Program for Feb 7 - we are sold out!

Program:

Cesar Franck (1822-1890)

Violin Sonata, A Major, 1 and 2nd movement

Ludmila Adzhemova - violin

Yulia Barsky - piano

Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)

3 Preludes Op.11

Prelude and Nocturne for the left hand, Op.9

Impromptu No. 2, Op.12 in B flat minor

Pavel Petrov - piano

Philip Glass (b.1937)

Arias from "Akhnaten"
Act 2 Scene 2: Akhnaten and Nefertiti

Act 2 Scene 4: Hymn

Act 1 Scene 3: The Window of Appearance

by members of Long Beach Opera

Nandani Sinha - mezzo soprano, Heather Calvete - soprano, Oxana Senina - soprano

Andreas Mitisek - Artistic Director and piano

intermission

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

Sonetto 123 del Petrarca

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

Etude-Tableau, op. 33 no. 4

Ryan MacEvoy McCullough - piano

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

Sonata for violin and piano E-flat

Radu Pieptea - violin, Bryan Pezzone - piano

Please stay after main program to enjoy spontaniuoty of classical music jamming / reading by Armen Ksajikian and Pepi Pilibosian.

Meet the artists:

Andreas Mitisek, Artistic and General Director of Long Beach Opera (LBO), conductor and concert artist, earned critical and popular acclaim for building the foremost contemporary opera companies.

Nandani Sinha, mezzo soprano, member of Long Beach Opera, has performed in Los Angeles, London, Germany, Austria, France and New York.

Soprano Heather Calvete, member of LBO, who earned critical acclaim as a singer with "sensitivity, considerable power and a most attractive sheen", has performed opera and concert works in the US and Europe. 

Oxana Senina, coloratura soprano who captivated audience with her recent CU performances, returns to CU as a member of Long Beach Opera. 

Radu Pieptea, a Julliard graduate and Fulbright Scholar, currently records in the studios for movies, television, and records and performs regularly with the LA Philharmonic,  LA Opera and Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

Bryan Pezzone, has excelled in classical, contemporary, jazz, and experimental genres. His recent endeavor, Freedom Series, is a growing and thriving series of concerts that features his own music, improvisations, selected standard repertoire and spoken musings and feelings about life.

Pavel Petrov, CU regular, hailed for his "masterful performances, depth of tone, exquisite taste and artistic originality" is an extraordinary gifted musician, organist, chamber performer, and pedagogue.

 

Ludmila Adzhemova had taught at the Special Music School of the St. Petersburg Conservatory for 28 years.  Among her students are concertmasters of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kirov Orchestra, and orchestra members of the Barcelona, Valencia, Rotterdam and Copenhagen Symphonies.

Pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, making his mark as an artist of great versatility and musical fervor, has studied with John Perry at the Colburn Conservatory and Thornton School of Music, and has appeared with numerous orchestras throughout U.S.

Yuliya Barsky, a frequent CU performer who elects to collaborate with chamber musicians in groups of two to six when not teaching piano in her studio.





WE ARE SOLD OUT!

February Night this coming Monday, the 7th

Classical Underground Showcase:

JOVE WANG 

It is a distinct pleasure to introduce a long time friend and one of the most accomplished California figurative realist painters Jove Wang. 

A graduate of the prestigious China Academy of Fine Arts, a highly influential art training center in China, Jove studied under renowned master artist Guo Gang who in turn was trained by the leading artists of the Leningrad Academy of the Soviet Union in the 1950s.  The Russian Realism genesis of some of today's most exciting Chinese realist artists is a remarkable phenomenon in contemporary Chinese art and a vibrantly significant part in newly emerging Realist Movement of the contemporary American art. 

Bold and poetic all within the same confident and unsentimental brush stroke, Jove's work in all variety of subjects rides on the hieghtened sensibility and depth of his color harmonies and presents a rare sensation of exhilarating and refined force of paint.

 

       New Century, Old Century, oil on linen, 84" x 60"

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 at  classicalunderground@yahoo.com!
P.S. We are SOLD OUT!

Dear friends, 

Our prelude to Valentine's Day is full of romance and opera, CU debuts, and old favorites. 

In a CU first, we are thrilled to welcome Andreas Mitisek, the Artistic Director of the Long Beach Opera, and  members of the Long Beach Opera performing arias from Philip Glass's Akhnaten, including a love duet between Akhnaten and his queen, Nefertiti.  The love connection was obvious, but we had no idea how timely the Egyptian connection would be!

