CU June 5th - RSVP now for Season's Finale!

Suddenly June has arrived and with it the last program of our 10th season, featuring a double dose of industrial strength Brahms...bring plenty of bratwurst, potato salad and beer for the potluck!

The end of the season always marks the happy return of our dear friend Jura Margulis, who will play young Brahms'  magnificent, symphonic Brahms Piano Sonata #3 in F minor, Op. 5.

 

Then virtuoso violinist Robert Cani will perform late Brahms in the form of his Violin Sonata #3 in D minor, Op. 108, with Mitsuko Morikawa on piano.

 

Delayed from our last program, the ever-tantalizing tenor Timur Bekbosunov and pianist Dzovig Markarian present Russian composer Sergei Slonimisky's "Six Romances on Poems of Osip Mandelstam,"which Timur sang to high acclaim in its U.S. premiere in Washington, DC last year.

 

And for a lighter dessert, the multi-gifted CU regular Georgi Slavchev will play a couple of his latest piano compositions, "This We Have Now" and "A Good Piano Day."

        

 

                                   
          

 

See you on Monday!  As always - bring your spirits food and drink for you and your friends to enjoy. WE ARE SOLD OUT!

    

 

   ******

STEINWAY PIANO DEBUT - a brand new CD 287!

We are most grateful to our supportive friends at

 Steinway Piano Gallery Los Angeles  

for graciously providing us with their incomparable instrument

   

 

   

 

    We are grateful for a continuous support of our founding patron 

RAND RESOURCES, LLC

   

in ART we trust! 

   

 

*******

20795 Main St. Carson, Ca 90745
Doors open at 7 p.m.

 

 

 

 

   

 

   

 

 

 

Save the date June 5th Season's Finale

Save the date! 
Season's Finale! 

 

Monday, June 5th, 2017   

Look for the email invitation next week,  

or check back our website at that time 

www.classicalunderground.com 

  

             

 

in art we trust!

 

 

*******

 

RSVP for May 1st now!

online reservations are now closed 

 

Music and Art lovers unite for our May Day program!

The superb Russian pianist Vadym Kholodenko, winner of the latest Van Cliburn Competition, returns to CU playing the virtuosic, mysterious and highly seductive music of his fellow Russian, Scriabin.

   

The LA Times described Timur Bekbosunov as "extravagantly transgressive," which is especially appropriate for singing Slonimsky's "Six Romances on Poems by Osip Mandelstam" - a poet whose own "transgressions" got him sent to Stalin's gulag. 

 

 

We are already salivating for the debut pairing of CU favorites Evgeny Tonkha and Eduardo Delgado, playing Schumann's intensely romantic Fantasiestucke for cello and piano.

Any of the above makes for a not-to-be-missed evening, but we'll have more details soon including our Classical Underground Art Showcase. 

See you on Monday! 

Classical Underground Showcase: Michael Klein   

"Wandering" oil on panel 36" x 30"   

It is always a great pleasure to see any new work by one of my favorite Contemporary Realist painters, Michael Klein. It is certainly even more exciting to see the beginning of a whole new series by such an important artist.

In his new body of work, Michael turns his attention to an intriguing and thought-provoking subject: the Spanish mustangs that have been roaming the East Coast for the past 450 years, abandoned by early explorers to the Americas. "Day after day, as history has unfolded around them, several herds of wild horses have been roving the shore aimlessly," says Michael.

Depicting a parallel world with a different perception of time is a unique mark of Michael's works that we can see in the ethereal, time- suspending qualities of his widely admired still lifes. In his new subject, Michael found an unexpected direct representation for such a contemplative and evocative theme.

      

     

 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 Los Angeles  

for graciously providing us with their incomparable instrument

   

 

   

    We are grateful for a continuous support of our founding patron 

RAND RESOURCES, LLC

   

in ART we trust!

    

  

20795 Main St. Carson, Ca 90745

Doors open at 7 p.m. No assigned seats - first come-first served. Potluck. Entrance from the parking lot.  Free parking.  

