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LAEMMLE LIVE presents Lincoln Middle School Ensembles March 18

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LAEMMLE LIVE proudly presents Lincoln Middle School Madrigal Singers, Vanessa Counte, Director and Theatre Program, Chad Scheppner, Artistic Director. Theatre 31 provides fun, non-competitive, all-inclusive theatre arts classes and camps that give students an opportunity to strengthen their abilities to perform and collaborate, enhance their skills of interpersonal awareness, and build self-confidence. This program features a selection of songs from Lincoln Middle School’s recent production of Once on This Island. Set on an island in the Caribbean, Once on This Island is a colorful musical adventure where The Little Mermaid meets Romeo and Juliet.  It is the journey of a young woman who, with her love, unites two different social classes, making the world a brighter and more inclusive place. Photo: Milan Sigal Ashley http://milan.photography

The Madrigals program will include a variety of classical and popular music, folk songs. The Madrigal Singers are an audition-based a cappella ensemble at Santa Monica’s Lincoln Middle School. The young singers meet once a week to rehearse and focus on Renaissance through contemporary a cappella choral literature. Recipients of top ratings in Southern California Festivals, they have been guest performers at local elementary schools, cub scout holiday meetings, and the Aga Khan Foundation Walk.

 

Event Details
Sunday, March 18, 2018
11:00 am
Monica Film Center

This is a Free Event
RSVP on Eventbrite

 

LAEMMLE LIVE presents Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra February 4

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This is a Free Event
RSVP on Eventbrite

LAEMMLE LIVE proudly presents Kaleidoscope, Los Angeles’ award-winning conductorless chamber orchestra. Benjamin Hoffman, Chiai Tajima, Alex Granger, and Clement Chow will perform the Bartok String Quartet 5 and Mozart Dissonance Quartet. Dedicated to enriching lives through concert experiences and artistic excellence, the orchestra makes profound connections with diverse communities of Los Angeles, performing music that speaks profoundly, whether written today or centuries ago.

About Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra

We stretch the boundaries for what is thought possible without a conductor, both by musicians and audiences, to allow us all to grow through the process. We regularly collaborate with living composers because their music represents our time. We design programs that explore less conventional concert experiences and allow audiences to feel more personally connected to music and the musicians who perform it. Kaleidoscope is committed to music education for all ages and is happy to offer a ‘pay what you can’ model to eliminate the barrier of a set ticket price. We want everyone in Los Angeles to have the opportunity to experience great classical music in person by a professional orchestra, think about what that experience means, and pay what makes them happy. We also perform many additional free concerts in schools, hospitals, shelters, and other underserved parts of our community. We recently started a music education program at a Title I elementary school in Culver City, providing music instruction to 100 first grade students each week. With additional funding, we are planning to expand this program to other grades and other schools in the future. Not only do we want every child in Los Angeles to love listening to music, we want every child to have the opportunity to read, play, and write music, too.

Event Details
Sunday, February 4, 2018
11:00 am
Monica Film Center

This is a Free Event
RSVP on Eventbrite

LAEMMLE LIVE celebrates Season Two with Samohi Chamber Orchestra and KUSC’s Rich Capparela January 21

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This is a Free Event
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Come celebrate with LAEMMLE LIVE! It’s our first anniversary and we are launching season two with an encore performance by Santa Monica High School’s Chamber orchestra performing Bartök Divertimento and solo works. Joni Swenson and Jason Aiello, Music Directors. Guest host KUSC Announcer Rich Capparela, who opened our series last year, shares his musical wit and wisdom. 

Samohi has a long tradition of musical excellence. Several factors contribute to the strength of the music program including strong elementary and middle school programs, a supportive community, and an outstanding music faculty. Courses offered are Beginning Orchestra, String Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, Sinfonia Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra. Students receive one hour per week of sectional small group instruction taught by paid coaches funded by the Samohi Orchestra Parents Association. Join us January 21. Come for the music, stay for the cake!

 

EVENT DETAILS

Sunday, January 21, 2018
11:00 AM
Monica Film Center

This is a Free Event
We are Sold Out!
Will accept walk-ins space permitting!

