orchestra21

The Los Angeles area mapped in 1915 by the Automobile Club of Southern California. And here I am thinking the city looked different when I was growing up there twenty five years ago.

[via latimes, full map here]

Apologies for the sparse posting of late – I’ve been busy trailing this little man around LA for the past ten days. Among the highlights have been some big firsts, including Benjamin’s inaugural haircut [at the same place where I had mine done as a kid]. We think he did pretty well.

[Tumblr challenge: First reader to identify the barber shop gets an LA Phil iTunes concert of their choosing. Submit your answer here.]

Seen at Los Angeles Times:

Reader photos: Local mountains rising above a heavy cloud layer on the way to LAX, taken Dec. 23, 2010 with Instagram by L.A. native Jason Weinberger.

Looking forward to my next visit back home in a few weeks – will be checking out some interesting art and music [and hopefuly a second-round Lakers game too].

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma is involved in yet another genre-defying project, this time hooking up with Memphis Jook virtuoso Lil’ Buck to open up the creative minds of in-need Los Angeles kids. Wait for their collabo on Saint-Saëns’ Swan from Carnival of the Animals at 2:30 – it adds a whole new dimension to the idea of breaking down the classics.

[Discovered via culturite, who posted Spike Jonze’s bootleg of the duo performing Swan at a fundraiser.]

I’ve said it before and will say it again: despite all the hype surrounding LA Phil music director Gustavo Dudamel the orchestra’s tremendous success has much more to do with his predecessor Esa-Pekka Salonen. Here’s why:

‘Coming out of Europe, from very Boulezian circles—with all due respect, of course—and coming to LA with this somewhat arrogant Eurocentric idea that, ‘Okay, I’m from Europe, I’m going to show you guys what culture is and what we should be thinking.’ To my credit, I got quite quickly this is not the way to deal with this situation. Better to actually try to learn the identity of the local culture and how a symphony orchestra as an institution could have this unique identity of a Southern California arts organization as opposed to trying to plug in the Vienna Philharmonic clone somewhere in the San Fernando Valley. I luckily saw the light quite quickly.’

‘My first daughter was very little, so we started a new family life in a new country and on a new continent. She went to school there, and you get to know people in a completely different way as opposed to being a conductor who jets in and stays in a swanky hotel like this and flies out after the last show.’

When all music directors and orchestras come around to this point of view we’ll have many more success stories to tell.

[From an interview at Newcity Music, via NobleViola]