The List
A highly selective preview of upcoming events
By John Sollenberger 08/01/2010
Art talk at PMCA
The Pasadena Museum of California Art hosts panel discussions of its exhibitions this month:
Aug. 1 — All five curators of “The California Design Biennial: Action/Reaction” –– Rose Apodaca, Frances Anderton, Stewart Reed, Louise Sandhaus and Alissa Walker –– discuss the exhibition at 3 p.m. Aug. 29 — Curator Shirlae Cheng-Lifshin moderates a 3 p.m. discussion of “Desire: Six Los Angeles Artists,” with exhibition participants Iva Gueorguieva, Tom Knechtel and Monica Majoli.
Both events are free with museum admission.
The Pasadena Museum of California Art is located
at 490 E. Union St., Pasadena. Call (626) 568-3665, ext. 17, for reservations.
Free Music Tuesdays
The Pasadena Senior Center hosts a free Concerts in the Park series on Tuesdays from 6 to 7 p.m. this month at Pasadena’s Memorial Park. Guests are welcome to bring a picnic or purchase food from the BBQ Snack Shack.
Aug. 3 — Pasadena’s Crown City Chorus performs barbershop music.
Aug. 10 — Lisa Haley and the Zydekats play Americana, Cajun and Zydeco.
Aug. 17 — The Fishtank Ensemble performs Romanian folk music, flamenco, Swedish folk, klezmer and gypsy jazz.
Aug. 24 — Billy and the Hillbillies present a bluegrass and country showcase.
Memorial Park is located at the corner of Walnut Street and Raymond Avenue, Pasadena. Call (626) 795-4331 or visit pasadenaseniorcenter.org.
Dog Days at Descanso
Descanso Gardens offers a variety of events for hot summer days:
Aug. 5 and 12 –– “The Evolution of American Jazz” series features two concerts: On Aug. 5, South Pasadena horn player Elliott Caine (pictured) plays East Coast, bebop-inspired jazz; on Aug. 12, percussionist Willie McNeil performs straight-ahead jazz with pop and rock influences. The outdoor concerts, free with Descanso admission, run from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Guests are encouraged to bring blankets and picnics.
Aug. 14 — Rosarium horticulturalist Amanda Everett gives a 10 a.m. talk about the varied displays of the showy clematis flower and ways to prepare for blooms in the spring. The talk is free with admission.
Admission costs $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and students and $3 for children age 5 through 12. Descanso members and children age 5 and younger are admitted free.
Descanso Gardens is located at 1418 Descanso Dr., La Cañada Flintridge.
Call (818) 949-4200 or visit descansogardens.org.
It’s a Locals Thing at the Zoo
Aug. 6 — The L.A. Zoo offers patrons a rare chance to view the resident creatures after hours against a backdrop of some great music. Part of its Music in the Zoo summer series presented by the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association (GLAZA), Local Scene Night features a lineup of L.A. bands from 6 to 9 p.m. Bands scheduled are Happy Hollows, Voxhaul Broadcast, Useless Keys, The Lonely Wild, Walking Sleep and Slang Chickens (pictured). Food and beverages, including wine, are available for purchase. Animals are on view until 8 p.m. Admission costs $16.50 for adults ($12.50 for GLAZA members) and $10.50 for children ages 6 to 15 ($7.50 for members). Proceeds fund zoo exhibits, plant and animal species conservation, capital projects, education and community outreach projects.
The Los Angeles Zoo is located at 5333 Zoo Dr., Los Angeles, in Griffith Park.
Call (323) 644-6042 or visit lazoo.org/mitz/ for advance tickets.
Singles Mix It Up in Pasadena
Aug. 7 — A Super Single Mixer for people ages 40 to 59 starts at 8:30 p.m. at the
Hotel Green’s Romanesque Ballroom. The “casino night,” with a Las Vegas–style, James Bond theme, features a DJ spinning tunes for dancing, raffles, a light supper and dessert buffet and regulation Las Vegas blackjack, roulette and craps tables staffed by professional dealers. Admission at the door costs $25, cash only (exact change gets a raffle ticket). Costumes not required, but men in tuxedos or Bond-theme outfits receive an extra raffle ticket.
The Hotel Green is located at 50 E. Green St., Pasadena. Call (213) 999-9899 or
visit supersinglemixers.com.
Cal Phil Offers Late Summer Virtuosity
The California Philharmonic, conducted by Victor Vener, pre-sents four concerts at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden and Walt Disney Concert Hall. “Festival on the Green” Arboretum concerts are held at 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and repeat at 2 p.m. the next Sunday at Disney Hall.
Aug. 7 and 8 — “Sinatra, Bennett and The Maestro” is touted as a “cocktails to classics” performance, with hits by Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett and works by Saint-Saëns, Rimsky-Korsakov and Elgar.
Aug. 21 and 22 — “Beethoven & Broadway” features hits from musicals including Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Les Miserables, The Music Man and The Little Mermaid, as well as works by Beethoven.
Tickets for Festival on the Green cost $20 to $98. Arboretum gates open at 5:30 p.m. for live jazz and picnicking. Disney Hall performances cost $40 to $98, with a 1 p.m. talk by the maestro preceding the concert.
The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden is located at 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. Walt Disney Concert Hall is located at 111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.
