Colburn School of Music & Les Sauvages Américains Bring Lush Repertoire to Playhouse in November

Sierra Madre Playhouse has introduced a new element to Sunday evenings with a music series to showcase emerging artists in Sunday evening concerts that includes a partnership developed with the Conservatory students of the Colburn School of Music.  The first  program, "The French Concert", was held last October to a very favorable reception.  One Colburn patron wrote:

Cheers to you, ... for all of the hard work you did to make tonight's concert at the Sierra Madre Playhouse so successful!  The performance was fantastic.  The venue is terrific. And the audience's standing ovation showed that they loved every minute of it!

I spoke to several members of the audience, including 11 from Pasadena Friends of Colburn, who were impressed and plan to attend the Nov. 3 concert. We will encourage other members of Pasadena Friends of Colburn and Metropolitan Associates to be there as well.

On November 3, the second in the series will bring a program of music in tribute to Argentine composer, Astor Piazzolla, who wrote lush orchestrations of tango music.  and considered "the single most important figure in the history of tango, a towering giant whose shadow looms large over everything that preceded and followed him. Piazzolla's place in Argentina's greatest cultural export is roughly equivalent to that of Duke Ellington in jazz -- the genius composer who took an earthy, sensual, even disreputable folk music and elevated it into a sophisticated form of high art."
(Pandora.com) Other composers featured include: Maurice Ravel, John Williams and Pablo de Sarasate performed by Colburn Conservatory students: Stephanie Ng (piano), Sang Yoon Kim (clarinet) and Kevin Lin (violin). 

General Admission is $20 and Student and Senior admission is $15.

The following Sunday, November 10, there will be a special evening with L.A. ensemble, Les Sauvages Américains.  Taking their name from the wealth of 18th c. literature fascinated with "the Noble Savage" of the New World, they have donned their name with the same branding intent as Benjamin Franklin did his coonskin cap while  Ambassador to France for the Colonies.  The ensemble's mission is to bring to the public 18th c. music that, in many cases, has not been transcribed to modern editions.  Therefore they are performing from copies of the 18th c. editions.  And interpreting it with an ear to imagining the original arrangements performed before the metronome was invented.  This can lead to an exciting collaboration among these musicians which becomes apparent in the rehearsal process.  At the Hanover Square Rooms concert they will undertake to capture the spirit and presence of the concerts presented at the Hanover Square Rooms by a variety of European composers during this extraordinary 25-year period in London’s musical legacy –a period during which a spectacular array of first-class musicians from around continental Europe gathered in the British capital to thrive in the well-supported performance atmosphere which had been created there.

In keeping with this authentic spirit, audience members will receive printed replicas of original tickets from the venue, in keeping with the convention that “The Ladies’ tickets are Black, and the Gentlemen’s Red.”

Other facts learned while attending a rehearsal was the knowledge that musicians will adapt their equipment as the program moves in a chronological arc.  For example, violist, J.P. Tobin will change his bow to approach the sound of the pieces as they were heard at the time. One bow used is a copy of a 1770s bow and then a later one which went into use later in the century.

Les Sauvages Américains - is comprised of a talented pool of professional musicians with active professional careers in the Southern California. Not only in field of 18th c. chamber music but as rock and studio musicians.  For the Hanover Square Rooms - Confluence of Styles program,  Oboist, Ryan Zwahlen  is one of Southern California’s most sought-after oboists. He has performed multiple times with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Diego Symphony under the batons of Zubin Mehta and Bramwell Tovey. He is currently chair of the music department at Idyllwild Art Academy.

Violinist, Mishkar Nunez-Mejia  is currently involved in pursuing a doctorate in Early Music from this latter prestigious institution. Having performed as soloist with the Cibao Philharmonic, the Corona Symphony, the Dorian Festival Orchestra, Les Sauvages Américains, Symbiosis Chamber Orchestra, among others, Nunez-Mejia has delighted audiences nationally and internationally. In the Spring of 2012 He has worked  with great artists of the classical world such as Michael Tilson Thomas, James Conlon, Carl St.Clair, Itzhak Perlman, Midori, Joshua Bell, Gil Shaham, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Anne Akiko Meyers, among others;  The versatility of style of Nunez-Mejia also allow him to venture into the fields of Rock, Pop, Ballad, among other styles, having collaborated with artists such as Stevie Wonder, Elton John, John Legend, Bruno Mars, Five for Fighting, Natalie Cole, and many others.

Mishkar has participated in several Hollywood films not only as a violinist but also as an actor. His short “Stringing in the Streets” was awarded Best Short at the Chicago International Film Festival, was chosen for the Cannes Film Festival, in France, and was featured on HBO.  He was honored with the Cultural Personality of the Year 2011 Award from the Ministry of Culture of the Dominican Republic. 

Leah Metzler is the daughter of a violin maker father and violinist mother, consequently surrounded by music at a very young age. Practically raised in the family violin shop in Los Angeles, she was lucky enough to discover her passion for the cello at the age of four. Leah holds her B.M. in cello performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where she studied with cellist Darrett Adkins and her M.M. in cello performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she studied with former member of the Kronos Quartet, Jennifer Culp.

Currently based in Los Angeles, Leah is an active teacher and performer of chamber, orchestral, contemporary, and early music. An experienced orchestral musician, Leah has been the principal cellist of multiple orchestras perform at Carnegie Hall and  the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Adding a little spice to her life as a classical musician, Leah is also a member of the Bella Electric String Quartet and enjoys an active performance schedule playing rock music on her Yamaha electric cello.

As a baroque cellist and treble viola da gambist, Leah plays renaissance and baroque music with various groups in Southern California.  Leah is a passionate cello teacher and maintains a private cello studio in Los Angeles.

Violist, John Paul Tobin serves as Artistic Director for Les Sauvages Américains. He is a member of the DaKah Hip Hop Orchestra, as well as other groups in California including: Redlands Symphony, San Bernardino Symphony, Riverside/Inland Empire Philharmonic, Corona Symphony, New Valley Symphony, and the Monterey Symphony, to name a few.

A former guitarist and bluegrass mandolinist, in 1998 JP attended Penn State University where he initially studied Physics. While at Penn State he took-up the viola under the instruction of Timothy Deighton, and has been performing on that instrument exclusively ever since.