Music Among Friends

LOS ANGELES, Calif. By his own admission, composer Mark Carlson is often the first to leave a party – or to skip it altogether – so he can get back to work on his latest commission. On March 21, 22 and 24, music lovers throughout Southern California will have a chance to hear Carlson´s most recent composition when the award winning chamber ensemble, Pacific Serenades, presents the World Premiere of his new work for clarinet, violin, cello and piano during its latest concert series, "Music Among Friends."

Also on the program – which will take place on Saturday, March 21 at 8 p.m. at a private home in Tarzana; Sunday, March 22 at 4 p.m. at The Neighborhood Church in Pasadena; and Tuesday, March 24 at 8 p.m. at the UCLA Faculty Center – are Brahms´ Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114 and Ravel´s Sonata for Violin and Piano. Clarinetist Gary Gray, violinist Roger Wilkie, cellist David Speltz and pianist Joanne Pearce Martin will perform.

That Carlson´s piece will make its debut in the company of works by icons like Brahms and Ravel is no accident. "This allows the audience to realize what should be obvious," explains Carlson, a professional flutist who founded Pacific Serenades in 1982. "Every composer in the past was a composer of new music, yet because of their god-like stature in our present mentality, we forget that they were cranking out new music all of the time."

Carlson chose the title "Music among friends" because all four of the musicians performing have been involved with Pacific Serenades long enough for him to view them as friends. Gray has performed with the ensemble since 1987; Wilkie, since 1988; Speltz, since 1989; while Martin came on board in 1993. "I write for them with an intimacy that I wouldn´t have writing for players I don´t know well," Carlson explains. "I have written various pieces for each of them – and often enough that I feel really comfortable writing for them."

The recipient of more than 40 commissions, Carlson has composed works for organizations nationwide, ranging from the National Shrine in Washington, DC and the Boston Gay Men´s Chorus to the New West Symphony, Westwood Presbyterian Church, First Methodist Church of Santa Monica, the UCLA Wind Ensemble, and the Santa Monica College Orchestra in Southern California. He has also received commissions from such artists as Canadian trumpeter Jens Lindemann and pianist Jennifer Snow.

Recent commissions include Sueños y canciones for the Mexico City chamber ensemble, Signos, and From the Song of Songs, a work for soprano and piano recorded by soprano Diana Guhin Wooley and pianist Richard Steinbach of the American Celebration Duo. Publishers of Carlson´s music include Yelton Rhodes Music, Pacific Serenades Music, and C Swigart Music in Los Angeles; Thorpe Music in Boston; and Black Squirrel Music, in Kent, Ohio.

In 2001, "The Hall of Mirrors" – one of eleven recordings of Carlson´s works – won a Chamber Music America/WQXR Record Award. At least two additional CDs are scheduled for release as well in 2009.

In addition to founding Pacific Serenades, Carlson was a member of The Pasadena Symphony, the YMF Debut Orchestra, and the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. Currently, he is on the faculty at UCLA, where he teaches music theory and composition. He also taught at Santa Monica College from 1993 to 2008. Since 1982 he has served on the Board of Directors of Design for Sharing, UCLA's Performing Arts community outreach program.

Over the course of his career, Gary Gray, a founding member of Pacific Serenades and Principal Clarinetist for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, has collaborated with such legendary composers as Aaron Copland, Malcolm Arnold, Benjamin Britten, Pierre Boulez and Igor Stravinsky as well as with John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Henry Mancini, Thomas Newman, Bruce Broughton, and Don Davis from the film industry. Gray has also performed with the St. Louis Symphony, the Aspen Festival Orchestra, and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and appeared as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, and LACO, among others.

"Gray handled the clarinet solos with stunning ease and as mellow and gorgeous a sound as may be possible on his instrument," wrote the Los Angeles Times after a recent performance.

In addition, Gray´s album of solo concerti, recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Soloist with Orchestra – the second time in Grammy history that a clarinet album received such a nomination. For his most recent recording for Centaur Records with the Hollywood Quartet, Gray collaborated with pianist Robert Thies, and Richard Todd on French Horn.

"Gary Gray… sounds to me about as close to Reginald Kell (another iconoclast) as I have ever heard," wrote Steve Ritter of the American Record Guide. "Something this bunch is doing....and I am almost at a loss to tell you exactly what it is....gets right to the heart of this music."

Violinist Roger Wilkie's violin playing has been described as "having surpassing virtuosity, a thrilling legato tone, and a sense of full emotional engagement" by the LA Times. Currently the concertmaster of the Long Beach Symphony, Wilkie has also served in that capacity with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Music Center Opera Orchestra, and the Real Filharmonia de Galicia in Spain and was the Principal Violinist of the Camerata Pacifica of Santa Barbara.

Wilkie has also appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras including the Long Beach Symphony, the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, LACO, and the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra. An extremely active chamber musician, Wilkie has participated in the Santa Fe, La Jolla, and Mainly Mozart festivals and has given solo recitals for the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, LACMA/KUSC-FM, NPR´s Performance Today, and Swiss National Radio.

