CU “ALL-STAR” SEASON FINALE MONDAY APRIL 9 - Music & Arts in the Studio + Potluck Party

We are sold out!

 As our CU family is due to greatly expand in May, we are celebrating our last concert of the season a bit early, with a brilliant lineup of Classical Underground star performers.

We are so fortunate to have Eduardo Delgado as a frequent guest, for there is no finer performer anywhere of the Argentinian repertoire -- on this occasion works by Carlos Guastavino, Alberto Ginastera, and Eduardo's show-stopping favorite, "Adios Nonino," by Astor Piazzolla.  

Eduardo Delgado  

With hands that remarkably resemble the great master's own 12-note spanners -- and not forgetting a musical lineage of the highest Russian tradition that he is in turn passing on through his International Piano Academy in Freiburg -- Jura Margulis is uniquely gifted for playing the virtuoso repertoire of Sergei Rachmaninoff.  For CU, he will perform a selection of Rachmaninoff's op. 23 and op. 32 Preludes, the height of late Romanticism from the dawn of the 20th century.

 

  

 

Jura Margulis

Returning to CU after too long an absence, crowd favorite violinist Moni Simeonov will perform Brahms along with CU newcomer Jiayi Shi on piano, a frequent partner of Moni's great teacher Midori.

  

   
 Moni Simeonov

                Jiayi Shi 

In February we were delighted by the CU debuts of pianist/composer Anna Drubich and the terrific cellist Evgeny Tonkha.  Joined by violinist Elicia Silverstein, they cap the season with a deliciously diverse pair of trios from Mozart and Piazzolla.  

   

 

Evgeny Tonkha, cello          Elicia Silverstein , violin       Anna Drubich, piano    

                 

As always - bring your spirits, food and drink for you and your friends to enjoy.  Please RSVP via Paypal above. If you have problems with Paypal - 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:    

   

JOHN ASARO      

It is an honor and a privilege to showcase one of California's legendary realist painters, John Asaro. It is hard to overstate the importance of this unique artist to a resurgence of California Realism, as well as to the development of an entire new generation of today's leading California figurative painters to whom he served as inspiration, encouragement and an example in contrast to the largely aesthetically hostile art scene of a seemingly long gone "modernist domination" past.

  

John Asaro

 51 x 72 in

In the trajectory that saw one of the Golden State's eminent artists transforming from a long career in "genre scenes" into what the artist describes as "figure portrait arrangements," it seams that John's deep interest in exploring the coloristic effects of an intense California sun transformed into an equally intense desire to "re-construct" the figure out of a violent clash of bold colors and gestural lines, stark flat almost electric backgrounds, and the tonally rendered forms of human flesh through a shear force of a dynamic brushwork.

John's work stands as a great example of the enduring powers of Realism as a human visual language, as well as the boundless possibilities this remarkable language presents to an ever-restless mind.

   

In ART we trust!    

Classical Underground February 9, 2012

Classical Underground December 19, 2011

Click on the photo to view more pictures from our December event!

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.

CU: December 19 - Music and Art at the Studio Holiday event + with Toy Drive + please dress warm!

We are sold out!!!!

Dear friends,

Classical Underground was founded on the spirit and synergy of uniting a community of Art in painting and music.  If there is a musical composition that most clearly embodies this spirit, it would be Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition," written to commemorate the paintings of his dear artist friend, Viktor Hartmann.   

For our December program, Mikael Oganes will play selections from this great virtuoso suite while surrounded by an Exhibition of Pictures selected by our dear friend Jeremy Lipking from a recent show of excellent artists at his studio (see Artist Showcase notes below).  

Mark Kashper                  Kanae Matsumoto 

Mark Kashper, beloved master violinist of the LA Philharmonic, and the graceful pianist Kanae Matsumoto return to CU to perform Schubert's lovely and charming Sonatina in G minor.   

Victor de Almeida             Mikael Oganes  

We welcome for the first time to Classical Underground the outstanding violist Victor de Almeida, who will be joined by Mikael Oganes in some festive Piazolla tangos.

 

Michael Kaufman                                      Ran Kampel 

 

Christopher Goodpasture 

Also making their CU debut from USC's Thornton School of Music, performing the Beethoven Clarinet Trio, are Christopher Goodpasture - piano, Michael Kaufman - cello, and Ran Kampel - clarinet. 

 

Steven Vanhauwaert                                    Danny Holt  

And a demi-debut: pianist Steven Vanhauwaert, who played at our Levitt Pavilion outing in Pasadena last summer, will be joined by fellow pianist Danny Holt in fanciful duos by Igor Stravinsky and Alfredo Casella.  

 

Noel Gould 

If youare a hardcore Undergrounder who sticks around for our decadent after-party bachanals, you know that our awesome recording engineer Noel Gould is himself also a wonderful pianist.  For this program we have finally enticed him to share some Chopin in primetime, and of course after-party as well!  

 

Laurence Vittes

Journalist and CU comrade Laurence Vittes is introducing a classical music writing workshop "How To Write About Classical Music Without Becoming A Critic" with a free trial for CU guest, with a post-concert discussion which will start right after the concert (just meet at the bar). 

 

Steinway CD587 

A very important member of our December 19th event is Steinway CD587! It is one of the favorite pianos in the Concert & Artist Department. It was recently used for a recording session featuring singer, songwriter Melody Gardot.  CD587 has been described by pianists as having a medium bodied tone with excellent sustain. The piano's action is firm without being heave. 

In the spirit of Christmas, we would appreciate if you could please bring an unwrapped toy for our good friends and neigbbors Glory Christian International Church's toy drive in support of their extensive work with underprivileged inner city children. 

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As always - bring your spirits, food and drink for you and your friends to enjoy.  Please RSVP via Paypal (above).   We are sold out. The paypal link is removed.  

 

******

We are most grateful to our supportive friends at

Steinway Piano Gallery West Hollywood 

for graciously providing us with their incomparable instrument. 

        

******

               

Classical Underground Showcase:

"Pictures From an Exhibition"

Highlights from Jeremy Lipking's Open Studio  show 

  

 

Jeremy Lipking 

Joseph Todorovitch

Rose Frantzen

Tony Pro

Ignat Ignatov

and me

    

In ART we trust!    

  Alexey Steele

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