Music, Art, Food & Dining for a Local Getaway

The 20th Summer Festival at The Huntington

Celebrating 20 years of its Summer Festival at The Huntington, Grammy Award-winning Southwest Chamber Music wraps you in another world for the price of a concert ticket: Pre-concert gourmet dinners in the elegant Huntington Tea Room, a stroll around the fragrant rose garden, picnics on the lawn, glowing summer sunsets through the trees, a wander through the Huntington Art Gallery, and superbly played music under the summer stars. 

If you're a visitor to LA, this is a must-do to quiet traffic nerves and too much sightseeing.  If you live in LA, give yourself a special four-hour treat -- a real getaway from the outside world -- and enter the gentler world of the senses: aural, visual, gustatory, and physical.

"Indeed, this Southwest festival happens to be the classiest summer music program in the southwest." (Mark Swed, LA Times)

The eight-concert festival begins Saturday July13 (repeated Sunday July 14) at 7:30 p.m. and continues every other summer weekend through August 25. Concert ticket holders may wish to bring their own picnic dinners to have on the lawn before the concert. A visit to the Art Gallery before the concert and at intermission is highly recommended.

The concerts are a celebration of Southwest Chamber Music's 20 years at The Huntington, presenting concerts in the Art Gallery outdoor loggia for listeners reposing on what the LA Times calls "one of the best lawns in America." Tickets on the loggia are also available.

The Tea Room dinners prior to the concert are pre-sold with (and in addition to) the concert tickets. The prix-fixe menus (a different menu for each concert program) boast such delicacies as Vanilla Scented Crab-Stuffed Tilapia, Watermelon & Lychee Salad, Crispy Risotto with Roasted Vegetables, the luscious Chocolate Flan, and Tres Leches Cake among many offerings from Huntington Chef Jon Dubrick. 

The programs this summer, under the artistic direction of Jeff von der Schmidt, open July 13 & 14 with music for winds by Stravinsky and Mozart, plus Oliver Knussen's music for A.A. Milne's beloved Winnie the Pooh, in a bubbly concert worthy of a champagne celebration. The second concert program, July 27 & 28, includes a little night music from two famous composers, Mozart and Schoenberg. The program August 10 & 11 brings the lovely, joyous and sometimes raucous Brahms Horn Trio, complemented by Wagner and Reger. The final program, August 24 and 25, includes chamber music by three great opera composers of the 20th century: Britten, Henze and Janacek.

Tickets and more information about the Summer Festival at The Huntington are easily available online at www.swmusic.org or by calling (800)726-7147.