From Russia with love
The new Glendale Philharmonic Orchestra debuts Saturday night at First Baptist Church of Glendale
By Carl Kozlowski 01/07/2010
Sometimes the biggest plans arise from the most unexpected sources. That’s certainly been the case for Ruslan Biryukov, a prominent Russian émigré and cellist who is launching the debut performance of the Glendale Philharmonic Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night at the First Baptist Church of Glendale.
The concert is the first performed by a homegrown orchestra in Glendale in many years, and is also significant as part of a special weekend of events marking the church’s reopening after extensive renovations to honor its 100th anniversary.
But according to Biryukov, the weekend concert and the entire orchestra itself weren’t even contemplated three months ago.
“If you asked me about all this three months ago, I’d probably laugh,” says Biryukov. “It really happened unexpectedly. I was offered a chance to start this by First Baptist Church, which is a forgotten, neglected jewel of Los Angeles. The new pastor found that there were 35 pianists in the church congregation and that the building could hold 1,000 people. It was beautiful, but was practically collapsing due to low maintenance for 100 years.”
Biryukov was invited by the church’s new pastor, the Rev. Charles Updike, to organize an orchestra for performances in the new space. Excited by the opportunity, he worked quickly to assemble the 14-member orchestra.
While the ensemble itself performs under the baton of principal conductor Mikael Avetisyan, and the opening concert features some works by prominent Armenian and Russian composers — including the world premiere of “Andante Dolente & Scherzo for Two Cellos and a String Orchestra” by Andrey Rubtsov — Biryukov is quick to stress that the orchestra’s membership and outreach extends far beyond those two cultures. In fact, the rest of the Saturday night repertoire includes “Prelude from Violin Partita No. 3 in E Major” by Bach; Concerto Grosso — “Palladio” by Karl Jenkins; “Vocalise” by Arno Babjanian; and “Symphony for String Orchestra and Timpani” by Edward Mirzoyan.
“We have such an incredible interest in the orchestra from residents, and the city and mayor are very excited about this,” says Biryukov, whose own background has taken him from studying at the Moscow Conservatory and USC’s Thornton School of Music to teaching in Russia and Croatia to performing in concerts around the globe. “We have Armenian and Russian players, but lots of others come from all over, even Honduras, Canada and Korea. We have one short and one long piece by Armenian composers in this first concert, but moving forward the music is not focused on any particular culture’s composers. Glendale is the third-largest city in Los Angeles County, and we feel a real commitment to the audience that’s showing us so much love already.”
Among the ongoing plans for the Glendale Philharmonic Orchestra are performances at 7:30 p.m. on the first Saturday of each month at the First Baptist Church of Glendale, located at 29 N. Louise St., Glendale. Tickets are $15, $20, $25 and $50 for VIP tickets. Call (323) 663-3601 or visit glendalephilharmonic.com or celloart.com. Russian-speaking patrons may call (323) 463-7224.
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