                                                     

 
Making his CU debut, violinist Radu Pieptea with pianist Bryan Pezzone will perform the Violin Sonata of Richard Strauss, a passionate early work written under the spell of his soon-to-be wife Pauline, and full of hints at his future operatic style.

Another rising local star, pianist Ryan McCullough, makes his CU debut with Liszt and Rachmaninoff, and talented young CU regular Pavel Petrov turns up the flames on the Steinway with preludes and impromptus of Scriabin.

              

 Ludmila Adzhemova, noted teacher and Grand Dame of LA violin, will give us a taste of the most romantic violin sonata of all, the Franck... or as Martha Argerich calls it, Franckenstein -- it is a monster for the pianist, too! In this case, CU's own Yulya Barsky.              
                                     

We are most grateful to our supportive friends at Steinway Piano Gallery West Hollywood for graciously providing us with their incomparable instrument.
  

CU news and beyond, new youtube videos from October event

Dear friends of Music and Art,

Last month Rex Lewis Clark, who in so many ways embodies the very Spirit of Music, performed at the home of Vice President Joe Biden.  Please, see the picture below where Vice President is holding Cathleen's heart-felt and inspiring book "Rex". We are so proud for you, Rex, the world most definitely has much to learn from you!   

    

  

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Wonderful sound engineer Noel Gould together with our tireless and brilliant videographer Julie Resh have made it possible to revisit the extraordinary CU experience of our most unique October 25th event.  Enjoy it on YouTube below!

Moni plays Chaconne

"...then came the first heart attack.  Moni Simeonov played the Chaconne from Bach's Partita #2 ...  The music grew and grew and grew and many in the audience began to weep... When he finished the response was so intense and heartfelt I thought some of Alexey's paintings would fall off the walls." - Lynda Adams, CU aficionado
 

Rossini Barber 6 hands

"...the famous "Figaro!, Figaro!, Figaro!" passage... brought down the house. This time the tears were of laughter and hilarity".  - Lynda Adams

"To cap off the evening, 6 hands and 30 flying fingers on one Steinway keyboard, one piano bench and a half, and pianists Pepi Pilibossian, Mikael Oganes and Harout Senekeremian, had the crowd going wild in a Rossini grand finale..."  - Laurence Vittes, Huffington Post
 

   

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Right after our December concert, Alissa Margulis and Jura Margulis went to Germany to record their new album.  We feel very special to get a live "sneak pick" of it!

  

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You can now support Classical Underground   by getting a cool Classical Underground hat or a t-shirt!  Inquire at classicalunderground@yahoo.com

    Our next event is coming soon!  Stay tuned!

                                                                                                        
 follow us on facebook

 
 

 

Our next event December 13 - Music and Art in the Studio - Sold Out!

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

                                                       

Dear friends,

At this special time of the year, I would love to express my deep gratitude to all of you, the extraordinary musicians, incredible artists and remarkable audience, who together and despite all, valiantly convey the Idea of ART in our turbulent world.

For our December night we are enormously excited to welcome back our great CU friend Jura Margulis, professor of piano at University of Arkansas, joined by his sister Alissa Margulis, an esteemed violinist and professor of the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, who are coming to share with us their new program for their upcoming album of Liszt's magnificent but rarely heard works for violin and piano, including their "Grand duo concertant" that brought down the house at Martha Argerich's Lugano Festival last summer.

 
The theatrical tenor Timur Bekbosunov and Eduardo Delgado will perform arias of Henry Purcell, including the haunting "Cold Song" from "King Arthur", which was popularized by the cult performance artist Klaus Nomi.

Our poet of the piano Eduardo will continue with one of Robert Schumann's most deeply passionate works, the Fantasy in C (first movement), dedicated to no less than Franz Liszt.  

 

To end the night in a holiday mood with sugarplums dancing in our heads, Mikael Oganes will perform selections from Mikhail Pletnev's virtuosic solo piano transcription of "The Nutcracker Suite". 

Let's celebrate the season with the Idea of Art in one of her most glorious forms!

Again we are most grateful to our supportive friends at Steinway Piano Gallery West Hollywood for graciously providing us with their incomparable instrument. 

Please bring an unwrapped toy for our good friends and neighbors Glory Christian International Church's toy drive in support of their extensive work with underprivileged inner city children.  

