Arts and Music (Video)

In 1960 a young American art student named Patricia Patterson first traveled to Inishmore, largest of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland. The windswept landscape and its ancient culture made a deep and lasting impression, as did the relationships she developed during many visits and prolonged stays in the years since. Patterson has continued to draw on her vivid memories of Aran as inspiration for paintings and sketches. Series: "Portrait of the Artist" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 34756]

A close friend of Ralph Vaughan Williams, George Butterworth was a largely self-trained composer who was immersed in English folk music. His works grew directly out of his contact with the English countryside, as exemplified by "The Banks of Green Willow" with its evocation of pastoral life in all its idealized simplicity and tranquility; indeed, the composer characterized it as an "idyll." As was common in his music Butterworth bases this piece on several old English folk melodies, creating a series of brief fantasias on each of the themes before drawing to a peaceful conclusion. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 35011]

The cosmopolitan character of the Ottoman empire, the challenges of reimagining classical music and literary texts, and the difficulties of making an opera on a small budget all arise in this conversation between composer Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol and UC Santa Barbara professor Abdulhamit Arvas about Sanlıkol’s Turkish coffee house opera Othello in the Seraglio. In this video, Sanlıkol richly describes the complicated creative journey his opera made from its initial conception to completion. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 35774]

The challenge of blending three sound sources, the kinescope recording system, and the multimedia afterlives of 1950s television programs all arise in this conversation between film professor Ross Melnick, UCLA archivist Mark Quigley, and sound engineer Nicholas Bergh about the ABC television program Stars of Jazz. In this video, Quigley discusses the process of selecting which episodes to restore, and Bergh describes the principles of sound fidelity that guide his restoration work. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 35806]

Virtuoso violinist Keir GoGwilt is the featured soloist in Robert Schumann's vibrant "Violin Concerto in D Minor." Once rescued from an early undeserved obscurity, this piece quickly became one of the most popular in the violin repertoire. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 35503]

Steven Schick conducts the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus in their first concert of the 2019/2020 season combines the popular and the unfamiliar. First up is Giachino Rossini's "Overture to William Tell," a perennial concert favorite with deep roots in pop culture. Next is Florence Price's "Violin Concerto No. 2," a lyrical piece forgotten for seventy years until its chance rediscovery in 2009. The concert concludes with Béla Bartók's dazzling "Concerto for Orchestra," one of that composer's most popular and accessible works. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 34846]

San Diego is poised to re-imagine some of its most iconic public spaces, such as Horton Plaza Park, Balboa Park and many other locations. Three innovative curators who have created change-making arts programming for public spaces in cities across the US talk about their vision to boost audience engagement and the practical implications of contemporary arts production in high-volume public spaces. Moderated by Jonathon Glus, Director of the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, the panelists are: Marc Pally, Independent Curator, Los Angeles; Susanne Theis, Program Director, Discovery Green Urban Park; and Karen Farber, Executive Director, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts. Series: "Helen Edison Lecture Series" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 35152]

Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, created paintings and sketches for his own enjoyment. Some of these pieces were on loan from the Geisel estate and exhibited at the UC San Diego Library for the 16th annual Dinner in the Library gala. Join a panel of distinguished speakers as they explore broad themes woven throughout Geisel’s works and its literary and artistic impact. Panelists Mary Beebe, Stuart Collection, Seth Lerer, Professor of Literature, and Rob Sidner, Mingei International Museum, each bring a unique perspective. Series: "Library Channel" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 35062]

Originally written as the second (slow) movement of a string quartet, Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" went on to become one of the most popular symphonic works of the 20th century in its final orchestral arrangement. The solemn character of the Adagio has led to its frequent use as mourningmusic, much to Barber’s distress since it was not his intention to write a requiem. It was broadcast following the announcement of President Roosevelt’s death in 1945, and performed by the New York Philharmonic to mark Barber’s own death in 1981. Indeed, the Adagio seems fated to beused whenever someone needs music that sounds both “ceremonial” and “American.” Whatever its unintentional cultural accretions, Barber's melody is still both beautiful and powerful after countless hearings. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 35009]

Commissioned in 1936 to compose a large-scale piece for a choral society's centenary celebration, Ralph Vaughan Williams instead wrote for them a cantata for soprano, baritone, chorus, and orchestra titled "Dona Nobis Pacem" – and it was anything but a celebration piece. Dona Nobis Pacem (“Give Us Peace”) was the composer’s protest against war and a cry for peace at a time of growing international tension. Three years later, Vaughan Williams' worst fears would be realized. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 35010]

Charles Ives' "From Hanover Square North..." commemorates the sinking of the British liner Lusitania by a German submarine in 1915. That moment when Ives and his fellow commuters heard the news on a Manhattan subway platform - a sudden fusion of grief, anguish, and community spirit – became the inspiration for Ives' composition, but in typically idiosyncratic fashion Ives didn't render the scene realistically; rather, it was the starting point for a musical meditation in which Ives registered the emotional impact of what he had witnessed. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 35008]

Conductor Steven Schick leads the La Jolla Symphony in a performance of Jean Sibelius’ mighty "Symphony No. 5," which drives to its triumphant conclusion on six shattering chords for full orchestra. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 34889]

La Jolla Symphony & Chorus closes its 64th season with a reflection on the composer/soldiers of World War I, from Maurice Ravel to Ralph Vaughan Williams to George Butterworth, whose life was tragically cut short in the war. Music from the same time by Charles Ives, and a favorite of Benjamin Britten, Barber's Adagio for Strings, rounds out a program that is both steeped in memory and full of messages for our own time. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 34007]

Young Artist Winner Anne Liu performs Camille Saint-Saens’ witty "Second Piano Concerto," which has been described as “beginning with Bach and ending with Offenbach.” Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 34888]

The Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies at UCSB hosts a live musical performance by The Three Cantors: Cantor Mark Childs (Congregation B’nai B’rith, Santa Barbara) Cantor Marcus Feldman and Organist Aryell Cohen (Sinai Temple, Los Angeles) and Cantor Shmuel Barzilai (Chief Cantor of the Vienna Jewish Community). Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 34681]

After meeting Laurie San Martin, one of this country’s most important ebullient composers, we experience the lightness of a classical great — the seldom-heard 8th Symphony of Beethoven — and conclude with Leonard Bernstein’s extraordinary and poignant Symphony No. 3 (Kaddish), with chorus, soprano soloist and narrator. The Bernstein piece, named for the Jewish prayer for the dead, was dedicated to the late President John F. Kennedy and premiered in the days after of his assassination in 1963. It is a reflection simultaneously on the loss of a president and the loss of a generation of European Jews. It is powerful music, but also hopeful. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 34005]

La Jolla Symphony & Chorus present the World Premiere of "Community Acoustics" by LJ White. In this piece White expands the boundaries of traditional classical music performance to create an active and immersive sonic environment. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 34638]

Anton Bruckner's much-revised Symphony No. 3 in D Minor is full of the composer's glorious writing for brass instruments, coupled with large-scale thematic shifts. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 34639]

Renowned cellist Katinka Kleijn is featured in Philip Glass' Cello Concerto No 2, derived from his score for Godfrey Reggio's film "Naqoyqatsi." The Symphony is under the baton of Steven Schick. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 34637]

Taylor Davis was a theater kid who feared forgetting words and messing up lines on stage. When she came to UC Davis, she tried out improv comedy on a whim with Birdstrike Theater. It ended becoming something very special for her. She loved the idea that there were no lines to mess up and that the entire goal of it was to be goofy and make people laugh. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 34587]