Call (626) 300-8200 or visit calphil.org.
Beautiful Music, Beautiful Venue
Southwest Chamber Music offers four concerts to close its summer festival at The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens.
Aug. 7 and 8 — A pair of 7:30 p.m. performances feature impressionistic works by Debussy, Ravel and Satie, and a new work by Anne Le Baron: Sonic Music for Flute and Harp.
Aug. 21 and 22 — The group presents music of Mozart, Schubert and Brahms, plus a performance of L’apothéose d’un réve by Alexandra du Bois, at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets for each performance cost $45 for loggia seating, $28 on the lawn.
The Huntington is located at 1151 Oxford Rd., San Marino. Call (800) 726-7147 or
visit swmusic.org.
Music and Film at the Norton Simon
Aug. 13 — “Twentieth-Century Alchemy for Two Guitars” at
7 p.m. features the Odeum Guitar Duo of Robert Wetzel and Fred Benedetti (pictured) in a performance of 20th-century guitar duets from France, the Americas and Spain.
Aug. 20 — The documentary film Ellsworth Kelly Fragments follows the artist’s return to Paris, where he spent his early 20s, revealing early influences that he would refine and rework for decades thereafter. The 7 p.m. screening includes commentary from critics and scholars.
Aug. 27 — Flutist Salpy Kerkonian and a violin and cello ensemble perform “Summer Serenade” –– music of Haydn, Telemann and Vivaldi –– at 7 p.m. in the Sculpture Garden.
All performances are free with museum admission.
The Norton Simon Museum is located at 411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena.
Call (626) 449-6840 or visit nortonsimon.org.
POPS and All That Jazz
Aug. 14 — The Pasadena POPS continues its summer season on the lawn next to the Rose Bowl with “All That Jazz” — symphonic selections from Porgy and Bess and Tony-nominated vocalist Valarie Pettiford singing vintage hits like Don’t Get Around Much Anymore and Come Rain or Come Shine. In addition, jazz pianist Alfredo Rodriguez performs Rhapsody in Blue. Rachael Worby conducts. Gates open for picnicking at 5:30 p.m. before the 7:30 p.m. concert. Tickets cost $25 to $90, $10 for kids under 14.
The Rose Bowl is located at 1001 Rose Bowl Dr., Pasadena. Call (626) 793-7172, ext. 16, for tickets or visit pasadenasymphony-pops.org.
Gay Men’s chorus presents world premiere and classics
Aug. 21 — The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles presents “Sure on This Shining Night” at 8 p.m. at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The evening features the world premiere of The End of It All for choir and electronica by John Tejada, featuring Tejada on electronica. The concert, conducted by Interim Artistic Director Dominic Gregorio, opens with contemporary choral classics by David Conte, Morten Lauridsen, Eric Whitacre and James Agee and continues with opera selections by Verdi, Bizet, Rossini and Donizetti and excerpts from its Harvey Milk Schools Project –– a blend of music and spoken word about the life of the slain civil rights leader. In addition, the GMCLA Alive Music Project Youth Chorus makes its debut accompanying the veteran group in a medley. Tickets cost $25 to $85; visit ticketmaster.com. VIP tickets, including a pre-concert reception in Disney Hall’s Founders’ Room, cost $150; call (800) MEN-SING or visit gmcla.org.
The Walt Disney Concert Hall is located at 111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.
Exploring Asia in Pasadena
Aug. 27 — The museum’s summer Fusion Fridays program winds up from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. with a look at the exhibition “China Modern: Designing Popular Culture 1910–1970” and live performances, DJ music, food, an open bar and a chance to visit with curators. Cocktail or Asian fusion attire are encouraged. Admission costs $15 ($10 for members).
Aug. 28 — On Curator’s Tour Day, guest curators offer behind-the-scenes looks at current exhibitions. At 2 p.m., Melody Rod-Ari walks guests through “Visualizing Faith: Buddhist Art in Thailand.” At 3 p.m., Kalim Winata leads a look at “China Modern.”
Pacific Asia Museum is located at 46 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena. Call (626) 449-2742 or visit pacificasiamuseum.org.
Knitting from the Heart
Aug. 28 — Fans of crocheting or knitting can join other yarn lovers in charitable Projects from the Heart from 1 to 5:30 p.m. at the Pasadena Public Library’s San Rafael Branch. Projects include making cat blankets for the Pasadena Humane Society, hats and scarves for City of Hope cancer patients and teddy bears for children in Africa.
The San Rafael Branch Library is located at 1240 Nithsdale Rd., Pasadena.
Call (626) 744-7270 or visit pasadenapubliclibrary.net.
Walking Through Pasadena History
Saturdays in August — Pasadena Heritage teams up with One Colorado to offer free guided walking tours of the historic Old Pasadena district from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Pasadena Heritage docents will discuss some of the 19th-century and Art Deco buildings that have earned the area placement on the National Register of Historic Places and helped it garner acclaim as a noted pioneer of successful urban revitalization. Participants meet at the One Colorado Courtyard; visit onecolorado.com to reserve a space.
One Colorado is bounded by Colorado Boulevard, Union Street and Fair Oaks and De Lacey avenues, Old Pasadena. Call (626) 564-1066.
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