P.S. As always - bring your spirits, food and drink for you and your friends to enjoy.  Please RSVP via Paypal (below). If you have problems with PayPal - don't wait - email us right away! And don't forget to dress warm - it is winter in the studio!

       ***********        

                                                                                                                                    

Classical Underground Showcase:

 Joseph Todorovitch

One of the important aspects of the young generation of American artists choosing serious figurative realism as ther favored mode of expression is a dedication to study visual reality in all its complex and subtle forms.  It often resides in concentrated examination of the tonal depth and richness that conveys the life-like persuasiveness and introspection of contemporary character.

It is remarkable to see such great new voices like Joseph Todorovitch making LA a new center of gravity in the art world.  We are thrilled to showcase one of the bright and very promising talents in the newly emerging Realist Movement of our time.

Joseph Todorovitch

                                                    The Expert, oil on linen, 48 x 36

We are sold out!

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Letter from our loyal friends of CU - after our October 25th event

Here I am, 1:30 in the morning, and still soaring on the emotions of the evening.  I know I will land at some point, but right now it is an amazing feeling.  Tonight's Classical Underground reached a level of artistry that we can only hope will be matched in future evenings.  We all agreed that this was the best program with the best performances we have seen so far.  Alexey and Olga outdid themselves.  We wept at the beauty of Bach,  roared with laughter at piano for 6, count 'em six, hands, and experienced several other emotions in between.  But to specifics.

The program began with classical guitar played by a lovely young woman, Iren Arutyunyan.  It was serene, quiet and a perfect aperitif for the start of the evening.  Then came the first heart attack.  Moni Simeonov played the Chaconne from Bach's Partita #2 for unaccompanied violin.  Just before the performance Laurence Vittes, the house commentator, said that the work would show us our souls.  And then Moni played.  The music grew and grew and grew and many in the audience began to weep, including yours truly.  When he finished the response was so intense and heartfelt I thought some of Alexey's paintings would fall off the walls.

Wondering who could follow such an experience was answered when Ben Lulich, principal clarinetist for our own Pacific Symphony, accompanied by Pepi Pilibossian on piano, played his collation of variations on "Carnival of Venice".  He clearly enjoyed playing to an audience that clearly enjoyed him.  Total delight and fabulous clarinet playing.  

The first half of the program finished with CU favorite Mikael Oganessian performing his transcription of "Night at Bald Mountain" by Mussorgsky.  Alexey prefaced the performance by saying that Mussorgsky captured perfectly the extremes of the Russian character with this piece.  "Mika" then proceeded to play as if he had an entire symphony orchestra in his hands.  And he did.  For those of us familiar with the Ravel orchestration of "Night...." it was a wonderful new look at an old friend.  All the color was there along with the wonder of just how he did it.

We staggered out for intermission, shaking our heads as what we had just heard and seen.  But Wait! There was more coming!

The first work in the second half was the work of a contemporary composer, Stig Petterson, entitled "A Dream Play".  It is excerpts of a chamber opera scored for piano, 2 violins, cello, accordion, clarinet, glockenspiel and voice (soprano).  It was lovely.  Afterwards Stig spoke about how he loved earlier composers but found that sometimes they used too many notes for his taste.  He was trying to achieve the same intensity and emotion in his pieces, but with fewer notes.  Charming and revelatory.

 
The comments about note count became moot with the next performance.  Harout Senekeremian played three pieces by Marc-Andre Hamelin.  Who is Mr. Hamelin you might ask.  He is a piano virtuoso who writes fiendishly complicated pieces for other piano virtuosos.  In other words, a lot of notes. The fact that they are also beautiful  and leave the audience gasping for breath at the end is almost an afterthought.

The final performance of the program was the return of Mika, Harout and Pepi for an arrangement for 6 hands of Rossini's "Barber of Seville", including the famous "Figaro!, Figaro!, Figaro!" passage, voice supplement courtesy Mika.  It brought down the house.  This time the tears were of laughter and hilarity.

As we drove home, exhausted, exhilirated (sp.) and overwhelmed by the evening, we shared our favorite moments of the evening.  I have left out our interactions with other members of the audience, the discovery of two tango enthusiasts sitting in the row in front of us, Kris finding one of Elysabeth's friends coming back for his third CU, bringing some friends for their first time.

As we were settling down, or trying to, Ernie and I marveled about the evening.  We wonder how this can continue.  But we forget.  There is so much talent and so much passion for this kind of experience.  We should be thankful for Alexey and Olga having the talent and passion to bring everything together for these magical evenings.

