The Arroyo 5
Five visionaries who are changing the culture game in the Pasadena area and beyond
By Irene Lacher 08/01/2010
You already know the Pasadena that’s hailed as a repository of Los Angeles–area history, settled as it was before the glossy beach communities. The city’s passion for historic preservation puts some of its neighbors to the tear-down west to shame.
But that tells only part of the story of the Rose City’s outsize contribution to American culture, which dwarfs what one would expect, given its modest population of 150,000. The metropolitan area is also a prime incubator of new ideas in the arts, design, science and philanthropy — all fertile subjects for Arroyo Monthly’s explorations. So as we mark our fifth anniversary and celebrate our past covering one of the most intriguing small cities in the country, we look to the future by honoring some of the area’s most forward-looking citizens — public radio host Sandra Tsing Loh, Pasadena POPS Music Director Rachael Worby, sustainable furniture pioneer Cisco Pineda and philanthropic art publishers Celia and Chris Piazza.
— Irene Lacher, editor in chief
Music
Rachael Worby
Even as glass ceilings began to crack in the latter part of the 20th century with the rise of the women’s movement, the wheels of progress have spun more slowly in some areas. Certainly one laggard is the conductor’s podium, where symphony orchestras are still far more likely to see a man. So it is at one’s peril that one underestimates the sheer mettle of Rachael Worby, music director of the Pasadena POPS. Under her baton since 1999, the orchestra has expanded its performance schedule, attendance and corporate sponsorship. And the maestra, who is also artistic director and conductor of the American Music Festival in Cluj, Romania, and laureate conductor of the Wheeling (West Virginia) Symphony, helped steady the POPS as the deficit-wracked organization — along with its sister orchestra, the Pasadena Symphony — steered through the worst of a financial crisis triggered by the grim economy. Things continue to look up for the POPS, which moved this summer from its more intimate setting at Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge to a lawn outside the Rose Bowl that accommodates 4,000.
And as you stretch out on that lawn this month and savor the strains of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Porgy and Bess, you’ll be glad to know that this ambitious music director is planning to double the number of last year’s performances this season — including indoor winter concerts and a CD — with the ultimate goal of 40 to 50 a year plus international tours. Brava!
Design+sustainability
Cisco Pineda
When San Marino resident Cisco Pineda launched his sustainable furniture company, Cisco Brothers, 20 years ago, “green” design was more likely to refer to ’60s refrigerators than the current imperative to connect the dots between one’s personal environment and the global one. He prides himself on being the first manufacturer of 100 percent sustainable furniture, using wood that is certified by the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), water-based adhesives and cushions made with down, feathers, soy-based foams or natural latex. Naturally, his fabrics are organic and his leathers, vegetable-dyed. In an era where big corporations can’t shift operations offshore quickly enough, Pineda makes a point of manufacturing his furniture in California. And don’t forget Cisco Brothers’ fresh, contemporary aesthetic — his stylish designs have helped make the company one of L.A.’s largest manufacturers of residential furniture and a leader in the sustainable furnishings industry.
As Pineda explains on his website, ciscobrothers.com, it’s all because he likes us, he really likes us.
“My inspiration for design really is people,” he says. “A lot of designers tend to design for themselves… I can design products for my own personal ego, but I’d rather have the pleasure of designing for different types of needs and different types of cultures and people.”
Art+philanthropy
Celia and Chris Piazza
Like many parents, Celia and Chris Piazza wanted to support the school their son was attending. But in 2005, when Milo Piazza was a student at Pasadena’s Frostig Center for children with learning disabilities, the creative couple forged a philanthropic model far more ambitious and utterly original than the tried-and-true bake sale. Celia, formerly a longtime assistant to noted Los Angeles artist Chuck Arnoldi, conceived the Frostig Collection, which raises money by commissioning, producing and selling limited-edition sculptures and prints by internationally known artists such as Arnoldi, Nancy Rubins, Robert Graham, Guy Dill and Ed Moses.
Celia’s artist husband, Chris, owns the Pour House Art Casting Company and custom casts the sculptures, which range in price from $950 to $30,000 (most cost $1,500–$3,200).
Milo has since moved on to another school, but the Frostig Collection is still releasing two to five new artworks each year. To date, the project has raised more than $900,000 for the nonprofit center, funding its expanded social skills program.
Says Celia: “It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever done, aside from raising my child, of course.”
Science+entertainment
Sandra Tsing Loh
It turns out that space isn’t the final frontier, but making science education fun may be. And now Pasadena’s Sandra Tsing Loh is taking on that mission impossible. Blessed with an unusually eclectic combination of right brain–left brain accomplishments — public radio host, Caltech grad, concert pianist, essayist for The Atlantic and performance artist — she may be one of the few people actually able to pull it off. Collaborating with Caltech geniuses and theater types, Loh is incubating an hourlong radio show combining cutting-edge science news with wit, quizzes, games, songs and family-friendly silliness with an edge.
The project is an expansion of the science minutes she produces for Pasadena’s public radio station, KPCC-FM (89.3), which are beamed around the world. Listeners of the “Loh Down on Science” have gleaned arcane factoids like this: Sticky rice was in the mortar used to make the Great Wall — and this: Trash tossed from spacecraft is first fitted with radio transmitters
to make it useful. In October, Loh opens up her expanded co-productions with Caltech Theater Arts to the public (for details, visit lohdownonscience.com), and she hopes eventually to secure funding to turn them into a weekend show broadcast to public radio stations around the country. And then everyone will know why the hiss on their AM radios comes from the Big Bang.
“It’s shooting fish in a barrel to make these things funny or interesting, because it’s just so rich,” Loh says.
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