Tuesday, January 29, 2013

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!

Szymanowski Quartet 


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
Juan Colomer

  
  Anna Sarkisova
Ambroise Aubrun 
                                 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   
  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



for graciously providing us with their incomparable instrument. 
  


Steinway        





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Classical Underground Showcase:    
   
Alexey Steele "The Dawn"
Oil on linen 77" x 187"       

             The Dawn by Alexey Steele

  "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."
LA Art Show - mini CU  
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.
  Bohemian Society, Evgeny Tonkha, Peter Adams
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!    



Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Our November night - this coming Monday - the 5th!

November Night
Music & Art + potluck party

this coming Monday
 , the 5th @ 8 p.m.   


Dear friends,



ART is always a good vote!

  

On Election Eve, Monday 5th, escape all the chatter of pundits, all the political posturing and jockeying to contemplate our turbulent times and the importance of your choice.  Let timeless ART in Music and Image touch your heart and mind and giv'em strength to make that good vote.

Delgado

Eduardo Delgado 

Fresh from performing with the great Martha Argerich in Argentina, our dear friend Eduardo Delgado will play Mozart's Piano Sonata in A minor, K.310.

  

Elicia Silverstein
Elicia Silverstein


Violinist Elicia Silverstein made her CU debut back in April with a Mozart Trio.  She returns this evening  to perform solo: the Bach Sonata #1 in G minor for solo violin.
  
  Kirill GliadkovskyAnna Nizhegorodtseva
                  Kirill Gliadkovsky                     Anna Nizhegorodtseva         

Appearing at CU for the first time are two Russian pianists performing Russian repertoire. Kirill Gliadkovsky comes to CU by way of the prestigious Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and our own USC, and playing around the world with important conductors and orchestras. He will be performing Taneyev, Medtner, and Rachmaninoff.  Rising young talent Anna Nizhegorodtseva will perform an excerpt from Prokofiev's intensely virtuosic Piano Sonata #7. 

 Victor de Almeida Harout                          
             Victor de Almeida                                Harout Senekeremian
 
Returning to CU, but for the first time as a duo, violist Victor de Almeida and pianist Harout Senekeremian will perform Concertpiece by Georges Enesco. 

  Courtney Pepi
              Courtney D. Jones                                 Pepi Pilibossian  

Finally, trumpet virtuoso Courtney D. Jones, who never fails to bring down the house, will perform his arrangement of Purcell and Gershwin (there's an eclectic pair!) with CU and YouTube sensation Pepi Pilibossian on piano.
  
Whether it's a wrath of nature or a wrath of politicking, let's celebrate the eternal   
life - force of humanity that overcomes it all!




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!  

Sold out!


 
   




We are most grateful to our supportive friends at



for graciously providing us with their incomparable instrument. 
On November 5th we will have CD213 -
their newest C&A piano to the group of concert pianos.


Steinway            



  
Classical Underground Showcase:    
   
Adam  Miller     

Adam Miller          



  "Among The Ruins" 79" x 57" oil on canvas   
   

We are privileged to welcome for November's CU showcase one of our East Coast "brothers," a wonderful New York artist Adam Miller.  






It is so exciting to see how the young generation of some of the most promising American artists is resolutely making Realism grounded in a classical tradition the language of choice in expressing our modern thoughts, views and feelings. With strong influences of Baroque and Mannerist masters, Adam's classically inspired imagery carries a strong sense of unabashed Romanticism.


Today, as we experience dramatic change in the flow of global events, and rapid shifts in the ways society used to function through the last century, the Romantic notion of the liberating of the Personal is once again destined to shift the course of cultural history through the work of this great new generation.


Adam's intriguing works will be presented by Copro Gallery in Bergamot Station in the exhibition titled "Among The Ruins".



Opening Reception: Saturday, November 10, 8:00 - 11:30 p.m.


  exhibit runs November 10 - December 1 , 2012

"Among the Ruins looks at different family's existing in a post industrial world looking back at what appears to be the remnants of a time of great expansion and strength from a distance after the machinery of state has collapsed. The new hope represented by their children exists against the darkness of the scattered corpse like remnants of their world. But as the darkest day of winter is also the beginning of the suns return these families are the first to begin rebuilding their society and planting new crops" - describes the gallery Adam's work.   
 