Lynda Adams

Programme Notes - October 25

By popular demand we are sharing our exciting program with you as it formed by now.  Tonight will be a night of astounding piano virtuosity and a lovely new chamber opera, plus Bach, Spanish guitar, Italian clarinet, and Russian cello favorites with introductions by Comrade Laurence Vittes.

In a Classical Underground first, we present selections from a new opera, "A Dream Play" by local composer S.J. Pettersson (who will be present), in a chamber orchestration for a unique array of instruments and voice.

Marc Andre-Hamelin is considered today's greatest piano super-virtuoso, specializing in the most entertainingly difficult works of the 19th century, but did you know he is also a brilliant composer? Inspired by the style of 19th-century piano greats like Alkan and Thalberg, these hyper-difficult, hyper-beautiful etudes require a hyper-virtuoso to bring them off, and we have one in Harout Senekeremian!

The piano fun continues with Michael Oganes' (Oganesyan) own brilliant transcription of Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain.

Our CU favorite, Moni Simeonov, is bringing this time the beautiful and virtuoso Bach's Chaconne. We are also getting ready for a surprise performance. The rumours say that Natalia Margulis (principal cello at the Madrid Royal Opera) and Armen Ksajikian (principal of Los Angeles Chamber) were rehearsing few pieces for two celli today. Stay tuned for their late-night appearance!

And to cap off our evening of virtuosity and opera, 6 hands and 30 flying fingers on one Steinway keyboard in a Rossini grand finale!

and the weather? ....not record high, not record low, and no rain in the evening!

 

Thank you everyone for being patient while dealing with the paypal issues!

alexey steele presents

CLASSICAL UNDERGROUND

October 25, 2010

Music and Art Series

Special thanks to Steinway Piano Gallery – West Hollywood for their wonderful Steinway D!

Introductions by Laurence Vittes

PROGRAMME

Francisco Tarrega: Zarzuela on Themes from Arrieta's "Marina,"

Francisco Tarrega: Sueno (tremolo)

Iren Arutyunyan - guitar

Johann Sebastian Bach: Chaconne from Partita 2 in D

Moni Simeonov - violin

"Carnival of Venice" variations by Paul Jeanjean, Domenico Mirco and Luigi Bassi

Ben Lulich – clarinet, Pepi Pilibossian - piano

Modest Mussorgsky: Night at a Bald Mountain (Piano Solo Transcription by M. Oganes)

Mikael Oganes - piano

S. J. Pettersson - from chamber opera A Dream Play

1. Postlude (We actually should call it Prelude just because it comes first)

2. The Officer and Victoria

3. The Green Fishing Net

4. The Star Quilt

5. The Ballerina

6. From My Lips By Yours (world premiere performance)

Oxana Senina - soprano, Yakov Birman – piano, Moni Simeonov - violin, Eugene Lifschitz - cello, Cosima Luther - violin, Ben Lulich - clarinet, Gee Rabe - accordion, Jack Verga - glockenspiel

Marc-Andre Hamelin: Etude No. 6 “Omaggio a Domenico Scarlatti”

Marc-Andre Hamelin: Etude No.7 “Lullaby” for the left hand after Tchaikovsky

Marc-Andre Hamelin: Etude 5 “Toccata Grottesca”

Harout Senekeremian - piano

Piazzolla arranged for 6 hands by M. Oganes
Gioachino Rossini: Barber of Seville Fantasie

arranged for 6 hands By D. Krug

Pepi Pilibossian, Mikael Oganes, Harout Senekeremian

CU Showcase: 

Focus on Design in Painting: The Three Compadres

Glenn Dean, Logan Hagege, Eric Merrell

One of the key elements of the human interpretation of "real" is our sense of "design" which is aimed at making personal choices of importance and priorities within the chosen subject through the arrangement of main compositional forms - something no techno gadget is capable of making regardless of a price tag. Great friends who shared many travel adventures together, Glen, Logan and Eric are some of today's leading young artists investigating in their enormously effective and aesthetically satisfying work the visual force of "design."

October 25th invitation

Dear friends,

We have a great program for our October evening studded with wonderful musical talents and exciting works, spanning from the immortal classics to the music of our day.  Let's celebrate together the ever-present and ever-burning spirit of art and the beginning of the holiday season at our Classical Underground.

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

Again we are most grateful to our supportive friends at Steinway Piano Gallery West Hollywood for graciously providing us with their incomparable instrument.