As a member of the Musical Offering ensemble, cellist David Speltz has performed at the Library of Congress and Lincoln Center in Washington D.C., the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, and recorded on the Nonesuch label. Here in Los Angeles, Speltz appears regularly not only with Pacific Serenades but in chamber music series throughout Southern California, including Chamber Music in Historic Sites, the Bing Chamber Music Series at Caltech, and series sponsored by the South Bay Chamber Music Society and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra during Sir Neville Marriner's tenure, Speltz served as principal cellist of the California Chamber Symphony for eight seasons and, in 1989, was invited by Helmuth Rilling to serve as principal cellist of the Bachakademie in Stuttgart, Germany.

Currently enjoying her 8th season as the Los Angeles Philharmonic´s Principal Keyboardist, Joanne Pearce Martin has performed worldwide as a soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist under such conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Adams, and Miguel Harth-Bedoya. She is also a frequent soloist with the LA Philharmonic during the summer Hollywood Bowl seasons and has appeared as guest soloist with orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, L.A. Chamber Orchestra, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Florida West Coast Symphony, and England´s Huddersfield Philharmonic. In great demand as a collaborative artist, Pearce Martin has performed with such artists as Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrell, Iona Brown, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Julius Baker, Aaron Rosand, & Joseph Silverstein, among others.

In addition, Pearce Martin and her husband, pianist Gavin Martin, have continued to concertize together as a 2-piano team. She has also performed multiple-piano works with Emmanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Helene Grimaud, and Jeffrey Kahane. A renowned artist hailed by the Los Angeles Times for playing with "unusual fervor and fluency," Pearce Martin has performed on all major U.S. television networks and recorded commercially for Centaur, Summit, and Albany records, as well as the Yamaha Disklavier Piano recording software.

The subject of a half-hour feature on The Learning Channel, Pearce Martin´s latest recording project, "Joanne Pearce Martin, Barefoot", was released in Spring 2008 on Yarlung Records. "This one is a true gem," wrote Orrin Howard of CD Baby. "From the classically powerful to the transcendently modern, Joanne can do it all."

Tickets for the March 21 concert and post concert reception at a private home are available for $55/person. Tickets for performances at The Neighborhood Church in Pasadena and the UCLA Faculty Center are $32/person. Full time student tickets are available at the door only, at Neighborhood Church and UCLA, for $5. To purchase tickets or learn more about season subscriptions, visit www.pacser.org or call 213.534.3434.

The Neighborhood Church is located at 301 N. Orange Grove Blvd. in Pasadena. The Gamble House museum, next door to the church, offers a discounted tour at $8/person to Pacific Serenades patrons on concert dates only. Tours begin promptly at 2 pm and at 2:40 pm and last approximately one hour. Reservations are required and must be made at least 48 hours in advance of the concert date by calling 626.793.3334, ext. 16.

The UCLA Faculty Center is located at 405 N. Hilgard Ave. on the UCLA campus in Westwood. Parking is available for $9 in Lot 2. In addition, prior to each concert, dinner at the UCLA Faculty Center is available for Pacific Serenades patrons. Reservations can be made by calling 310.825.0877.

Directions and additional information about private home concerts are mailed to ticket holders upon receipt of their order.

The mission of Pacific Serenades is to generate new chamber music by commissioning works and presenting them alongside standard repertoire in intimate concert settings, emphasizing Southern California musicians. For more information about Pacific Serenades, its upcoming season, musicians and composers, visit www.pacser.org or call 213.534.3434.

ABOUT PACIFIC SERENADES

Founded in 1982, Pacific Serenades is one of the longest performing ensembles on the west coast, featuring many of the most acclaimed musicians in Southern California –including principals from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, The Pasadena Symphony and the Long Beach Symphony. Yet, while most chamber ensembles offer either all-new music or all-traditional repertoire, Pacific Serenades makes a point of including both at each concert.

"It´s very important for people to hear—and play—a new piece in the context of masterpieces of the past," says founder Mark Carlson. "I really want new music to be heard as part of an ongoing tradition, rather than as a new art form with no roots."

By June 2009, Pacific Serenades will have commissioned and premiered 94 new works by 51 different composers, with many of these works receiving as many as 50-60 additional performances worldwide following their premieres. Carlson, himself, is the recipient of more than 40 commissions and has composed works for the National Shrine in Washington, DC and the New West Symphony, among others, as well as many individual musicians.

Concerts currently take place at three venues, each selected to replicate the smaller, more intimate environment in which chamber music historically was performed: the Neighborhood Church in Pasadena; the UCLA Faculty Center; and a private home in Los Angeles. In addition, Pacific Serenades gave its first New York concert, at Carnegie Recital Hall, in September of 1994, and its first San Francisco concert in January of 1998.

Recently, Pacific Serenades won its second Adventurous Programming Award from ASCAP and Chamber Music America, in addition to a CMA/WQXR Record Award, in 2001, for its first CD, Mark Carlson´s The Hall of Mirrors. The ensemble´s latest CD, Border Crossings – featuring new works by Enrique Gonzalez-Medina, Robert Livingston Aldridge, Mark Carlson, and Miguel del Aguila – illustrates how the composers – two, Latin American-born and two, overtly influenced by Latin American music – have artistically crossed the border between the United States and Latin America.

"The Latin-born composers brought those influences with them when they moved here, and the others of us actively went to Latin America, seeking them," explains Carlson.

A third CD, entitled "War Scrap: that we may have peace", will include music by John Steinmetz, Larry Lipkis, and Mark Carlson. CDs may be purchased through Pacific Serenades´ website, www.pacser.org or by calling 213.534.3434.