2008-2009 Program

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Welcome to the 2008 – 2009 season of Music at St. Matthew's. As we approach our 25th anniversary season, beginning in October, 2009, we can look back with pride on the program we have built over the past twenty-three years. The Board of the Music Guild has developed some ambitious Second Quarter-Century goals which we believe will help us continue to grow and continue to offer the best in live classical music programs for our audience. St. Matthew's Music Guild is among the most respected music series in Los Angeles; we have a significant subscriber base, we attract wonderful support from the community and offer first-rate programs by our own St. Matthew's Chamber Orchestra and some of the finest guest ensembles from around the world.

Forget the hassle of getting crosstown on a Friday night for a concert. Come to Pacific Palisades. Have a light supper in Brentwood, Malibu, Santa Monica, Topanga or the Palisades village and pop over to the St. Matthew's for an eight o'clock concert. (To find a nearby restaurant, click here.) You'll find loads of free parking, free intermission treats, great company and fantastic music all in a casual atmosphere and at a low price. What more could you want?

This season we will offer three world premieres, continuing the tradition the Music Guild established more than two decades ago of cultivating and supporting fine local composers. Our October Season Opener offers an exciting opportunity to hear two new pieces: a Music Guild commissioned concerto by Ross Wright for bass trombone, tuba and 40-piece orchestra (what a sonic extravaganza that will be in the resonant St. Matthew's Church!) and a new concerto for oboe d'amore and orchestra by David Angel for our longtime Principal Oboe, Phillip Feather.

In June we will present the world premiere of a new work by Tarik O’Regan, one of the most highly sought-after composers of vocal music in Britain and the United States. It will feature a small instrumental ensemble and eight vocal soloists and will be paired with Steve Reich's ethereal “Proverb” for vocal soloists, synthesizers and percussion.

Other highlights include the return of Ensemble Caprice – following their sold-out program here at St. Matthew's during the 2007 – 2008 season. Along with the world’s greatest recorder virtuoso, Matthias Maute, Ensemble Caprice will add David Jacques, baroque guitar, and percussionist Ziya Tabassian in a program that sets gypsy music against baroque masterpieces by Vivaldi, Teleman and others.

Chatham Baroque will be back, thanks to the generous support of the Edwin W. Pauley Foundation, for a program entitled “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The core ensemble will be joined by America's premiere baroque trumpeter, Barry Bauguess, and organist Webb Wiggins. The program will feature baroque music from Poland, Silesia and Moravia.

St. Matthew's Chamber Orchestra will offer music ranging from Handel's glorious “Messiah” (Part I) to works of Wagner and Mendelssohn; Sibelius and Hindemith; Ravel and Walton. In March we offer a wonderful program featuring Edwin Stein's inspired arrangement for chamber ensemble of Mahler's Fourth Symphony (with Rachelle Fox, soprano) and “Saloon Music for B-flat Cornet and Pit Orchestra” by Los Angeles composer Bruce Broughton, featuring Los Angeles trumpet virtuoso David Washburn.

Other soloists and guest artists include Kimberlea Daggy (of KUSC-FM) in Walton’s hilarious “Façade;” our Concertmaster, Yi-Huan Zhao in Mendelssohn’s popular Violin Concerto; Principal Percussionist Aaron Smith in a fantastic concerto for marimba by Brazilian composer Ney Rosauro, and mezzo-soprano Rose Beattie in Wagner's “Wesendonck Lieder.”

Subscribe to the 2008 - 2009 season and hear all this great music in the warm and inviting surroundings of St. Matthew's Church – only 10 minutes from the intersection of the 405 and 10 freeways and only 15 minutes from the 405 and Sunset Boulevard.

We hope to see you often.

Tom Neenan, Music Director

Bill Bitting, Music Guild President

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