without homes in the streets and shelters of LA County.

This event is supported by Peter Mandell and Sarah Coade Mandell
Presented as part of their Hardly Strictly Classical Concert Series

Directions to the Moss Theater | Learn More About Membership

Pre-Concert Podcast

AYS Director of Community Engagement, Alice Dutton, interviews Citizen Musician Fellow, Spencer Baldwin, about programming this unique performance. Then, AYS bass-player, Mark Gutierrez, talks about an original work he created especially for this event: an original hip-hop/Vivaldi fusion, with rap lyrics about the homeless crisis in Los Angeles, set to live samples from string and percussion ensemble. Listen now!

HOW TO GET INVOLVED:

While Saturday's concert serves as the capstone for this year’s Citizen Musician Fellowship, the work doesn’t end there. In LA County, 150,000 people experience homelessness every year, and in 2017, the number of chronically homeless individuals surged 23% above the year before, to a staggering 58,000. In the midst of this growing crisis there is no easy solution, but there are many opportunities to get involved.

AYS has partnered with a number of local organizations, including Upward Bound House, Union Rescue Mission, The People Concern, and, of course, Urban Voices Project, who will be joining our musicians on-stage to open the concert. We hope to create pathways for musicians, staff and audience members to volunteer and contribute to the vital work of providing for those in-need. Visit their websites to learn more!

You can help, starting this weekend!

At Saturday's concert, we will be collecting donation items for the parents and children currently living in the Upward Bound House shelters.

We encourage all audience members to bring new and unopened items in the following categories to the event: Personal Care (toothpaste, shampoo, etc.), Home Cleaning (sponges, dish soap, etc.), First Aid (bandaids, disinfectant, etc.), and Breakfast Snacks (instant oatmeal, cereal bars, etc.). Email Alice Dutton with any questions.

Thank you in advance for joining us in this initiative!

Former AYS Concertmaster named
Assistant Concertmaster at the Cleveland Orchestra

Stephen Tavani, former AYS Co-Concertmaster, who was with the orchestra from 2011 through 2014, has just been announced as the new Assistant Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Congratulations, Stephen!