Feb 4th - Music and Art with Szymanowski Quartet and more!

Music & Art + potluck party

this coming Monday , the 4th @ 8 p.m.   

                           

After a holiday and frosty winter break, we are ready to heat things up again at Classical Underground with an outstanding program!

 

We are very fortunate to be able to present the internationally renowned Szymanowski Quartet, stopping by CU for a preview before their Feb. 6 Orange County concert at the Samueli Theater at the OCPAC. This young Warsaw-based quartet has been featured at prestigious festivals and concert halls around the world.  Their recent CD on the Hyperion label has received rave reviews for their performances of rarely-heard but wonderful 19th century Polish composers Zarebski and Zelenski.  For CU, The Szymanowski Quartet will perform their namesake Szymanowski's Nocturne and Tarantella, and Schubert's iconic Death and the Maiden Quartet. 

   

  

Juan Colomer

  

 
 

                                 Anna Sarkisova          Ambroise Aubrun                       

We also have a local composer making his CU debut on the program:   "Downtown Bagatelle" by LA-based Spanish composer Juan J. Colomer -- a busy film composer and arranger who has worked with Placido Domingo and James Levine -- will be performed by violinist Ambroise Aubrun and pianist Anna Sarkisova   Anna will also play a solo Spanish piece, "Evocation" by Isaac Albeniz, from the Iberia Suite.    

  

    

  Anton Smirnov

                                         

Although he is still studying at Colburn, young pianist Anton Smirnov has performed with distinction across Russia and the US.  Making his CU debut, he will perform Stravinsky's diabolical piano transcription from his ballet Petrushka.  

Although the weather is expected to warm up by next week, the nights are still chilly, so please dress warmly! As always - bring your spirits, food and drink for you and your friends to enjoy.  Please RSVP via Paypal.   If you have problems with PayPal - don't wait - email us right away!  

  

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We are most grateful to our supportive friends at

Steinway Piano Gallery West Hollywood 

for graciously providing us with their incomparable instrument. 

  

        

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Classical Underground Showcase:    

   

Alexey Steele "The Dawn"

Oil on linen 77" x 187"       

            

  "The Dawn" 77" x 187" oil on canvas     

I am enormously happy and privileged to share with our Classical Underground family my most recent work, which just returned from being a Special Presentation of the LA Art Show. A "mini Classical Underground" was a decisive hit with Evgeny Tonkha's Bach cello Suites, Victor Wilde's post-contemporary fashion and my drawing demonstration in front of "The Dawn" together producing a unique collaborative experience of "classical performanceART."

 

Now you can feel the mutually empowering musical and visual imagery in its full strength at Classical Underground proper.

The Dawn, is a culmination of 15 years in my artistic search. It is a particularly meaningful work for me - both stylistically and personally.

The work came about after a long quest to find the most powerful and convincing way of expressing the type of Imagery that affects our imagination deeply and expresses truth about our current condition. It is a look at our reality and the unseen forces behind it; a style that I call NOVOREALISM.

 

I think Los Angeles is "the Paris of the 21st century," and that the brooding under the radar of mainstream dramatic artistic changes in the creatively combustive City of Angels closely repeats what was happening exactly one hundred years ago in the City of Lights.

The Dawn is conceived as an epic saga spanning the wide range of visual themes that engage our senses. The magic, majesty and the promise of a fleeting moment just before the sun breaks through a dark horizon and when the world is filled with the glow of ever-expanding and imminently rising light. The lone modern-day Madonna invokes the singular sanctity of motherhood and of a blissful paradise, an island of love. In the midst of a dark infinite expanse are forces much beyond our control that threaten us where we do not see, but feel their presence.

The status quo of the world is crumbling all around us, yet the force of life is inextinguishable and the mystery of a new life holds the future in its hands, in fact being more powerful than all the forces of the world.

The many anxieties about the future of our world serve as a perfect symbol signifying the vastly transformative nature of our times. The world will go on; it is up to us to chart its future course, but for this to happen we need a revolution that inspires an elevated consciousness...as we greet "The Dawn" and the new beginning. 

  

In ART we trust!