Midnight Mission Quartet Concert

  This afternoon, Vijay Gupta and the Chrome Quartet filled the air with beautiful music for an appreciative room at Midnight Mission.  Starting off the concert with a fresh rendition of Bach’s “Prelude” from the E Major Partita, Vijay instantly focused the energy in the room:   Street Symphony founder Vijay Gupta performs Bach for the audience   After the dazzling four-minute piece, Vijay took a few questions and explained some of the finer points of playing a stringed instrument:     After this Q&A, the Chrome Quartet took over the stage, first with a quick movement from Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” and a set of pop tunes of Taylor Swift, Cold Play, Maroon 5, The Beatles and Katy Perry:   Chrome Quartet violinists Lindsay Deutsch, Luanne Homzy and violist Zachary Dellinger   After this, cellist Tao Ni took center stage and stunned the audience with a movement from Zoltán Kodály’s Cassado Suite:   Chrome Quartet cellist Tao Ni     Following the solo cello, Chrome’s two violinists Luanne Homzy and Lindsay Deutsch whipped up an estival storm and wowed the crowd with the Presto of Vivaldi’s “Summer,” the toastiest of his Four Seasons:   Feeling the heat of Vivaldi between violinists Luanne Homzy and Lindsay Deutsch   Finishing up the concert was an arrangement by Homzy of Lady Gaga’s “Applause.”  Without doubt, the applause for the group gave even Lady Gaga a run for her money, with cheers and a standing ovation. [read more]

Midnight Mission Jazz Concert

    On this sunny afternoon in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, around eighty-five of us enjoyed a jazz concert at the Midnight Mission.  The tunes coaxed out of the instruments knew few bounds, wafting through the building and into the nearby courtyard as many in the audience hummed, sang, and smiled throughout the generous set lasting more than an hour. [read more]

Los Angeles Times Tour

    Today, a small group of us went on a guided tour of the Los Angeles Times editorial and printing facilities.  California native Darrell Kunitomi, our tour guide and one of the Times’ longest working employees (a total of 37 years!),  walked and talked us through the newsrooms, warehouses and presses. [read more]

Jenny & Lalo: Production Stills

      “Jenny is a young woman growing up in East Los Angeles. When she realizes that she is pregnant, her boyfriend Lalo devises a plan for them to leave Los Angeles and travel north. But there’s one big problem; they belong to rival gangs.”   This is the basis for the movie Jenny and Lalo, shot over four days at various locations throughout Los Angeles. [read more]

LA Phil Plays Paris’ Pleyel

Et maintenant, Paris. For me, the centerpiece of our tour. No city has the heart, the culture, the magic. It is a place where locals say “Bon appetit” to strangers, where a stare turns into a head-turn, where a smile turns into a wink. [read more]

LA Phil Loves Luzern

  And now, we travel to Switzerland! We boarded our chartered jet and made the quick 1 hour hop to Zurich where we bussed to our second stop on tour, Luzern. Pulling in around dusk, the city was shrouded in clouds:     The next morning it was recommended that I take the gondola up the face of Mount Pilatus, a 6,982 foot mountain with easy access from within the city. [read more]

LA Phil Lands in London

    After a 10.5 hour flight from LAX to London Heathrow, the remainder of the Philharmonic contingent arrived and settled in. The Green Umbrella group had flown in a few days before, and the Gospel According to the Other Mary a couple days preceding those of us playing the Zipangu/Firebird/La Mer program. [read more]

Peter Gabriel meets Kinshasa

Today, a group of translators and sixteen members of the Kinshasa Symphony wound their way up the Pacific Coast to rehearse and record “In Your Eyes” with Peter Gabriel, culminating in a benefit to raise funds to bring the entire group (almost 200 musicians strong!) back to the U.S. [read more]

Endeavour Lands at LAX

  Today southern California was treated to a spectacular hour of flybys, passes and buzzes by none other than the space shuttle Endeavour atop its Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) followed by two F/A-18 chase planes.  Arriving in the neighborhood around 11:50AM, the shuttle followed this flight path and reported wheels down at 12:51PM:   Thank you KOST FM! [read more]

Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival

      Welcome to Walla Walla, Washington!       Walla Walla is arguably one of the most enchanting and beautiful locales in the world.  I was lucky to be asked to perform in Walla Walla’s own chamber music festival for ten days this June. [read more]