NEWSLETTER

VOLUME VII, NUMBER 1 OCTOBER 1999

FIFTY YEARS!

As we eagerly anticipate the performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for the inaugural concert of the Fiftieth Season of the Beach Cities Symphony, we naturally reflect on the past history of the organization. Rehearsals were first held at Redondo High School (in a different building than the one used today), and concerts were held in the High School Auditorium. The rehearsals and performances were held under the auspices of adult education classes, before the budget reductions on arts and extended educational services. Vernon Robinson was the first conductor of the group, traveling down from Pepperdine University to rehearse (at that time, Pepperdine was in southern part of the city of Los Angeles, before its move to Malibu).

A few years later, Louis Palange took on conducting the group as his first conducting job, and he would go on to found and conduct orchestras in Brentwood, Hollywood, and Southwest LA. Later, rehearsals and the concerts moved to the Mira Costa High School, still under the banner of the adult education classes, since the Mira Costa school was part of the same school district then.

 After about three years the rehearsals moved back to Redondo High School and have stayed there since, but when Marsee Auditorium opened on the El Camino College campus, the Beach Cities Symphony was the first orchestra to perform at that venue, and the concerts have been held there since.

Anything that lasts for fifty years has to be the result of perseverance, dedication, hard work, continuity and a little luck. As far as continuity and persistence, two members, Bob Peterson and Norma Gass, have been rehearsing and performing with the orchestra since that very first rehearsal. When times changed and the orchestra faced hard financial times, members of the orchestra kept stepping forward to provide leadership and continuity to the organization. Some members handled the chores of orchestra posts for many years, which is unusual for a community performing group--the orchestra has had only four performer contractors and three librarians in the fifty years of existence!

The Beach Cities Symphony has garnered special recognition from the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors and the California State Assembly for the orchestra’s continuing dedication to providing free orchestra concerts to the public. We look forward to continuing that tradition for another fifty years and beyond into the new millennium!

All concerts take place on Friday evenings at 8:15 p.m.. Pre-concert lecture starts at 7:30 p.m.

El Camino College Community Choir: Leslie Back, Director

El Camino Chorale: Dr. Joanna Nachef, Director

Shana Blake Hill, Soprano Nina Hinson, Alto

Charles Dickerson, Tenor Roger Quadhamer, Baritone

Shostakovitch: Cello Concerto

Armen Ksadjikian, Soloist

Sibelius: Symphony No. 2

Nica: Piano Concerto

World Premiere!

Maria Demina, Soloist

Musser: Scherzo Caprice

Kenneth Park, Marimba Soloist

Tschaikowsky: Capriccio Italien

Fried: Music from Stanley Kubrick Films

Sibelius: Finlandia

Major Contributions from “Minor” Composers...

(1809-1847)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

 12 String Symphonies

5 Orchestral Symphonies

 6 Songs Without Words

 Elijah (Oratorio)

 Violin Concerto

Hebrides Overture

Most aficionados of orchestral music believe that the greatest composers occurred in a line containing Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms. This leaves many casual listeners of orchestral music thinking that all composers not on this list are far below the “top five”. This season, we will discover why more “minor” composers should be “major”...

  Long before Leonard Bernstein, who was world-class in no fewer than three artistic areas, there was Mendelssohn. He was considered by many of his day to be the greatest composer living, and Beethoven was alive at the same time. He was also considered by many to be one of the best conductors of the period, and conducted the premieres of the first two Schumann symphonies and Schumann’s Piano Concerto. He championed the works of Berlioz, Weber, and Beethoven when he was in England, introducing there the Beethoven Violin Concerto with Joachim as soloist. He was a virtuoso pianist and organist, and for good measure also was a fine artist and chess player. He composed the wonderful Midsummer Night’s Dream when he was 17, hosted many plays, concerts and other gatherings at his home which were attended by the leading diplomats and dignitaries of the day, including the philosopher Hegel. He founded an orchestra and a music Conservatory in Leipzig, which would be the leading musical school in Europe for the next fifty years, and was appointed by King Frederick to be director of the Music Section of the Academy of Arts in Berlin.

  Amazingly enough, J. S. Bach was completely forgotten in Mendelssohn’s time, and conductors considered the performance of Bach’s large scale works to be impossible. At age 20, Mendelssohn conducted the St. Matthew’s Passion for the first time since Bach’s death, leading to a revival of Bach’s music. Mendelssohn also had a prodigious memory, and performed many piano concertos without music, and he is the reason why pianists perform from memory today. He was the first conductor to insist that the conductor had the final say on musical direction, not the concertmaster as was the practice then.

Unfortunately for us, Mendelssohn worked himself to death at the age of 38. Afterward, his legacy suffered because of his Jewish heritage and the increasing anti-Semitic movement--Wagner openly rejected Mendelssohn as a part of German culture, and Hitler in 1936 destroyed his memorial in Leipzig and suppressed his music every way possible.

  Sample some of the pieces on the list above, and enjoy a truly magnificent “minor” genius!

Mrs. Lois Alton
Kathy Dunbabin
Mrs. J. G. Holwerda
Alison Edwards and Bob Schuchard
Paul Senior
Dan Stapleton
Bob and Chris Brooks
Mary Jo Hunker
Leroy R Keranen

Director, El Camino College Community Choir

 Named Distinguished Faculty Member for 1999, Leslie Back joined the El Camino College faculty in 1978 when she organized special programs in music for older adults. These programs formed the nucleus of the College Emeritus. Since 1986, she has coordinated the Joy of Music, a music appreciation program now in its 13th year of community outreach whereby classes are offered at sites throughout the South Bay and are paired with related events offered by the college’s Center for the Arts.

 She has been honored as the Torrance Area Chamber of Commerce Volunteer of the Year in the community services division and has received the Torrance Unified School District’s Special Service Award. For Several years, she volunteered weekly as a music teacher at Riviera elementary School in Torrance when the district eliminated music classes.

 During her tenure, the El Camino College Community Choir has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and has performed abroad in Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and England. The Choir is a non-audition college-community choir with 80 members, and new members are always welcome.

Director, El Camino Chorale

Joanna Medwar Nachef earned her B.S. in Piano Performance from CSU Dominguez Hills and Master of Music and DMA degrees in Choral Music from USC. She studied with Frances Steiner, Rodney Eichenberger, James Vail, David Wilson, and Hans Beer. In January 1986 , she was selected as one of the Outstanding Young Women of America. Dr. Nachef currently serves as Director of Choral Activities at El Camino College, on the faculty of CSU Dominguez Hills, and the California Academy of Mathematics and Science, and is Music Director of Los Cancioñeros Master Chorale.

 She is recognized for her directing both locally and in guest appearances in motion pictures and with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra of Orange County and the Carson-Dominguez Hills Symphony Orchestra. This past summer she toured Eastern Europe with Los Cancioñeros and conducted the Chorale at St. Stephens’ Cathedral in Vienna, St. Matthias’ in Budapest, and St. Nikolai in Berlin. Joanna is also the television host for El Camino Magazine on Torrance Cable.

Text: John Wisniewski

Editor/Advisor: Margaret McWilliams