Twenty summers ago we launched Southwest Chamber Music's Summer Festival at The Huntington. The festival was the first summer music festival in the San Gabriel Valley. However, our organization has changed substantially in the past twenty years through international tours, cultural exchanges, two Grammy awards and nine nominations for 30 recordings, in addition to our education and concert programs.
With the unanimous decision by our Board of Trustees, we have decided to retire our summer festival. This change will allow us to devote undivided organizational energy and resources to the LA International New Music Festival, concerts hailed as "indispensable" to the cultural life of Los Angeles by Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times.
Board President Jay Belloli says that "the construction hiatus of last summer gave our board time to assess the series after twenty wonderful years. It became apparent that the Huntington summer festival was taking organizational resources away from our international leadership role in new music. Our board has tremendous confidence that the LA International New Music Festival is the best way for Southwest Chamber Music to continue to serve our goals and our community. We sincerely thank The Huntington for our many years of collaboration and we wish them the best with their newest facilities."
We are pleased to announce that the 2015 LA International New Music Festival will enjoy its third season this July at REDCAT in Walt Disney Concert Hall, featuring music by American, Asian, Central and South American composers. We will also celebrate over ten years of collaborative concerts with our esteemed colleagues from Mexico, the Tambuco Percussion Ensemble.
Five concerts will take place from July 7 through July 15.
The final schedule and programs will be announced in early May.
You may also follow the plans for the festival on Artistic Director Jeff von der Schmidt's blog at jeffvonderschmidt.com.
We greatly appreciate your attendance and support over the past 28 years. We hope that we will continue to see you this summer at the 2015 LA International New Music Festival.