RSVP on Eventbrite

LA Opera Presents a Provocative Adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s PERSONA at REDCAT November 9 – 12

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On November 9, Persona makes its West Coast premiere at the The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts (REDCAT) Theater, through LA Opera’s Off-Grand series.

Based on Ingmar Bergman’s 1966 film of the same name, Persona explores humanity at its most fragile. The piece made its world premiere in Brooklyn, NY, commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects and National Sawdust in 2015, opening to great acclaim. Singer-songwriter Björk called Persona “a brilliant new opera.”

The opera’s creators, composer Keeril Makan and director-librettist Jay Scheib, spent ample time creating a piece that would highlight the raw, fervid nature of the film, both musically and dramatically.

Amanda Crider as Alma and Lacey Dorn as Elisabet in a scene from “Persona” (photo: Noah Stern Weber / Beth Morrison Projects)

Scheib studied the film “zealously,” adding: “What I learned about storytelling, physical gesture and conflict remain central to my thinking about film, theater and opera. More than any other work, Persona spoke to me in a very direct visceral language. With this opera, I am adapting both cinematic innovations and dramatic intensity to the operatic form.”

While composing the opera’s music, Makan paid equal attention to the film’s elevated emotional content. This precise awareness to the psyche was a new technique employed by Makan at the time.

“What is new in Persona is a lyricism that is wide-ranging in its emotional content. Sometimes direct, sometimes ambiguous, the emotional subtleties of the opera mirror the sonic subtleties found in my music,” says Makan. “The scope and ambition of the work exceeds anything I have attempted in the past.”

In addition, Scheib and Makan played off of each other’s creative energies to produce a cohesive story.

“I am interested in creating the perfect synthesis of Keeril Makan’s gorgeous composition—his sounds and his silences—with a mise-en-scène that finds its analogue in Bergman’s own remarkable use of film as a physical medium,” Scheib states.

Joshua Jeremiah as “The Man” and Amanda Crider as Alma in a scene from “Persona” (photo: Noah Stern Weber / Beth Morrison Projects)

Makan continues: “The process of composition benefitted from my close collaboration with [Scheib], who also directs the work. As a producer, Beth Morrison excelled at guiding the project to completion, both on the small-scale, because of her vocal expertise, and the large scale, thanks to her producing work.”

As the years draw on, opera and film seem to marry in a myriad of other ways. With recent advances in HD live-streaming, which brings opera from the stage to screen, opera has been more accessible than ever. Additionally, with works such as Persona subsequently labelled as “live cinema,” the cameras play an integral part of the story that is just as important as the music. The combination of these two artistic mediums solidifies the relationship between cinematography and live theater.

Persona runs from November 9th through November 12th at REDCAT. Each performance will be followed by a post-performance talkback with the creative team behind the Opera.

Click here to purchase tickets.

All Friday November 10th ticketholders 21 years and over are free to join us for an after party featuring lite bites, drinks and a live DJ hosted by LA Weekly.

LAEMMLE LIVE presents: SOL-LA Music Academy and Saint Anne School Nov 5 at the Royal

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This is a Free Event
RSVP on Eventbrite

LAEMMLE LIVE IS ON THE MOVE for November only.  We proudly present SOL-LA Music Academy and Saint Anne School in a collaborative musical concert on Sunday, November 5, 2017, at Laemmle’s Royal Theatre in West Los Angeles. SOL-LA Music Academy is a nonprofit music school in Santa Monica that provides high quality performing arts education to students from all backgrounds and economic circumstances in an engaging and encouraging environment fostering achievement and community. Their comprehensive program reflects the belief that vibrant cultural education nurtures all areas of learning, connects diverse societies and enhances the enjoyment of life.

Saint Anne School is Santa Monica’s only nonpublic Title I school, with at least 40% of families qualifying as low income according to federal standards. The school serves a diverse population of families from 66 zip codes. Without SOL-LA, most of these students would not have access to the myriad benefits that a comprehensive music education can offer. The SOL-LA at Saint Anne School program, now in its seventh year, was born out of a desire to see music included as a core curriculum subject.

As a parochial school, Saint Anne has the flexibility to include music as a priority rather than as an elective. Saint Anne partners with SOL-LA to bring high-quality music instruction to its students on-site, with an option for the students to further participate in after school instruction at SOL-LA’s campus. SOL-LA at Saint Anne School is a sequential music education program, providing free music instruction and instruments to 270 K–8th Grade students during regular school hours at Saint Anne.

