Post-Holiday Culture Fix in LA

LA Has World Class Culture Events!

Just because you live in The OC doesn’t mean you have to stay there. Los Angeles has extraordinary arts and culture events. Tweet that to your San Francisco friends as they ride the Google Bus! Here is a January sampling.

Le Salon De Musiques on January 8.

I can’t praise this chamber music series enough! Each concert features:

A brief discussion on the works from the chair of The Colburn Conservatory of Music. Truly, each piece has a story.
The performance. Typically three works from overlooked composers or overlooked pieces from well known composers. I love KUSC, but you won’t hear these works on that station.
Q and A with the musicians.
Catered reception. The mingling is a real value-add. I’ve met interesting, accomplished arts lovers from France, Russia and Argentina.

The event is expensive, but it is one of those rare experiences that is worth it. You will have attended an exclusive club and experience classical music the way it was performed for the original patrons: In an salon-like setting.

salon de musiques chamber music culture — Le Salon De Musiques: LA’s monthly culture highlight!

Los Angeles Art Show, January 13 – 15.

This yearly event brings together 100+ high-end galleries and recognizable art works from around the country. The draw for me is the breadth and the quality in one venue. You also get to see the asking price for the art. Admission is $25 with online coupon, but there may be other deals available online.

This is in downtown LA. You can easily make a day of it via the other local draws such as Hennessey & Ingalls bookstore or jazz vocalist Jesse Palter at hipster restaurant Perch.

LA Art Show Floor - culture comes to LA — LA Art Show Floor – Partial View!

Pasadena Symphony Orchestra performs Bach and Handel on January21.

There are so many reasons to visit Pasadena: Craftsman style houses, brick architecture, The Norton Simon, restaurants, The Pasadena Playhouse, etc. Enjoy it during the winter when it is temperate.

Pasadena Symphony culture — David Lockington, Pasadena Symphony Music Director

Art Los Angeles Contemporary at the Barker Hanger, Jan. 26 – 29.

You might hate contemporary art. I hate most of it too, but some of it is compelling as are some of the examples from the 60+ participating galleries. The other draw is how these old airport buildings have been repurposed into art studios.

If I am going to make a day of it, some of the destinations I would include are the Ains homes Mar Vista, the galleries at Bergamot Station (another repurposing feat) and the defiantly independent Abbot Kinney retail district. These destination won’t put you through the usual Santa Monica traffic headaches.

Art Los Angeles Contemporary culture — Art Los Angeles Contemporary – One of many displays from 60+ exhibitors

Holiday Picks

You can get your arts fix while taking family/friends to some holiday events. These won’t break your budget:

Kaleidoscope Trio at the Newport Beach Public Library on December 11. Essentially, this is a chamber ensemble performing selections from The Nutcracker. It’s FREEEEE! Get there early because you can’t see the performers if you are more than 10 rows beyond the library stage.
Various musical events at the Sawdust Festival Winter Fantasy. Admission is $8. What inspired me to share this are some artists on the entertainment calendar. There is plenty of quality holiday musical fare, but there also high quality Americana from some local singer/songwriters. Michael Ubaldini, for one. He performs on Dec. 18. Michael is known as The RocknRoll Poet. He is compared to Bruce Springsteen, Jack Kerouac and Hank Williams. What I compare him to when reading his lyrics and his ramblings: Tom Waits, but without the growl. Michael is a real American troubadour, the most original songwriter you’ve never heard of and one of the nicest people you will ever meet.
The Nutcracker, performed by The Festival Ballet and impeccable guest artists. There are local budget Nutcrackers and the expensive American Ballet Theater version at Segerstrom. Festival Ballet gives you the best of both worlds! Festival Ballet corps of dancers come with impressive credentials and hail from top tier companies. The guest artists are at the top of the ballet game and have dazzled me in past performances, especially Maria Kochetkova and Yuan Yuan Tan of the San Francisco Ballet. The big surprise for me this year is Irina Dvorovenko. I have not seen her on stage, but I have seen her on screen in such TV dramas as Flesh & Bone and Power. Let me tell you…she made the transition from dance to acting very well. She retired from dance but will return for this series. No way will I miss it! Can you blame me?

Emerson String Quartet, or why I kick myself

Here is the ultimate example of why I (and maybe you) could use a blog like this. Friday night I perused the SparkOC calendar. I only heard about SparkOC earlier this year and I have been an OC-based arts hound since 1982! Much to my dismay, I found I missed out on a killer chamber music event (one of my most favorite art forms). Philip Sezter, founding member of The Emerson String Quartet, was playing with Trio Celeste at the UCI Claire Trevor School for the Arts. Tickets were only $16 and I have paid a lot more than that to see Trio Celeste or The Emerson Strong Quartet and in far less intimate settings.

If I had a tagging method, I would tag this post as ‘I kicked myself.’

trio-celeste emerson string quartet

Why Do This?

The net of it all: To summarize the engaging and most surprising cultural events The OC has to offer so you (and I) won’t miss them.

The OC is not a cultural wasteland. I find out the hard way when I hear about fantastic events after they happen. Yes, there are some local events calendars out there, but they aren’t complete, they aren’t easy to find AND it is tedious to track all of them. This blog will do some of the work for you. All you have to do is show up (and pay – but you will find that some of these events are bargains)

Stay tuned!