Our February CU is on Thursday - Feb 9 - sold out!

February Night
next Thursday (as rare exception), the 9th @ 8 p.m.   

                                                         
Russian Encore!

Our February Classical Underground will be on THURSDAY, (this time) Feb. 9...  why should Mondays have all the fun?!! And once again we have a nearly all Russian-performer program, with some wonderful new guests from out of country, favorite old friends of CU as well as the premiere of a brand new work.    

We are very happy to have Alexander Kobrin, first prize winner of the Van Cliburn and Busoni piano competitions as well as a prize winner of the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, making his first appearance at Classical Underground.  Alexander will perform Beethoven's 32 Variations in C, and will be joined by the outstanding cellist and CU fave Boris Andrianov for the Beethoven Cello Sonata #4 and the Benjamin Britten Cello Sonata.    

  

Alexander Kobrin                              Boris Andrianov  

Making their first appearance at CU, the young Russian cello virtuoso Evgeny Tonkha and pianist and composer Anna Drubich will premier Anna's "Intro Version" as well as perform works by Stravinsky and the most esteemed living Russian composer, Rodion Shchedrin.  

   

Evgeny Tonkha                                           Anna Drubich   

And for the tasty palate cleanser between cello courses, the Croatian bass-baritone Boris Martinovich will sign some Rossini accompanied by CU regular Kanae Matsumoto on piano. 

                                        

   

Boris Martinovich                                  Kanae Matsumoto  

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

 

******

We are most grateful to our supportive friends at

Steinway Piano Gallery West Hollywood 

for graciously providing us with their incomparable instrument.  

        

To RSVP use this link to paypal.  We are sold out!

Classical Underground is thrilled to Showcase  

   

a spectacular exhibition    

"The Epic & the Exotic: 19th Century Academic Realism  from the Dahesh Museum of Art"      

now at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art  

at Pepperdine University   
as well as its direct connection to ART of our Day.

  

William Adolphe Bouguereau (1885) 

Young Girl Going to the Spring 63 1/8 x 28 7/8 in    

  

I heard gloating is not good, but time and again we are being reminded that nowhere else in the nation is the "off the beaten track" alternative contemporary ART process as vibrant as it is in LA. Case in point - the rare and important visionary exhibition of one of the nation's most unique collections of 19th century academic ART at a museum whose prime expertise is contemporary ART.

  

Yes, there are some wonderful exhibitions of superb ART around the nation, yet this show is special and thoroughly unique in its rare intimacy, getting to the very heart of a vibrant artistic conversation that we are witnessing currently around the nation and in LA and which burns with brilliant intensity completely under the radar of the "official" art establishment.

  

As the show generated tremendous buzz and excitement among many artists in Southern California, the museum director Michael Zakian invited a group of somewhat notorious LA figurative painters to discuss the relevance of 19th century academic ART in a special article for the fabulous Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine. What do you know, most of them including myself turned out to be die-hard Classical Underground painters, so it appeared only natural to have this subversive bunch, selected for the article, to highlight the show with their -- or rather our -- current work.

  

 

Adrian Gottlieb    

The Airforce Subject   oil on linen 

  

  

Jeremy Lipking      

Ma Lo oil on linen 20 x 16in 

  

  

  

Tony Pro    

"il comico divino" oil on linen 40 X 30 in  

   

  

Kate Sammons

Venus de Milo charcoal on paper 25 x 36 in  

and me 

     

Alexey Steele  

Madonna Of The Storm oil 80 x 36in   

  

Through works of good friends Adrian Gottlieb, Jeremy Lipking, Tony Pro and Kate Sammons it is quite exciting to see how our group represents the wide artistic force and creative talent of our day, each in their own unique way building upon rigorous and powerful visual and philosophical principles developed by the academic tradition, way beyond any specific "look" and based on wide-ranging aesthetic preferences, helping build the vibrant and truly diverse contemporary ART not of decades past, but of our day.

    

  

In ART we trust!    

 

About the performers at the Feb 9 program

Alexander Kobrin is a winner of several int'l piano competitions such as the Van Cliburn Int'l Piano Competition, Busoni Int'l Piano Competition. A faculty member on the Int'l Keyboard Festival in Mannes School of Music in NYC, and at the Schwob School of Music, Columbus State University.

Boris Andrianov, CU favorite, one of the most gifted Russian musicians of his generation, winner of the bronze medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition and Russian laureate at the International Rostropovich Competition in Paris.

Boris Martinovich, Croatian Bass-Baritone who has appeared in the major opera houses of the U.S. and Europe.

Kanae Matsumoto, is active as a soloist and a collaborative pianist, having performed many recital halls in Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan and the United States.

Evgeny Tonkha is one today’s most talented Russian cellists.Among his achievements are the 1st Prize and the Golden Medal at the 12th International Cello Competition in the Czech Republic, the Special Jury Prize at the 13th International Tchaikovsky Competition, and prizes for the best performance of contemporary music.

Anna Drubich studied piano with Eliso Virssaladze in Moscow, and is an accomplished film and television composer, currently studying at USC in the prestigious film scoring program.