Monday, May 20, 2013

May Night Music & Art + Potluck Party this coming Monday, the 20th

Dear friends, For our last Classical Underground gathering of the season, we present an evening featuring the art of the transcription in both contemporary and classic form. Whether created as a way to bring great works to a wider audience and variety of instruments or as a flashy statement of impressive virtuosity -- or both at the same time! -- transcriptions are an entertaining test of the skills of both the composer/arranger and the musician tasked with bringing to life the spirit of the original out of daunting fistfuls of notes.


In the case of our great CU friend Jura Margulis, the arranger and performer are one and the same. Carrying on a long tradition of piano virtuosi, Jura will perform his own transcriptions of Bach and Puccini, along with transcriptions by Liszt (of Saint-Saens) and Busoni (of Bach).


LA native and CU newcomer Nicholas King will perform Liszt's highly diverting and difficult piano "concert paraphrase" of Verdi's opera Rigoletto.


Making his CU debut, Sidney Hopson will perform his transcription of Libertango by Astor Piazzolla he made for solo marimba.


Carrying on the tradition for the violin, Mark Kashper of the LA Philharmonic accompanied on piano by fellow CU favorite Kanae Matsumoto will perform a few pieces that he will announce "on stage", which most likely will include some transcriptions as well!

Also on the program, not just the re-working of old tunes, but some completely original new compositions:


Coming back to CU as a soloist, pianist/composer Georgi Slavchev will perform a selection of his original etudes, boldly alongside etudes of Chopin.


And CU regulars Victor de Almeida (viola) and Harout Senekeremian (piano) will perform "Hatzlacha Rabbah!!!" by the young LA composer George "Nick" Gianopoulos...which translated from Hebrew means "Too much success!!!"... something we wish for all of our CU family, performers and audience alike!(!!)

An ART Movement Beyond a “Look”:
Daniel Pinkham, Christopher Pugliese 

We are fortunate to be of a generation to witness the emergence of a true movement within the broadly diverse world of contemporary ART. In the ART of our time. Genuine ART movements are rare. They happen every 30 – 40 years, the last one being post-modernism which formed in the 1970s.
Daniel W. Pinkham “Dawn’s Peace” 40 X 60 oil, private collection

Realism as a general world view never went away throughout the exhilarating parade of the avant-garde in the last century. Yet, never before has it been as wide-ranging in its appeal to rebellious young talents, turning into a platform for drastic rethinking of all pre-positions and accepted wisdoms of the current cultural establishment -- all while definitely, deliberately and doggedly working on re-shaping and shifting the very foundations of our visual perception, striving to reach the core of our human ability to relate to and to judge the world around us according to our own day’s levels of sensibility.

In this gutsy, non-conformist and intuitive drive the New Humanistic Realism of the first quarter of the 21st century assumes the peculiar and much unexpected qualities of a new “avant-garde.”

Real movements are marked by commonalities of visual language and based on over-reaching visual philosophies beyond any specific or trendy “look.” Resurging Realism as a form of serious contemporary artistic expression is maturing into a stylistically wide-ranging art form of today that is snugly fits this definition. If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it is highly unlikely to be Argentinosaurus.

In the theoretical and practical void left by a winding down (according to many un-ignorable observers) post-modernism (some think it ended at the beginning of 21st century), the emergence of such a new movement was all but inevitable as well as exciting for participating in, studying and experiencing. It is like living in the Paris of 1913 all over again.
Christopher Pugliese “Twelve to One” 1998 44” X 57” oil, private collection

Case in point, what appears to be the vastly different work of two great contemporary masters: the influential Los Angeles painter Daniel Pinkham and noted New York painter Christopher Pugliese.

On first look these exciting artists represent almost an opposing approach, yet both are in fact the shiny sides of a singular coin. Using different visual linguistics, they share an over-riding visual purpose, philosophy and worldview. Both are striving for tonal unity and harmony as well as seriousness of visual content and complex executional sophistication of form.

Their mastered and much rarefied ability to handle close tonalities in perceiving dimensional mass empower both, Chris’s academic approach in describing infinite variety of Form while opening Dan’s infinite possibility of Color.

Both are coming together visually to give a specific way of somber and penetrating contemplation of reality from a very species-centered point of view. Certainly not your grandma’s realism.
________________________________
We are most grateful to our supportive friends at Steinway Piano Gallery West Hollywood, Downtown and Pasadena for graciously providing us with their incomparable instrument!


 Online Reservation is not closed.
Our address is 20795 Main Street, Carson, CA 90745.  Entrance is from the parking lot.

important organizational stuff


please notice the start time - the doors open @ 7 pm, the music starts @ 8 pm.    
Your Paypal payment is your RSVP - please bring the confirmation with you.  

our seating is limited; bringing folding chairs just in case is helpful even with the extra chairs we have. 

no flash photography during performance 
as it distracts musicians.
no audio or video-recording without permission 
due to copyright.  

please do not talk, eat or drink during performance
please be careful with anything that makes sound, like bottles - remember, musicians play and we record.
please dress according to the weather as it might get rather chilly in the studio on a cold night or it might stay fairly warm on a hot night.

potluck after-party request

there is a potluck after-party, so please bring along enough GOOD FOOD and BOOZE
  
(good meaning the one you'd actually like to have and if everyone brings enough of it individually, then there is enough to share) as this proves to be a fabulous component of our "part-cert" or "cons-arty" and, well, much in demand as there are more people now than food .


please remember, this is a private party, not a public event
directions to my "Grand Atelier" studio:  

DO NOT use google maps - as they give you the wrong location!!!

please note that for convenience of cars not passing by while you are hanging outside, you will be entering from the first gate of the property on your left immediately before the building with columns begins, not second gate as before, then proceed to the big parking lot and walk into our building in the corner of Torrance and Main.
 


405 South to the Harbor 110 South towards San Pedro; Exit Torrance Blvd., Turn Left at the Stop sign; Turn Left on Torrance Blvd /next light/; Continue pass Figueroa Ave, pass Carson Town Center North; 200 yards before next light /which is Main street/ make Left into a driveway to a large parking lot  and proceed to your right. Please note that the gate next to CU will be closed for safety.  The entrance is from the parking lot. The building is on the corer of Main and Torrance. 20795 Main St. Carson, Ca 90745