Save the date - May 1st - our next CU night of music and art!

 

 

  

 

Music & Art in the Studio    

Save the date! 
Just a week away - an outstanding program! 

 

Monday, May 1st, 2017   

Look for the email invitation tomorrow,  

or check back our website at that time 

www.classicalunderground.com 

    

                   

 

 

RSVP now for March 20th Music & Arts in the Studio

Online reservations are now closed.

March Night! 

this coming Monday, the 20th @ 8 p.m. 
Music & Arts in the Studio  

 

@ Alexey Steele Grand Atelier 

In the midst of March Madness, we balance the CU bracket with both Bruins and Trojans, as well as that basketball powerhouse, the Colburn School.

 

UCLA piano professor and commanding performer Inna Faliks will play Beethoven's last work for the piano, the concise, noble, and exquisite Bagatelles Op. 126, plus the bravura Mephisto Waltz #1 of Liszt.

 

Young Ukrainanian violinist Orest Smovzh, a student of Midori at USC, makes his CU debut with Bach's Partita in D minor for solo violin.

 

Camille Avellano has been a vital part of the LA Philharmonic string section since 1981 (and somehow during that stellar gig she also found time to be a violin professor at UCLA).  For her CU performance of Stravinsky's Suite Italienne she is bringing a special friend, pianist Liliana Cino, who in her off-keyboard time just happens to be LA's Consul General of Peru!  They will also treat us to Fritz Kreisler's arrangement of "Danse Espagnole" from De Falla's La Vida Breve. 

 

Our Colburn representative, Russian pianist and CU regular Anton Smirnov, will be joined by Ukrainian pianist Angelika Fuchs to tackle the delightfully jazz-inflected Sinfonietta for Four Hands by contemporary Russian composer Nikolai Kapustin.

 

And we invite you to please stick around for some late evening surprises!

    

 

Inna Faliks          

 

Please RSVP via Paypal through our website by clicking on the button above. 

 

Classical Underground Showcase:
Leonid Steele - Going "To The People" and the Inspiration for My Neighbor Series  

""Gutsul's Yard" 1962, 41" x  55"  

 

 

My father Leonid Steele was a great embodiment of Russia's venerable cultural tradition of going "to the people." Like his cultural forebears, the artists of the famed "peredvizhnik" movement, he believed that the people from the far reaches of society, far away villages and factories, are the best and most important material for serious Art. He also believed that these very same people also are the ones who need the exposure to Art the most. He believed the vitality and necessity of Art shows itself in the clearest way in such context.

 

This belief resulted in my dad's continuous journeys away from big cities in his quest for true characters and subjects. This quest fueled his remarkable oeuvre  with humanistic representations of his era, and became a foundation for his iconic masterpieces of epic multi-figure paintings. In his travels throughout Ukraine, he produced the most compelling and heartfelt depictions of true people from Western, Central and Eastern regions, showing them as the same brotherly people despite all the differences that were painfully lurking under the polished surface of the Soviet Union even back then.  Dad believed that through affecting the people Art has a power to affect society, much as he believed in the ability of our common humanity to bridge all cultural and historic differences.

 

I grew up in the midst of the highest stage in my Dad transforming his great material into his most important works, and it left an indelible mark on me. I spent many months at a time accompanying Dad on his trips to the farthest villages as he would conceive, research and create his new works.

 

Dad's ideas and example became the blueprint for my current Love My Neighbor public art project in the City of Carson and for the works of My Neighbor Series at its center.

 

You can learn more about the project at www.lovemyneighbor.us  

"Sproose Grouse.

Boiler Riveting Worker: The Wood Grouce (Gluhar)" 1958 53" x 39"

    

 "Friends" 1961, 52" x  35"

 

   

 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 Los Angeles  

for graciously providing us with their incomparable instrument CD213!

  

 

   

******

    

in ART we trust!