In the program:
Iren Arutyunyan (guitar), Yakov Birman (piano), Eugene Lifschitz (cello), Ben Lulich (clarinet), Cosima Luther (violin), Mikael Oganes (piano), Pepi Pilibossian (piano), Gee Rabe (accordion), Harout Senekeremian (piano), Oxana Senina (soprano), Moni Simeonov (violin), Jack Verga 

Iren Arutyunyan, classical guitar, garnered many awards since she was 13, including first prize at the Aron Green/ASTA Classical Guitar Competition.

Eugene Lifschitz, currently at Colburn Scool of Music is a laureate of the International Schlern Music Competition and has just returned to the US after two years study at the Moscow Conservatory under famed cello teacher Natalia Gutman.

Gee Rabe, LA's accordion diva, has won major awards for her performance, including the Accordion Federation of North America's virtuoso (Western classical) and virtuoso jazz competitions in 1984 and 1985 respectively. She is currently finishing a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Yakov Birman, pianist, graduated from St. Petersburg Conservatory, is active performing and teaching.  Dr. Yakov Birman has experience in music from the Baroque era to our own time.

Mikhail Korzhev, pianist, is equally active as a solo recitalist, a chamber musician and has appeared as soloist with orchestras to high critical acclaim from American and European press.  Korzhev recorded a CD of Krenek’s piano music released by Phoenix Records.

S.J. Pettersson, composer.  A handpicked ensemble of Classical Underground favorites and newcomers will be performing selected pieces from S.J. Pettersson's 2010 chamber opera "A Dream Play" plus a world premiere performance of his new piece for cello and piano.

Mikael Oganes, pianist - CU favorite, who in addition to his virtuoso performances, continuously surprises and dazzles with his incredible piano transcriptions of major symphonic works.

Pepi Pilibossian, an incredible collaborative pianist, our CU regular, performing rare authentic music.

Harout Senekeremian, pianist, is an eager participant in the performance of new music. Senekeremian continues to concertize in both solo and chamber concerts in Southern California as well as maintaining an active piano studio.

Cosima Luther (MM, University of Southern California, BA, Pepperdine University) has been playing violin since the age of five and is currently a freelance teacher and performer in the Los Angeles area.

Oxana Senina, coloratura soprano, holds two Bachelor of Music degrees in both voice and cello from Chonkushov University and a Master's degree in voice from the Gnessino Academy in Moscow.

Moni Simeonov, CU favorite, dynamic virtuoso of romantic Bulgarian violin, concertmaster of Reno Philharmonic.

Ben Lulich, principal clarinet of the Pacific Symphony since May 2007, will be debuting at CU.

Jack Verga has had a long successful career as a jazz drummer, orchestral percussionist and teacher in the Los Angeles area.

Noel Gould, rare to find a fantastic engineer who is also a pianist; over the past 28 years he has recorded everyone from Leon Fleisher, the Tokyo String Quartet, The New York Woodwind Ensemble, Leonard Rose, The Vermeer String Quartet, Rufus Choi and our own Yana Reznik!

 Classical Underground Showcase:

 Focus on Design in Painting: The Three Compadres

Glenn Dean, Logan Hegege, Eric Merrell

As the newest stage of contemporary realism, which I came to call NOVOREALISM, is gaining steam with great new generation of young American talent, it is showing itself in a diverse variety of existing and distinct forms.

"Realism" in painting is often thought of as something that "looks just like a photograph," which in fact cannot be further from its actual substance. "Photorealism" is a respected and established part of a modernist expression, which is aimed at recreating a technological effect of a photograph. "Realism" is based solely on the laws and principles of a human perception of a visual world. Even when "realist" painters use photographs (even though when they do, it is most often as a very secondary reference) it is done entirely based on their long-developed ability to interpret visual reality "live."

One of the key elements of this human interpretation of "real" is our sense of "design" which is aimed at making personal choices of importance and priorities within the chosen subject through the arrangement of main compositional forms - something no techno gadget is capable of making regardless of a price tag.

Great friends who shared many travel adventures together, Glen, Logan and Eric are some of today's leading young artists investigating in their enormously effective and aesthetically satisfying work the visual force of "design."

Glenn Dean "Evening in the Foothills" 16x20 oil Logan Hagege "Shadows On the Mountain" oil 30x40 Eric Merrell "Spaceship Landing (The Salton Sea)" Oil  30" x 30"

In ART we trust!