           


As Bob Schieffer's Mom said "Go Vote, it makes you feel big and strong"     
  
In ART we trust!    


Tuesday, September 25, 2012

We are in our 6th season! October 1st - opening night!



 Welcome to the first concert of our SIXTH season!

The summer has flown by like Endeavor on a 747, and suddenly it is not only fall, not only October, but the start of Classical Underground's sixth season.  Our heads are spinning but somehow a fine program has come together, with a distinctly eastern-European timbre.  


Musica Vitale  

Musica Vitale 




Musica Vitale is a choral group devoted to unjustly neglected a cappella chamber music of the 19th and 20th centuries -- in our case, works by Georgy Sviridov and Sergei Rachmaninoff.   Something new to CU and sure to be a glorious sound!  

   
Rufus Choi 
Rufus Choi 

Hometown pianist Rufus Choi's star has been rising since he won the first Jose Iturbi International Competition.  He makes his CU debut performing Haydn Variations and Ravel's  La Valse, evoking the decadence of turn-of-the-century Vienna.  

  Laszlo Mezo
 Laszlo Mezo    
  
Returning to CU, Hungarian cellist Laszlo Mezo will perform the solo cello sonata of his compatriot composer, Zoltan Kodaly.         
  
  Moni         Geori Slavchev 
Moni Simeonov                                   Georgi Slavchev     
Pepi   Yoshika Masuda

 Pepron Pilibossian                                   Yoshika Misuda        

 
Offering more Ravel but of an entirely different color, CU faves Moni Simeonov (violin) and Pepi Pilibosian (piano) will play his Hungarian-themed Tzigane. Moni returns with pianist Georgi Slavchev and cellist Yoshika Masuda to perform a few movements from Ravel's ravishing Piano Trio. 


Ambroise Aubrun  Anna Sarkisova
Ambroise Aubrun                               Anna Sarkisova 
With USC thus represented, we must offer some UCLA talent for balance!  Also making their CU debuts, violinist Ambroise Aubran and pianist Anna Sarkisova will play an excerpt of Brahms' Sonata #3 (which, stretching our eastern theme, debuted in Budapest with Brahms at the 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 - don't want - email us right away! 







for graciously providing us with their incomparable instrument. 
On October 1st we will have CD213 - their newest C&A piano to the group of concert pianos.


Steinway        





******             


Classical Underground Showcase:    
   
TONY PRO        




We are proud to showcase “El Comico Divino”, a magnificent and important work by a great friend, LA artist Tony Pro. This masterful painting represents a mile-stone in Tony’s creative search, reconsiders the idea of Beauty and transforming it into an engaging and forceful visual statement.
 
It is enormously exhilarating to feel how LA is boiling with new ideas at the moment. With soul-searching questions about the future direction of the art world appearing almost daily from its various corners, our notorious LA gang  --  in a resurging realism of our time which I call NOVOREALISM -- is making itself heard and felt with ever-rising force.



Tony Pro  
Tony Pro "El Comoco Divino"

Over the summer, the venerable American Artist Magazine published a big article on our movement. My brothers-in-ART and ardent Undregrounders Jeremy Lipking, Tony Pro and myself just had an exciting three-hour presentation of our ideas at one of the year's most anticipated realist-artist's gatherings, The Weekend With The Masters. The Representational Art Conference held by California Lutheran University in just few weeks has invited us to discuss the same topic.

It is also exciting to see our East Coast brothers resolutely making Realism grounded in tradition a language of choice in expressing our modern thoughts, views and feelings. A perfect example is an "Empire" exhibition of new works by New York artist and friend Martin Wittfooth at the edgy, provocative and forward-looking Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City.

"Envisioning the familiar with the foreign, the paintings portray 'empire' as a dream in mythical repetition. The past becomes a painterly vision of a global psyche, lucid in theme, vibrant with tonality and color" - the gallery describes Martin's work.
The show runs through October 6, so don't miss it!



 

Art exhibit Martin Wittfooth  
In ART we trust!