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Thursday, January 5, 2017 - January 11, 2017
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COMPLIMENTARY COPY VOLUME 21, NO. 1
Meet Monrovia’s Classical Music Man on a Mission BY MALAK HABBAK
On a cold, blustery December night, traveling on VIA Rail Canada, a sleep-deprived doctor mourning his wife’s tragic death played Bach Partitas on his violin to sing him to sleep, but to little avail. Before the journey, the doctor’s wife was hit by a serious mental illness in 1995, after his first two years of USC medical school. Within two weeks, he left his hometown to spend a year at Oregon Health Sciences University to be near her. There, he performed as a part-time violinist with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. The doctor and his wife completed residency training and went on into practice together as family medicine physicians. The doctor then went to Stanford for a fellowship in palliative care. They practiced for three years at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach until she tragically passed away on
Physician Adam Kendall not only helps heal visible wounds but through his music, he can help heal hearts by playing Bach’s Partita No. 3.
Old Town Report BY PAM FITZPATRICK Sometimes the big news is what didn’t happen, more than what did… So, let’s start with a few things that didn’t happen in Old Town…
It didn’t rain after 8 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. I’m sure you all heard my sighs of SEE PAGE 10
- Photo by Terry Miller
Nov. 24, 2011. Consumed by grief, he closed their practice and went on a trip across Canada the following year. An acoustic performer hired by train saw the doctor’s distress and suggested he share his grief in a performance to the train’s passengers. The next morning, the doctor picked up his violin and played Bach’s Partita No. 3 as travelers sipped wine in the skyline cars. The experience was cathartic; the wordless song rippled through chromatics and fast rhythms but flowed, seemingly endlessly. Until that morning on the VIA Rail, he had never had a public, non-recital performance, and was taken over by a state of trance, along with the passengers, who swayed and grew teary eyed. Beyond the train passing Edmonton, trees glistened in the falling snow in below 20-degree weather. With a renewed sense of optimism, energy and SEE PAGE 11
Historic Santa Fe Depot Renovation Work The City of Monrovia has been working for the past several months on finalizing all of the design and building plans for the rehabilitation of the Historic Santa Fe Depot, which
is planned to be utilized as a café and restaurant once it is fully restored. City officials have been able to make significant progress of late, and on Jan. 4, staff met with selected development part-
ners at Daylight Limited, LLC, and their contractor, Jorgensen Reeve Builders, to review the overall rehabilitation and renovation SEE PAGE 10