February 17th - Music and Arts in the Studio

(and Potluck Party)

@ Alexey Steele Grand Atelier 

With the sudden arrival of 80 degree temperatures, Spring has sprung early in LA, and what better way to celebrate it than with a bit of the Rite of Spring at Classical Underground!

The outstanding piano duo of Danny Holt and Steven Vanhauwaert will perform excerpts from Stravinsky's own 4 hand arrangements of Rite of Spring and Petrushka as well as the first movements of Ginastera's Estancia and Poulenc's four hand piano sonata.

The joyous and surprisingly subtle sound of four saxes in harmony will be on display as the City of Angels Saxophone Quartet performs a Bach fugue and the Glazunov Saxophone Quartet, infused with shades of jazz, Chopin and Schumann as the composer himself once wrote.

Already a veteran performer as he studies for his doctorate at USC, the fine young cellist Michael Kaufman returns to CU with Melody Chang on violin and Brendan White on piano to play the Brahms C Minor Piano Trio.  Clarinetist Benjamin Mitchell will also join Michael for "Capriole" by the contemporary Finnish composer Kimmo Hakola.

 

Last year in his surprise CU debut as a last-minute replacement, pianist Anton Smirnoff received a thunderous ovation for his virtuosic account of the piano solo version of Petrushka. Now we will get to hear his gentler side in Mozart's Fantasia in C Minor, K. 475.

 As always - bring your spirits, food and drink for you and your friends to enjoy.  

 

We are sold out! 

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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
Model D, CD-587.

  

 

        

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Classical Underground Showcase 

Sergio Sanchez  

There is so much treasure in our own communities that is fueling and propelling our burgeoning and growing art movement! It is a great pleasure to have as our CU Showcase a distinct contemporary figurative artist, a great friend, and a local San Pedro brother-in-brush Sergio Sanchez.

Sergio is a well-recognized and much loved by his peers part of our awesome LA figurative gang, who is bringing together experiences of LA and his native Mexico. Fusing those experiences with his solid traditional art education as well as his background in illustration, Sergio brings it all together in a volatile and vibrant mix with his well-respected and followed tattoo work, as well as his long fascination with graffiti designs, all of which drives the stylistic and visual choices in his painting.

Sergio's work is always noted at many exhibitions, and it has gained the attention of specialized art magazines as well as media publications.  He is currently teaching the crucial subject of head and figure drawing at such southland important art educational hubs as Art Center School of Design (Pasadena, California), Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art (Van Nuys, California), Laguna College of art and design (Laguna Beach, California), and he is a fellow member of the venerable California Art Club.  

Way to go, brother!

 

directions to my "Grand Atelier" studio:  

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