        We are grateful for a continuous support     

of our founding patron 

RAND RESOURCES, LLC 

   

     

 

 

 

*******

20795 Main St. Carson, Ca 90745
Doors open at 7 p.m. No assigned seats - first come-first served. Potluck. Entrance from the parking lot.  Free parking.    

RSVP for February 13th - CU - Music and Arts in the Studio

Online reservations are now closed.

February Night ! 

this coming Monday, the 13th @ 8 p.m. 

Music & Arts in the Studio  

 

@ Alexey Steele Grand Atelier 

        

For our February 13 Valentine program:

Pianist Alexander Slobodyanik turns on the romantic charm with Schumann's "Scenes from Childhood" plus a couple of Chopin Etudes.

 

Esteemed violinists Mark Kashper and Camille Avellano will pair up for violin duos of Bela Bartok. We are always thrilled and grateful when our LA Phil friends spend their night off playing for us!

 

The formidable bass-baritone Boris Martinovich will sing two Verdi arias:  "O tu Palermo" from I Vespri Siciliani, and "Ella giammai m'amò" from Don Carlo, accompanied by Mary Au on piano.

 

CU favorites Evgeny Tonkha and Anton Smirnoff bring us Rachmaninoff's  swooningly romantic Cello Sonata. 

 

And here's something you don't hear every day: Carmen...on the saxophone! Sax virtuosa Chika Inoue will play Francois Borne's "Fantaisie brillante sur airs de "Carmen," with Mary Au, piano.

  

 
Camille Avellano & Mark Kashper                               Boris Martinovich 

online reservations are now closed.

Classical Underground Showcase:
"Love My Neighbor" public art project in Carson by Alexey Steele 

"Ricky of Carson" oil on linen 31"x 25" 

 

 

In exceptional times we'll make an exception to our tradition of showcasing the works of my friends, and will showcase my recent "Love My Neighbor" public art project in our City of Carson.

 

The project came out of my belief that in a society where the faith in most of its institutions is severely undermined, there is a vital need to find an idea in which we can all still have some credible faith.  Something we can all believe in despite all the differences and severe polarization, well managed  by profiteers of "divide and conquer" doctrines hiding under any stripe.

 

 

"Mrs. O'Neal" sepia on Fabriano paper 30" x 22"  

 

I found this powerful, uniting and credible idea in a testimonial affirmation that I formulated as "Love My Neighbor." Whoever we are, we are neighbors first. In this country or in the world. In the City of Carson, statistically the 5th most diverse in the nation, the neighbors just happen to be like the rest of the world. For the last nine years I have been working on the My Neighbor Series based on this principle.

 

What my Dad called "High Art" in my view stands today as a vehemently anti-ideological counter-politics. It utilizes the power to unite people on a human level. Practicing High Art today in this way becomes social action.

 

In the last year I have been privileged to have the City of Carson as my partner in this project through a grant from its Cultural Arts Commission, with Wells Fargo Bank as the local exhibiting partner. At two locations, the Carson Park Building and the Wells Fargo Town Center Store, in one month approximately 40,000 Carson residents were exposed to the "Love My Neighbor" message through my images of beloved and inspiring neighbors.

 

I am working on the second leg of the project this year in this awesome collaboration.

 

You can learn more about the project at www.lovemyneighbor.us  

 

     

 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 Los Angeles  

for graciously providing us with their incomparable instrument CD 587.

  

 

   

******

 

in ART we trust!

        We are grateful for a continuous support     

of our founding patron 

RAND RESOURCES, LLC 

   

     

 

*******

20795 Main St. Carson, Ca 90745
Doors open at 7 p.m. No assigned seats - first come-first served. Potluck. Entrance from the parking lot.  Free parking.    

 

 

    **********

Save the Date! February 13th Music & Art in the Studio!

Save the Date!

 

Monday, February 13th, 2017

Music and Art in the Studio

 

Look for the invitation next week, or check our website at that time.