Southwest Chamber Music

Press Release 

 

Worlds Collide: John Cage in Space  

 

Los Angeles--On March 10 and 11, Grammy® Award-winning Southwest Chamber Music continues it's survey of musical works by John Cage in two programs of Cage 2012, a festival honoring the centenniel of Cage's birth.  

Southwest rehearses Atlas Eclipticalis

 

Saturday, March 10 at 8:00 p.m. in the Williamson Gallery at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Cage's Atlas Eclipticalis, Variations IV, and 4'33" (no. 2) (0'00") will be performed together for the first time, though it was Cage's intention that they be heard in conjunction with one another. The three works represent various states of being: Nirvana (Atlas), Samsara (Variations IV), and Individual Action (0'0"), which is appropriate to the exhibit in the Gallery where the concert will be held. The Jazz Ensemble from the Hamilton High School Academy of Music joins musicians of Southwest for the concert. The Academy of Music at Hamilton High School is a Grammy Signature School and winner of the 2010 Bravo Award for excellence in teaching the arts.  

 

In the Williamson Gallery exhibit, "The History of Space Photography," curated by Jay Belloli, the musicians will be surrounded by wall-sized photos of the Earth viewed from space as well as views of the solar system and the universe beyond.  The exhibit opens at Art Center College of Design on Friday, March 9, 2012, (Pasadena's "Art Night") where it will be on view through May 6.  

  

Sunday, March 11 at 5:00 p.m. Cage 2012 continues at the Pacific Asia Museum. The program focuses on Cage's use of percussion in many guises, and it is performed this evening by Southwest percussionist Lynn Vartan. 

Percussionist Lynn Vartan

 

In Branches the percussionist uses amplified pods, cacti and other plant materials controlled by I-ching chance operations. Music for Carillon #5 is written on an old board, following the grain structure of the wood as music staff lines.  Radio Music is a work for performing radios composed using chance operations.

 

To compose Etudes Boreales I - IV, for cello and percussion, Cage used the star-charts of the Atlas Borealis. The piano part is written for a percussionist. For the cello, pitch, duration, articulation, color and dynamics are notated precisely for every sound. Peter Jacobson, Southwest cellist, joins Vartan.

 

 

The Pacific Asia Museum was once the Pasadena Art Museum where in 1965 John Cage was interviewed by David Tudor at the groundbreaking "Encounters Series,"a collaboration of the Coleman Chamber Music Association, the museum, and CalTech from 1964 to 1973. 

  

Cage 2012 takes place March 3 through March 24 at various locations in Los Angeles and Pasadena. Southwest Chamber Music has performed and recorded the music of John Cage consistently throughout it's twenty-five year history. In its Cage Festival alone, begun in 2010, it has performed 31 works, three of which have been repeated with different instrumentations.  

For information and ticket purchase visit the Southwest web site, swmusic.org or call (800) 726-7147. 

 Concert Information and Listing 

Southwest Chamber Music 25th Anniversary Season

Tickets: $38 general admission, $28 seniors over 65, and 

$10 students with full-time I.D.

For tickets or information: 1.800.726.7147 or www.swmusic.org  

John Cage

CAGE 2012

Saturday, March 10 at 8 p.m. 

Variations IV

     4'33" (no. 2) (0'00")

With Southwest musicians and the jazz ensemble from 

Hamilton High School Academy of Music 

Join us for a post-concert discussion and reception with the artists.  

Sunday, March 11 at 5 p.m.

Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena 

Branches
Music for Carillon No. 5 

Radio Music
Etudes Boreales I - IV
With Lynn Vartan, percussion and Peter Jacobson, cello

Join us for a post-concert discussion and reception with the artists.  

The festival concludes ... 

Saturday, March 24 at 8 p.m.

The Colburn School, Los Angeles  

Lecture on the Weather (with film)
Score (40 Drawings by Thoreau) & 23 Parts: Twelve Haiku followed by a Recording of the Dawn             at Stony Point, New York, August 6, 1974
With a cast of 12 speakers and 23 musicians

 Cage 2012 is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts American Masters program, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and E. Randol and Pamela Schoenberg.