SOL-LA’s program at Saint Anne is thoroughly integrated into the curriculum; all students in all classrooms participate in the program. Additionally, SOL-LA provides instruments to students during the school year at no cost.

EVENT DETAILS
Sunday, November 5, 2017
11:00 AM
Laemmle’s Royal Theatre
11523 Santa Monica Blvd.

This is a Free Event
RSVP on Eventbrite

Glendale International Film Festival Opening Night Gala Screening October 13: THE GODFATHER

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An offer you can’t refuse …

The Glendale International Film Festival kicks off its 4th Annual Film Festival with an opening night gala and red carpet screening of the fully remastered THE GODFATHER, celebrating the film’s 45th Anniversary and the 92nd Birthday Season for the Alex Theatre.

The opening night gala includes:

  • Pre-Screening reception – mix and mingle with the many screenwriters, filmmakers and VIPs participating in this year’s film festival.

  • Screening of the remastered THE GODFATHER on the big screen.

  • Post-screening Q&A about the remastering of the film followed by a short cocktail reception in the Alex Theatre Forecourt.

For a limited time, tickets for the entire evening are only $15.00 with the promo code: GODFATHER

Tickets may be ordered through the Alex Theatre’s website.

Promotion only valid through September 15th.

Back to School: Live Staged Reading with Original Cast Members on September 6, 2017 at LACC’s Camino Theatre

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We are pleased to direct your attention to Los Angeles City College, which will host a one night star-studded live reading of the comedy classic Back to School September 6 as part of the launch of their new Rodney Dangerfield Institute! There will also be a Q&A with the actors from the original film followed by a VIP meet-and-greet. More information is here.

It’s a good cause and one we are especially happy to support because Laemmle Theatres éminence grise Bob Laemmle attended LACC for a year, an experience that was formative in getting him re-focussed after his first attempt at college was not fruitful.  So we want to promote the important role played by community colleges in general, and LACC in particular.  Also because we love Back to School. “Why don’t you call me sometime when you have no class.”

ART IN THE ARTHOUSE presents: SHULA SINGER ARBEL at the Monica Film Center September 6

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Art in the Arthouse proudly presents LOVE, HOPE, MEMORY, featuring the works of SHULA SINGER ARBEL at the Monica Film Center. Please join us for our slide show on the big screen, artist talk, and of course, the wine, cheese and conversation Art in the Arthouse is known for. Drawing inspiration from her incredible family history,  ARBEL created paintings based on photographs found in an old photo album. Curated by Tish Laemmle, the exhibit runs through early January 2018 at the Monica Film Center in Santa Monica.  shulasingerarbel.com

Artist Reception:
Monica Film Center
Wednesday, September 6, 7-9pm
Refreshments will be provided
RSVP HERE

About the Exhibit:

LOVE, HOPE, MEMORY is the story of Shula Singer Arbel’s parents, Edith and Michael Singer. They met in 1946 in a Displaced Persons Camp in Heidenheim Germany, right after World War II. ARBEL’S mother was a survivor of Auschwitz, her father had been in the Russian and Polish Army. In spite of the tremendous loss and unimaginable suffering, this was a time of great hope and optimism for the future. It was a time of building new lives and looking forward. Based on black and white photographs found in an old photo album, the portraits are a fusion of representational, abstract, and dream-like images; a flattening of form mixed with painterly surfaces. The figures in the paintings are intentionally faceless to create a more universal narrative.

ARBEL was born in Israel and moved to Los Angeles at the age of three. She received an MFA degree from UCLA in Film Production, worked in the film industry and was the first recipient of the Barbra Streisand screenwriting award.

Now a full-time artist, she exhibits her work extensively in galleries throughout Los Angeles and in public venues including, Pershing Square Park, the Wilshire Vermont Metro Station, and a billboard in Culver City.

What drew me to ARBEL’s artwork were not only her magnificent bright colors and patterns, but also her ability to evoke the past. Mesmerized by the figures in her “memory” series, I imagine myself as one of those women, knowing my childhood is gone forever, but my future can be as brilliant as my imagination will allow.

– Tish Laemmle, CURATOR