This Week @ the Music Academy by Steven Libowitz
Thursday, June 23 – While longtime MAW faculty flutist Timothy Day finish-
es up his season at the San Francisco Symphony, Jim Walker fills in for the first three weeks of the festival, bringing his vast experience in a variety of classical settings (orchestra, chamber, and solo), plus genres from jazz to pop and work in television and film. Walker spent 1977-84 as principal flutist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic before departing to focus on jazz, studio recording, and teaching. His jazz quartet Free Flight playing jazz-classical fusion over 16 recordings (and four appearances on The Tonight Show and later became a first-call studio flutist heard on hundreds of soundtracks. Now professor of flute, chamber music, and music technology at the Colburn Conservatory of Music, and professor of practice/coordinator of flute studies at the USC Thornton School of Music, Walker brings the same expertise that has made his L.A. summer masterclass, Beyond the Masterclass, a popular offering (3:15 pm; Weinman Hall; free).
of Aucoin’s Second Nature (see interview page 35), but also boasts OperaFest. Formerly known as Opera Scenes, the two performances find the Academy vocal fellows perform arias and scenes from a variety of operas, mostly famous ones but also a few more obscure in the repertoire, each lightly staged by Bruce Donnell (Santa Fe Opera and the Met), but with full costumes. This year’s offerings include Puccini’s La Bohème, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. Longtime MAW faculty member John Churchwell, head of music staff of the San Francisco Opera, and newcomer Giuseppe Mentuccia, a faculty member from The Juilliard School, conduct the show that features vocal pianists as the only musical accompaniment (2:30 pm today, 7:30 pm Monday; Hahn; $40).
Sunday, June 26 – The academy presents a live classical music yoga class
in partnership with the Jenny Schatzle Program and KCRW, 88.7 FM. See details in my Spiritual Matters column on page 23 in this issue (2 pm; Carrillo Recreation Center, 100 E. Carrillo Blvd.; free).
Monday, June 27 – French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, who will perform
Friday, June 24 – Mosher guest artist Thomas Hampson, the baritone
Distinguished Alumni Award winner who performed a recital tribute to his mentors at MAW last night at Hahn Hall, returns to the same hall to lead the vocal masterclass in his final public appearance of the festival (3:15 pm; $20).... One indication of how things have changed at MAW over the last couple of years: the solo piano fellows used to perform brief pieces sans much input from the faculty in the first masterclass of the summer, then play a concert toward at night toward the end of the festival, which eventually became known as PianoFest. This year, Jeremy Denk taught the first two masterclasses so they weren’t going to waste his talents by not taking coaching. And PianoFest is tonight, when the seven soloists show off their technique and emotion in a dazzling display. No need to wait till the end of the summer; these artists now show up rarin’ to go and benefited from two weeks of coaching with Denk and others (7:30 pm; Hahn; $30).
Saturday, June 25 – Opera lovers week not only features the West Coast debut
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Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in the Academy’s first-ever pair of orchestral concerts at the Granada on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, kicks off his MAW Mosher Guest Artist residency by leading the solo piano masterclass, as 40-year-plus veteran Jerome Lowenthal doesn’t make his season debut till July 4 (1 pm; Hahn; $15).... Get psyched: sit in and listen while professional performance coach Bill Williams takes select fellows through “Event Preparation”, Part II of “The Path to Optimal Performance”. Williams, recognized internationally for his work as a musician, performance coach, and educator focused on improving musicians’ lives as performers and learners, has been a visiting faculty member at The Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan School of Music (1 pm; Weinman Hall; free).
THIS WEEK @ MAW Page 364
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34 MONTECITO JOURNAL
• The Voice of the Village •
23 – 30 June 2016